Book Review: Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Okay. I agonized over this review for a long time, and this is the only way I could figure out how to do it. Herein is contained a review for the book Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. It is written from the point of view of myself, at this current time, to a past me wondering whether or not she should read the book.

Dearest Past Me:

I know you’re ramping up for another NaNoWrimo. You’ve set an impressive goal for yourself (and sh, spoilers, but you’ll make it. Did you think you wouldn’t, with a reward like that?) and you’re just waiting for the clock to turn to November.

And you’re reading the pep talks, excitedly soaking in their knowledge and wisdom. And you found one from Rainbow Rowell. You remember that name, sort of. Last year, didn’t she write a pep talk? Something about her book… ooh. You see the title, and…

Fangirl.

It was about an introverted girl going to college, moving out of her comfort zone, and learning how to get on without her fandom. You were already sort of invested by that time, and just knowing that it was written by a fellow Wrimo— you had to read it.

You look it up, of course. After all, we read very well, and we remember almost everything we read, so it wouldn’t make sense to read something we don’t want to remember, right? And not just having a badly worded, awkward string of words in your brain, but even if it were the best novel ever written, if it upheld values that you do not, you would regret it.

So, you were somewhat disappointed to learn that Fangirl was about a slash writer. ‘Ah well’, you said. ‘I didn’t need to read it anyway.’ But you’d wanted to.

You moved on, achieved your goal (and if it was harder than it should have been, it was entirely your own fault for procrastinating). Then you piddled around in December, and somehow or another again found Fangirl.

You sighed and ordered it from the library, knowing you’d regret it if you didn’t. You were also probably procrastinating on editing your novel, come to think of it.

So you settled in to read it, and found that you should have anticipated the language right of the bat. Honestly, you should have seen it coming. College, I-want-to-be-cool, it should have been apparent. But it wasn’t too bad, so you continued. You found that, as expected, you quickly identified with Cath, the main character, as she set up her desk and fandom posters and laptop, and sitting there was relaxed in this new environment. You’d done much the same thing when you house-sat, several months ago.

You loved the little inserts of the (fictional) Simon Snow books. You smiled at Cath’s rather extensive introversion. You wanted her to succeed, to break out of her shell. You loved the little excerpts of the fics she was writing (though, of course, you felt awkward when it was even just a little bit slashy). You really wanted her to succeed in her Fiction Writing class.

You didn’t really like the one character, but you knew she had to be there to forcibly break Cath out of her shell if need be. Ah, she needed it, so it happened. And then you began to worry, when it seemed the focus of Cath’s growing up and into herself was going to involve boys. ‘Should have known’, you said to yourself, eyeing the modern setting with distrust. But really, what do you know about it? You’d never been in love or dated (we find the concept too much like preparation for divorce to even want to), so maybe this was normal. This whole thing was like an entirely different culture.

You settled in, and found yourself cheering on Cath. You felt for these characters, and you lived along with them, and you only wished they did not make the mistakes they made. You knew it made them more realistic, but still… During one scene, you grinned like a madwoman and whispered, ‘Never let a shipper write’, but then took a look at yourself and your huge smile and amended your statement. “Always let a shipper write.’

And then… ah, but you should have seen it coming, and maybe you did. You realized college was famous for several things. Partying and… land, we’re still too shy to say it. “You know”. Not that it was explicit or anything, but there was still the fact that it was there, and that Cath and her friends viewed it as normal and not anything to get worked up over. You didn’t like that. You especially didn’t like how they—and it hurt to think that maybe most of your peers— viewed virginity as something to lose. Ah, we still don’t like that.

No, and by the time the ending rolled around, you were incredibly conflicted. On the one hand, the ‘just-viewing-as-a-fellow-author’ hand, the book was wonderful. It was well-written, the character arcs were believable and more importantly gripping, the plot moved forward just as it should, and everything in this vein made Fangirl a wonderful book.

But on the other hand, the Christian hand, the one where we review books and movies with regard to the morals they uphold— ah, on that hand, Fangirl falls short. And we’ve spent over a week thinking about it and Pointedly Not Writing a Review About It, and just spent most of the free time this day held hashing out several versions of a review, until we hit upon the brilliant idea to write a letter to our past self. And all we can say, really, is—

Write your own.

You don’t need to read it, and you probably shouldn’t. It’s not a bad book, but it’s so maddeningly gray and the line is so infuriatingly blurred that you’ll still be able to say, with a mind on Paul’s verse and the guidelines there (true, pure, lovely, honorable, of good report, etc), that… oh, we can’t even tell you to look it up on Wikipedia. This book is driving you crazy right now, and reading the above review it occurs to me that you’ll still want to read it. You’ll have to, by now. It’s so…accurate, in how it portrays a fangirl. But it’s just the whole dating thing that you still can’t get over. The fact that she didn’t wait, even though he seemed to be one to wait for. He was there for her when she needed him to be, and…

I still don’t know.

But, past me…

Know that it is going to be a small culture shock. Know that she holds a different worldview than you. Know that you and she are similar. Know that you don’t need to read it. Know that, if you do read it, the smiling moments where the author understands the fandom, understands fanfiction like you don’t, the moments where Cath and Spoiler are interacting and setting off your shipping detector and everything is fluffiness, know that those moments are barely making up for the moments where she makes poor decisions on the spur of the moment, and where that is left open to interpretation by the author as good or bad (though she does let Cath’s mind tell her that her logic is miserably flawed). Know that you still don’t know what to think about this. Again.

Write your own.

Really. A Christian fangirl’s struggles…your struggles…come on. Next November, you should give that back to your fandoms. Get to know yourself a bit more.

But regarding Fangirl… aha. I’ve got it.

I wish I could recommend it to you. I really do. But I can’t, not wholeheartedly, even though I still want to. Land, but how she understands us… I can’t wholeheartedly recommend it. For better or for worse, only part of me (a strong part, the one that has a fanfiction.net account and wants to learn how to play I Am the Doctor on piano and discovered writing motivation from Hebrews) recommends it.

I just want you to know that.

--Sincerely, Future You

(Still not entirely sure about this, but it's bugging me enough that I need to get it out. Also not sure why my inner editor will only review books in second person or whatever you call that...)

The Royal Ranger

So this is a review, of sorts—no spoilers, promise— of the Ranger’s Apprentice book 12, The Royal Ranger. It… I don’t know if you’ve read them. You should. If you haven’t, go out and get the first one, The Ruins of Gorlan. Then the next eleven. Really. I can whole-heartedly recommend them. Go out. Read them.

If you have— if you’ve read the ten books, you were probably ecstatic when you found out about the eleventh.

And then, you found out John Flanagan was writing a twelfth book.

A twelfth book.

You were probably so excited, so ready to dive back into this world, to reunite with the characters you’d grown to love.

And then you discovered, when he released the first chapter a few months ago, that John Flanagan had apparently taken cues from people like Steven Moffat and Rick Riordan and Bruno Heller and had decided to do something unspeakably evil and horrible to our dear Will (the main character of the series). You were probably furious. You probably wanted to shower Will in coffee and wrap him up in hugs and fluffiness while you fixed everything.

But…

It seemed to fit, really. Ranger’s Apprentice has never been a light, fluffy, happy and bright series. What with Will in Skandia, or Arridi, or Halt in Hibernia… you knew that this was going to be a rather bumpy ride when you picked up the next book.

But they always, always, came through. The Rangers practice until they never get it wrong, and you knew that even if it seemed hopeless, it wasn’t. They never failed. And the books were always all right. Will was unflappably cheerful, even when he was dying, and Halt could be relied upon for snarky humor and hard steely eyes striking terror into the hearts of wrongdoers, and Horace…dear Horace. Oh, they wouldn’t have gotten very far at all without Horace. Or their horses. You knew you could rely on all of them.

You knew you could count on the author who had brought them to life.

So, carefully, desperately, you either bought or ordered the book through the library because you live in a small town and the bookstores didn’t have it because you don’t have a proper bookstore and you waited impatiently until it finally arrived and you bribed your sister with doing dishes so you could read it first, and you sat down to read it.

And it didn’t disappoint. You’d had time to sort of at least kind of come to terms with Chapter One, but it still stabbed at you and you turned the page and hoped to high heaven that Flanagan would make everything all right.

And to your absolute surprise, page 26 made you smile. “Thank you, Jenny,” you thought, and you continued. Page 28, and you laughed. You were laughing, and smiling, and your sister noted this. You stared at the book in amazement, remembering those awful months of having nothing to go on but Chapter One and how everything was very much not okay and yet here you are, with a Ranger’s Apprentice book, grinning at the clever Ranger witticisms and cheering the sarcastic horses on.

(I mean that. Both the sarcastic horses and cheering them on.)

It was exactly what should happen. You tore through the book, and this new apprentice made you smile as you remembered wittle baby Will going through the same things and you cheered everyone on and they surged ahead.

You finished the book, and you were grinning widely and smiling happily and confidently, and you went upstairs and rejoined the world. “It was everything a Ranger’s Apprentice book should be,” you informed your sister.

“Danger?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“Halt?”

“Oh, yes.”

“Horses?”

“Definitely!”

And you were beaming, and you thought that it was okay. This ending, this twelfth and final book, it was okay.

…

Because he’s going to start another series, right? Not over? Right? There should be a new series, Rangers Apprentice: The Next Generation or something. He can do that, right? Because this wasn’t quite like Book 10, wrapping everything up, or Book 11, tying loose ends and filling in holes. It was… something new. It felt more like a passing of the torch than anything.

Please, John Flanagan? Pretty please? With coffee?

(so basically, fellow Rangers, don’t be afraid to pick up this book. It’s okay. It’s going to be fine. I’m not spoiling anything, but it’s absolutely all right. Honestly. What did you think, that Will would be permanently struck down by something? Psh. It’s like you don’t even know him.)

A Verse For the Christian Wrimos

I have recently--actually, not that recently at all but I am a procrastinator but I am also doing NaNo so I have an excuse for not getting on here so hush--'recently' come across a verse that I found applied to writing, life in general, and our spiritual walk with God.

I have, in the course of my life, come across this verse, but had never really read it in the all-encompassing 'everything is NaNoWriMo' glasses we wrimos tend to wear in November. so I had never applied it to writing, but it fits. Really well.

(Oh look at that I dated it because it was from a Bible study...on the 14th. yeah, procrastination can be blamed for you not having it. especially since I wasn't even writing Part 2 yet so...*shakes head despairingly at self* anyway here we go)

Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

(Hebrews 12:1-2)

You see? Totally a writing verse. And I never knew... (though I have thought of God as the infallible, perfectly orchestrating Author before, which was from this verse, I guess)

Let me break it down for you. 'Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses' equals, pretty much, the vast number of people we have told about our ambitious writing endeavor, which is, as some of you might not know though probably do if you saw my older posts, the goal of writing a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. And, as we have told everyone we know, pretty much, that we are doing this, they get turned from the ambiguous 'friends and family' into 'guilt monkeys who will probably stare at you in accusatory glances if you should fail'. yeah. Having the lot of you out there, knowing we are doing this, means a lot to us. Really. Without the threat of embarrassment hanging over us, many of us would never finish.

Not that we're going to let you read it immediately, of course.

anyway. next part. 'let us lay aside every weight'--this translates to 'everything that distracts us from writing', which can be anything from the Internet in general, to movies and tv shows (Behold my impressive self-control: I have not watched the Doctor Who's 50th Anniversary special yet, and not only because my sister would kill me if I watched it without her-- I am writing, and my self-imposed goal is not to watch any of these things while doing so. after all, if you have time to watch an episode, you have time to write, and if you have time to write, you need to write.), to books, to lounging about on the sofa thinking about writing. Doesn't count. Lay aside every weight which ensnares us.

'And let us run with endurance'-- Every day, each of the 30 in November (or the 6 at the beginning and the last 15 if you did what I did which I do not recommend), you sit down at that computer and you write. If you miss a day (I have! I missed one! Entirely my own fault but I needed to be there to add helpful facts that greatly increased the enjoyment of my father when he watched the Hobbit for the first time. but yeah. my own fault. could have gotten up earlier and written.), if you miss a day you make it up. You run with endurance. Keep writing.

(hey, what are you doing here if you should be writing?)

'looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith'-- this stretches the parallels a bit, gets into more of 'the actual intent of the verse', but here we go. When we set out to do something, we find who else has done it, and finished, and use them as examples. For noveling, it's looking at others who have done the same and listening to their advice. (the pep talks given by the folks at NaNo are wonderful, wonderful things of joy and happiness and inspiration and encouragement. shout-out over.) For living the Christian life, it's watching what He did and doing that. The old saying 'what would Jesus do' is still applicable, though it should really be 'what did Jesus do', since... it really seems backwards to think of the Creator of the universe as someone you can pretend to know, in and out, well enough to guess what He would do in any given situation. Sort of. This is confusing. I'm suffering from sleeplessness; it's NaNo. sorry. um...yeah. utilize examples given.

'who for the joy'-- Why are we doing NaNo? We are writing a novel. In 30 days, we want to be able to look at our finished novel and say "I wrote a book." And because we can, we are going to be able to say "I wrote a book in thirty days." This is the goal we are aiming for, the glorious overconfidence given by our egos fueling our fingers as we pound away at our poor keyboards, each word getting us closer to that wonderful 50,000 mark, the treasure at the end of the quest, the goalpost we're running for.

Come November 30th, I will be able to say, and hope you will be able to say with me, "I am a writer. I write books. I wrote a book in thirty days."

For all the Whovians

I don't know how many of you read this or will but in the interest of re-giving the cheer and smiles and giggles and happy flailing I have just indulged in, I bring you:

A preview for the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Special.
(co-starring DAVID TENNANT AS THE TENTH DOCTOR)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zn9Ss9rZMcU

(sorry, couldn't figure out how to stick the video in the post. but still. ugh spoilers I wish to gush because...

well here. forget spoilers.)

I give you...

Ten in a fez.

I repeat.

The Tenth Doctor in a fez.

David Tennant in a fez.

IT'S THE TENTH DOCTOR IN A FEZ

TEN

FEZ

HE LOOKS RIDICULOUS

I LOOKED MORE RIDICULOUS FLAILING AND GIGGLING

I DON'T CARE

THE TENTH DOCTOR IS WEARING A FEZ!

*clears throat*

Sorry about that. I needed to vent.

*coughs to disguise ear-to-ear grin*

A very, very, special anniversary is coming up. Stay tuned. It's going to be a blast.

*skips away, chanting 'Ten in a fez'*

*posts in the semi-delirious midnight state known to some as 'night-blogging' and doesn't care*  

I miss tumblr

I miss the gifs, (hard g as in golf no matter what they say) I miss the lingo (it's true, you can't tell a tumblr joke in real life--no one gets it), I miss the recurring posts, I miss being able to freak out over something (the Mentalist...even though I didn't follow anyone who watched it, I don't think...but Once Upon a Time, definitely, and Marvel's Agents of SHIELD, and--and the trailers for things and i even miss those jerks who keep posting sad things about the future fate of Fili and Kili and I miss the analytical minds of my dear fellow fans, scrutinizing every frame of a gif to determine a character's motivation and the actor's prowess... though I've done a bit myself here:

Notice how smoothly and softly Loki's cape sweeps after him? It just gently waves after--and boom his legs are kicking Thor in the chest, hard, not just a little, that is all the force he possesses because he's furious and he is lashing out at the thing which has hurt him which is his brother, but if you were to focus on what you could see, the visible-ness of his cape, you'd miss the coiled spring about to jump at you. It's a metaphor for Loki himself, and probably completely unintentional.
also what did Thor think he was going to do. that just occurred to me. hm. Well, you can see Thor ready to--hm. Maybe Thor thought Loki was going to jump up, get a height advantage, and he was aiming for the staff but he didn't count on just how furious Loki is.

See. I miss that. I miss being able to do that with others.
I guess mostly what I miss are my fellow tumblers. the camaraderie of people who have foolishly let such characters as the ones you see above into their hearts and lives and hold on to them lovingly.
Also, I miss the Squire's Tales, as I'm not reading any more of the books without being able to liveblog my reaction to it. They aren't the same, I discovered, without the other two (three? there was a new one recently...well recently when I left, anyway) there to laugh as Gerald Morris breaks my heart, stitches it back together, hits my chest, but magically heals the whole thing and leaves me eagerly waiting for the next book.

Man, I miss tumblr. I've got 55 days...well, 54 now, I think, no more like 55. til after Christmas when I know who the next Doctor is. I shall be regulating my time there, but still. I remember that post that goes around every so often, 'what if logos told the truth', you know, with Youtube being FunnyCatVideos, etc, and tumblr being 'home'. I guess it's really true.

Also I know probably all of you who even read this blog have no idea what I'm talking about but I need to rant. That's what blogs are for, I guess. Also NaNo is about to start and I'm excited for that and killing the hour before...wait why am I typing.
Oops.

So. Um.
Have fun, people, if any of you are native tumblers hello and say hi to the blue for me, if you aren't I'm not necessarily recommending you get one but I am so *shrug*. Also, to the native tumblers, I would like to express my sympathy...my empathy, rather, as I feel it same as you, to the onslaught of feels November is about to produce.

Also.
I get to see Thor: The Dark World in 7 days. I am happy about this. Land,  I miss tumblr.

(and I can't figure out if that's good or bad. mostly I miss the people, so that's good, right? but then there's the fascinating cast of life ruiners grinning devilishly from their TV shows and movies that I also miss. Or do I miss other people's reactions to them and the fact that they're rather similar to mine? I'm confused. I miss tumblr.)

National Novel Writing Month 2013

It's nearly November, which is, as the title suggests, National Novel Writing Month, commonly abbreviated to NaNoWriMo.

NaNo, for those who don't know, is a contest--if one could use that word--wherein you write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. 30 days for 50,000 words. (some crazy people get it done in 3 days. I'm not one of them.) It is a month of wild abandon, building worlds, making characters and killing them off, bringing them back, sending in plot ninjas to increase your wordcount, valiantly fending off plot bunnies, sending your main character to the top of a volcano and back just because you can, and other such reckless creative energy.

It is so much fun.

It takes you from saying "I want to write a novel" to "I have written a novel" (at least...if you can manage to edit it...but that's for December. and January.) and inspires confidence, no matter if you do or do not reach the goal of 50,000 words. If you write two chapters, two paragraphs, two sentences--that is more than you had before, more than existed in the world before. They went from being in your head to on paper (or computer screen, yes, but paper is the traditional way of thinking of it. You can write it out, if you want).

There are rules, and there are sticklers for them, but NaNo is about creativity more than rules, and you can bend them however you like. Don't want to write 50k? Then don't. Want to write two novels? Write them. Writing nonfiction? Fanfiction? Scripts? Plays? Whatever you do, it is probably more than you have done and it is going to be a blast.

I personally am going to try to write my entire novel within the first 6 days of November. (So as to reward myself with going to see Thor: The Dark World on the 7th when I finish. Christopher Eccleston makes one brilliant word count reward, what can I say.) I'm furiously scribbling thoughts and sketching out characters and building my universe and figuring out how things work there and envisioning sequels and waiting for midnight, October 31st, to begin writing. Or is that midnight, November 1st? That night. As soon as I can begin. That's when I'm going to type out my story and see how fast my fingers can truly fly.

Oh, this is going to be fun.

The official website can be found here: http://nanowrimo.org/

Happy First Day of Fall

Hello! It's officially Fall and--heh. Been a while, yeah?
What can I say, tumblr is addictive?
Well I've given it up for a few months (several reasons, two of which are spoilers and it was eating my life so prolonged absence to teach myself that I don't need it). And I was going to have more posts, but things happened and stuff.

So let's write about summer, shall we?
Summer activities, or one in particular:

Leigh Lake.

Bit hard to tell from my pictures (beg pardon, but in my defense you can't take pictures that show what you see when you're there) but this is looking past the edge of the lake. That bright green grass/bushes area there on the left, just past that the trail heads steeply down. It's like...the lake is really really cool. It's like a bowl set up in the top of the mountain and filled with gorgeous, stunning blue water.

This is looking the other way. See, snow. In August. (or July? ...oh land, when was this...) July. end of July. But either way, it's gorgeous.

Also very high up.

Brutal trail.

(only) a couple miles, possibly one and a half, but still. Steep trail.

And for Miss Hi-I-Sit-Around-All-Day-And-Never-Exercise, it was incredibly hard. Eye opening, to be sure. I am woefully out of shape, and this trail...
couldn't have gone more than a quarter mile and I was almost ready to quit. In fact, if it hadn't been for the friends I went with, I would have. Forget the nagging voice in your head saying "You know you'll regret it if you quit, come on you love the outdoors, just imagine how pretty it is up there--"

(this was maybe a mile and a quarter up the trail, at this beautiful little waterfall from the lake, but see how you're eye level with those mountains across the way? those are the mountains you squint at from the valley floor and think 'wow, that's a long way up') I didn't get many pictures of the trail because I was busy breathing (honestly--it helps. Big breaths. don't talk. Etc etc.).

But I was about ready to head back down and wait in the van for the rest of the girls. I had a book, I would be fine...but my friends helped me. A lot. (thank you, friends. Due to Internet paranoia I name no names but you know who you are) We focused on one end of a switchback and rested there for ten seconds and repeated.

And I got to thinking about spiritual journeys and things. This trail was a lot like life. You know, you know it's going to be good once you get up there, but--do you really have to? Is it mandatory that you climb this mountain? Can't you just stay where you are? There's pictures, isn't there? I felt like either my inner motivational voice (cousin of the Inner Editor? Hm...) or God (difficult to tell sometimes, you know?) was saying, "Come on. Just a bit further. Look, stop by this stump here. Rest a bit. Drink water. You won't make it without your water. Breathe. Good. Come on. It's beautiful up here, I promise. There you go. Just a bit further."

Bit like life, I think. Spiritual, Christian life. You won't get far without water (God's Word), it's very hard to make it without breathing (God Himself), and you need friends to help you along the way.

And it was worth it.
That lake, being up that high, oh, it was beautiful.
Certainly worth training myself so as to make the next time easier.

It's Been a Month

a good solid exact month and I happened to notice this fact so I decided to post what's going on in my life as a sort of time capsule:

I'm re-memorizing Proverbs 31.
I'm still working on my book (but I am getting somewhere with it so yay)
I am probably addicted to tumblr
I decided to learn Circular Gallifreyan

That last one is rather hard. Not quite getting it...but I did manage to translate from Gallifreyan to English so that's a plus, right?

Oddly enough Elvish is easier. Sort of. Well, at least it doesn't have rules like "this goes here or here or if it starts the word it goes here or you can slap it here if you want and this line can go here or here or extend all the way over here cause it's purely aesthetic"
Elvish is systematic at least.

Oh yeah and I recently watched Star Trek 2009 [gosh the tears at the beginning no one told me it had a sad beginning] and due to *coughtumblrcough* someone "recommending" it I will probably dive into the old Star Trek series sometime soon. Though it feels disloyal to Doctor Who, somehow...but it would be more disloyal to not watch something out of prejudice-type feelings. DW does tend to push you out the door and wave you off, calling after you, "Go explore! Have fun!"
(I may review Star Trek 2009 sometime, as it is a movie that really wants a review)

Um, in other news...I saw Les Miserables. Managed not to cry but only because I'd heard too many parodies of the sad songs.

News news, though...like not fandom news news...or actor news...it's actually spring finally?

Here's a riddle for all y'all!

...though most of you might know it...

 

 

What thing with awesome strength is blessed

yet quakes before the smallest pest?

Stands so high, yet sniffs the ground

without so much as stooping down.

Has no home or chair or bunk

yet holds its bath inside a trunk.

 

 

Do you know it?

Do you know what it's from?

 

 



Have some music!

 

 

Lindsey Stirling and Peter Hollens: the violin and voice of Skyrim

 

(which I haven't played exactly I mean I kind of did once but the soundtrack is awesome)

Edith to the last post:

What I realized I forgot to add to that last one was why it was such a big deal.

If you don't figure out early how you're going to deal with problems, it is much harder to deal with problems once they've arrived. Prevention is better than a cure, it's easier to correct a little wobble in the driving now than fix a broken car once you've crashed, (or try to correct your course when you're about to crash), etc etc.

To all Parents:

PLEASE PAY ATTENTION.

To new parents: the instant you find out you're going to have a baby (preferably the moments before you decide to even get married) decide right then how you are going to train this child, and all children you may have.

KEEP IT CONSISTENT.

Get the arguing done now, before your child has ears to hear your hurtful words and understand them. Figure out what sort of punishment you think is right, and make sure you don't just think this now but you will think it 18 years or so down the road when you (may) have six kids and have realized that "actually, this wasn't such a bad thing" and your approach to things (even silly things like running in the house or finishing all your food) changes with your youngest child and the oldest begin to resent you (even if they don't realize it) for changing the rules.

We actually like the rules.

WHEN THEY DO NOT CHANGE.

This is not the time to be all lovey-dovey and "Oh, whatever you want, dear." This is the time to voice your opinion, your actual opinion, and by the Board of Education itself please be kind and considerate of your spouse when they voice an opinion different than yours. This is called a difference between two people. It happens. It's normal. Figure out how to reconcile these differences.

Now is the time, not years later when Mommy puts the kids to bed at 8:00 sharp and Daddy puts them to bed at 9:00. Not when Mommy figures out that actually, this is a better plan and acts on it without consulting Daddy, so when Daddy comes home and tries to enforce the rules he gets informed (by his kids) that those are now the old rules.

If you want your children to not watch certain movies, oh, please, please, please, wrangle it out with your spouse so nothing changes towards your children.

Present a unified front.

To current parents: If, later on, you realize that one of the rules isn't a good one, you talk to your spouse and if they agree then you change the rule. You inform the children and they know this is something that happens because Mommy and Daddy are a team and they love their children and when they see a rule in place that is not a good one they change it.

Do Not, I repeat, Do NOT, ever, ever get yourself into a position where any of the following sentences have to be spoken: "I'm sorry, but this is what Dad said we have to do, so we have to do it." "I wouldn't allow this, but your mother has grown negligent so I guess it's all right." "I just don't know what to do anymore."

This kills your children. Got it? This is not okay. Never.

This pits them against either parent, the one who made Mommy cry or the one who made Daddy sad. (tip for the dads: on average, we see Mom more. We tend to side with her. It's not right, but it's the way it is. You treat your wife correctly, you love her, and we'll be more forgiving.)

[A lot of this runs up against marital harmony, which I have no experience with, but from what I can see it looks to be rather simple.

Talk.
Listen.
(let me emphasize that for you)
LISTEN.
Do not bring your marriage struggles into the kids' lives.
Do not argue in front of them.
Do not ask your children if your point of view is correct, and your spouse is wrong.
Do not complain to them about how awful your spouse is being.
For pity's sake, LISTEN and act on what you hear.
If they get angry and say things, not all of them are things they didn't mean.
If you believe they are wrong on something, tell them (in private--we don't need to know) and calmly listen to their reasoning.
Be polite. (strange, isn't it, how you need reminding to be polite to the person you agreed to spend the rest of your life with?)
What it basically boils down to:
Treat others the way you want to be treated.]

I'm not quite sure how to sum this up. I don't have kids, but I am one, and most of the things above I've dealt with. If you want to get all cynical, our culture is going down the tubes. Our children are broken, the family life is in ruins, divorce is rampant--
I can't just be quiet.

It's all so simple in theory. Love others the way you love yourself. (How much do you love yourself? And even if you don't like yourself very much, you still certainly love yourself. Always.) Be consistent.

I don't know how much that will change anything, (or if anyone even reads this) but it's got to help.

Headcanon #1

I don't think I had too many headcanons--probably none, actually. Except the slightly meta one in which Nine regenerated into Ten with the intent to impress Rose, and Ten regenerated into Eleven with the intent of not impressing anyone (female-wise), but instead being more like the absent minded professor in Voyage of the Damned and being very much like Wilfred Mott.

but I just came up with another one.

While trying to figure out if I should watch Firefly or not I came across a sentence that says Joss Whedon said in a commentary, "bad guys wear hats, good guys don't."

And it seems to make an awful lot of sense if you think about it.

Then I thought of the Eleventh Doctor and how he loves his hats and I started thinking, "Well, that disproves that notion."

And then I recalled his darker moments--

And then I remembered every time River Song shot his hats off.

Headcanon: she's making him a good guy.

(though the First/Last Night minisodes kind of ruin this, as he appears to frequently wear a top hat and it seems sparklingly intact. And the first time River saw him he was wearing it. Maybe she lets him have the top hat because the top hat is okay and reminds her of just how far he'll go to save those he cares about.)

(or maybe she just found something fun to do to keep him on his toes. Far more likely.)

An Anniversary

Well, yesterday was the six-year anniversary of my introduction (friendship?) to Bryan Davis. (via Dragons in our Midst.)

See, six years ago on my thirteenth birthday my mom got me the first two books in the series.

 

 

My life was never the same. I devoured them both that night--I think I even got to the end of the second before midnight.

 



I can remember scrutinizing both covers, trying to figure out what they were about from the images I could see. (It's a dragon--it appears to be about dragons--but why is it modern? Is that some high-tech lab? WHAT'S GOING ON?)
Then I dove in and was blown away. I've always had a fondness for fantasy, but reading those "modern teen finds out something in his life is because of a whole other world" books were usually kind of odd. Not so here. These were seamless, masterfully told. They say the fantastical King Arthur legends are because each scribe added to what was before him, spinning his own tale and growing the legends until we get where we are now. The same thing happened here.

Dragons! And realistic dragons and--I'm not even sure how to start. These characters are wonderful. (Walter is the best best friend ever. Just sayin') The villains are marvelous. (And each series adds another, better and badder one.) The plots are intricately woven.

And I don't care if you're an adult or a teen or a pre-teen, these books are wonderful. Bryan Davis doesn't (ever) fall into the old rut of thinking that if you're writing for a younger audience, it doesn't have to be as good, they won't notice. Oh, we notice. We notice much more than you think. Actually, it's harder than writing for an adult because you have to keep our attention.

And he does. Still does, actually. And, now that I'm 19, I suppose I can't be put in the kids' section anymore. But these are still good. I feel like I've grown up with these guys (when it starts they're 12, I was 13) Their spiritual journey is one I can emulate.

And the writing has been educational for me as well. Being an aspiring writer, seeing someone put so much spiritual truth into fiction is extremely inspirational.

Bascially, if you're above the age of...like 6...possibly 4...then these books are good. No matter what you do or who you are, I highly recommend these. Here's a little thing written by the author himself:

~*~

Do you enjoy fantasy/adventure novels? I recommend that you try out books by Bryan Davis. Here are links to his web pages:



His website - http://www.daviscrossing.com/

His book buying page - http://www.daviscrossing.com/shopping.htm

His Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/BryanDavis.Fans

If you order a book from his shopping page, please let him know that you heard about it from me. I get a better chance to win a contest if you do.

~*~

 

Oh yeah, forgot to mention. This was sort of kind of pulled into being because there's a contest in which we need to put the above in. But I've been wanting to do one of these anyway. Now just seems like a better time. Now, especially, because it's been 6 years. And a day. Happy Anniversary!

New Year's Anti-Resolutions

These are things I'm planning on never doing, just because everyone else does them. (could be a bad reason, but all you have to do is think a bit on what people vote for, and how popular certain things are, and I'm justified.)

One: I will [probably? no, I think it's definitely] not ever read/watch the Twilight series. (I refuse to call it a saga. Pft. Saga applies to awesome things like Lord of the Rings. But, seeing as how I'm never going to read/watch them I can't hate on them. I wouldn't have read/watched them anyway, but then I had a small moment of "ooh, that trailer didn't actually look so bad and the review wasn't so bad either", but then I watched a few clips and I'm okay with never reading/watching them. Some things should not go in the attic*)

Two: I will also not ever read a Stephen King novel. (too popular--also probably something that shouldn't go on the hard drive**)

Three: I will not watch Titanic. (at least not all the way through...this was a resolution I had but then it was playing in the background and I ended up watching it but missed several parts so I can say I haven't watched it completely and the resolution is thus intact. Slightly. But it's definitely something that shouldn't go in the glass***)

And that's all I can think of thus far.

Oh. Four: I will not write a zombie book. (also too popular--but probably wouldn't have been a problem anyway. But you never know, so this is going on the list.)

I could add some other things everyone does (like putting on suntan lotion when it's sunny and hot) but those are ones I'm happy to do, so they won't go here.

How about you guys? Any things you're not going to ever do? Or at least try not to do?

And I could add a tentative five being never watching Star Trek out of devotion to Doctor Who, but since Benedict Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch decided to act in one movie now I'm not so sure, since I'm definitely going to watch it. So maybe the new series with Picard I won't watch, but the older one with The. William. Shatner. I shall watch. Maybe not sure. Besides, Star Trek isn't a popular thing "everyone" does, so it shouldn't go on the list anyway.

* The original form of the Sherlock Holmes quote about things you shouldn't--I'll let him explain it. "I consider that a man's brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things, so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it."

** The form of the above quote as retold in Sherlock: "Listen: [gets up and points to his head] This is my hard-drive, and it only makes sense to put things in there that are useful. Really useful. Ordinary people fill their heads with all kinds of rubbish, and that makes it hard to get at the stuff that matters!"

*** The form of the above above quote as retold in Elementary: (well, okay, there was the one where he restated the first: "Attic theory. I've always believed the human brain is like an attic: storage space, facts, but because that space is finite, it must be filled only with things one needs to be the best version of oneself. It's important, therefore, not to have useless facts: the natterings that comprised your support meeting, for example, crowding out useful ones." and then there was the one where he was walking along with Watson and trying to explain how she was being stupid or something and picked up an innocent bystander's cup of water, dumped it out, filled it mostly up with oil, pointed out how good and clear and golden and happy it was, then put water in it and pointed out the bubbles and the horrible dichotomy and other such things I've forgotten)

The three asterisks are rather good guidelines for this year, actually, aren't they? (See, Dad, it's also important (and you could extrapolate Biblical *wink*if I could remember the correct verses) to watch TV and have the Internet so you can look up quotes like these)