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)

It's over and they're gone! *wails and sobs*

Merlin has ended, and I cried during that episode more than I have during probably all the movies I ever cried at. I don't cry too much, but I cried during and after, and---

I've tried to think of what to say, how to sum up my emotions and I just can't. There's just too much and all of it is spoiler-y for you people, and--well, I guess I'm just going to have to figure it out eventually. But for now, I just want to put this out there.

Thank you, our dear actors, for bringing to life these fantastic characters. Your writers may have written them into predictable plots that made us crazy, but it was always you that brought us back, eagerly waiting for more. You first pulled the legends down to earth, made them grow around our hearts, and then you brought up the legends to greater heights than before because it was real.

Your smiles were real. The characters became real and we loved them. We still love them, and even though it is fiction and we know this, we mourn their passing because they were as friends.

Thank you for bringing us on this journey with you and letting us live with you.



A/N: I'm going to have to figure out why this has made me so sad and angry and emotional. It's fiction. Why did I cry? Why do people cry during a movie/tv episode?

But at the same time I push those thoughts aside, because I know that what I'm feeling is real. Yes, it's fiction, but--perhaps the thing is that it's not fictional. As I said, the characters were real and we loved them and they're gone.

Merlin has ended.

Just not in our hearts.

(hopefully more to come soon)

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

I saw it!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yesterday!!! I saw it in IMAX 3D and with friends and it was awesome!!!!!

Anyway. I'm still sort of skating high on that. (We got posters. Four of them. Just for walking in the theater. They were Free. I am happy.)

Martin Freeman is a brilliant Bilbo. He just has that unflappable, somewhat dry humor though that's not quite right either, a sort of personality that says "I'd rather be sitting in my house smoking, but since I'm here I may as well make the most of it." and he does. He's the Everyman hero, a guy who just wants to get back home, and in so doing ends up becoming the bravest one of them all. It sort of reminds me of the soldiers in the Revolutionary and Second World wars. They were fighting for their home, and they won because there are some things you do not do, one of which is take a normal man's home. If he's a normal hobbit, the likelihood of you not surviving increases. If said hobbit is in the company of 12 loveable dwarves and 1 moody but still heroic dwarf (Thorin) and 1 wizard, well...your death likelihood increases dramatically.

there are quite a few battles in this movie. Some of them take place in flashbacks, but they are still very--uh...action-y.

Oh! Gollum! Gollum is spectacularly insane, talking (as in arguing) with himself. The dialogue between him and Bilbo is brilliant.

The part(s) where Bilbo finds the Ring are different than the flashbacks in the Lord of the Rings, of course, but I felt the way they did it was equally good.

Oh and Radagast! Oh, dear Sylvester McCoy, he is the brilliantly eccentric wizard who loves his animals and completely stole every scene he was in.

Even if Kili was doing his best to be all dark and handsome. :)

Bofur was amazing as well.

I'm a bit confused on whether they were trying to make Galadriel and Gandalf a couple, or just portray their friendship and loyalty. Because there's no way to do that without fangirls and shippers pouncing on it. (By the way, I realized yesterday that Galadriel is Elrond's mother-in-law.)

The scenery was amazing, more of New Zealand than we've seen, all of it lovely and fantastic.

The 3D experience is kind of odd for me. I'm not sure if it's because I wear glasses, so any other kind of lens makes my eyes hurt a little, or if everyone's like that. I'd heard that Peter Jackson (the director) was really excited about the 48 fps they were shooting in, that it made everything more clear and less blurry and better etc, but I found that sometimes, like when the camera was panning in a slow movement, it almost seemed more blurry than normal. Not sure what that was about. But the scenery did seem real. I'd heard it was so real it seemed fake, like instead of seeing a blurry castle you see a crystal clear set, but I was just impressed by everything. I think next year I'll see the regular version, though. I just don't really like 3D.

And I was a tad bit unhappy that I didn't get to hear Smaug's voice...yeah, fangirl admission there...but you will never believe what trailer they showed. Star Trek: Into Darkness. It has Benedict Cumberbatch in it. Ah, his voice! That deep voice was in a trailer and I heard it.

I'm so supremely happy with the whole entire experience yesterday that I'm not even counting yet.
Sort of.
There's 363 days until the Hobbit.
:)

Only 150 hours....

...until the Hobbit. 7 days. One week. Etc etc CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?!!

I've faithfully scratched off each day on my countdown calendar, adding numbers in the corners. The bottom right is for how many days. The bottom left is how many weeks (used to be months, but we're into less-than-month-counting now) the top left is how many hours, and the top right is how many days until the DW Christmas special. (18)

There. Are. Only. 7. Days. Until. I. See. It.

7 days, you understand. 150 hours, currently. (in about 15 minutes it will be 149 hours) I've been waiting longer than a year, and it's only 150 hours away. Less than 150 hours, actually.

I am ecstatic. I am excited and I keep bouncing like that hopping hen in Between the Lions and I can't keep from humming and it's only a week away!

And...
Well...
See, I got to wondering (read: Dad made me think of) how much time and energy I'm spending on this movie. Not to mention money. And thoughts. And desktop backgrounds. Anyway, it's a lot of time.

But I got to wondering about how ridiculously jumpy and excited I'd be if I didn't know when it would come out. I know that I'll see An Unexpected Journey at midnight, Pacific Time, December 14th, 2012, in a certain city. But what if I didn't? What if they had never released the release date? I've known the day it was coming out for longer than a year! If, when I had first heard about it, they just said, "Yeah, it's going to be coming out soon," and that was all they ever said, what would I be doing then?

*dons black sunglasses and a walkie talkie and agent voice* Canvass all area theaters, run hacking programs on Mr. Jackson's computer, track cast and crew, stake out the theater most likely to show it first. May need to turn to those who can drive and ask for their assistance.

Or would I? would I just shrug and say, "Well, I'll keep tabs on the movie theater, I suppose." Would I be even more indifferent? "It's probably going to take them 5 years to come out with the movie, I've got other things I can be doing."

and that got me to wondering how the apostle Paul stood it. He "eagerly awaited" his Lord's coming, and he didn't know when He was coming. He did not have a countdown calendar, he was not counting the hours, but he was still as excited and ready at the end of his life for Jesus to come as when he had first learned of it.

And us? We tend to shrug it off. "Eh, He's been gone for thousands of years. He's not coming back any time soon. I'll--*swallows*--focus on this fictional movie and give it all of my time and energy." If we did know the exact hour Jesus was coming, what would we do? How would we prepare, if at all? (If I know when The Hobbit is coming out, how am I going to act?) If we don't know when He is coming, then what do we do? (and this is where the illustration goes a bit wobbly. Truth be told, if I didn't know when it was coming out, I'd probably forget about it.) Perhaps a better question is what should we do?

As the oft-repeated saying goes, "If you knew you were going to die tomorrow, what would you do today?" Perhaps a better saying is, "For all you know, you will die in the next second. How are you going to spend the rest of what little time you have?"

I'm still excited about the Hobbit, don't get me wrong--EEk! 149 hours!--but I'm going to try and spend at least an equal time thinking about my Creator. How about you? (and if you aren't spending it thinking about God, what are you spending it on? Family? Friends? Angry Birds? What really matters?)

I Foray Into Book Reviews

The Italian Secretary wasn't written by Arthur Conan Doyle, but it is very similar to all the ones that he did write. The language, the characters, are all much the same as the other stories.

This book's title refers to the 16th century murder of David Rizzio, the titular Italian secretary to Her Majesty Mary, Queen of Scots. It's as much a historical novel as it can be, set in Scotland in Holyrood House, amidst the proud reign of Queen Victoria. The story of Rizzio's murder is retold by Holmes himself, and his vivid language captures the imagination, turning the reader from a passive observer to a horrified witness who detests the acts of Rizzio's murderers.

Holmes is, differently than in the BBC series, a black and white advocate of good. He renounces murder, seeks justice, and doesn't just go about solving life-and-death puzzles for the fun of it. (not to bash the new series, but I think in even Doyle's stories Holmes always was concerned for justice, and though he did lapse into an appreciation of the villain's methods, he had no patience for miscreants who snuffed out lives, often far before they should have been. In this he is much like Agatha Christie's Poiroit. But I digress.) His and Watson's firm morals are always a welcome read.

Contrasted with the "good guys", of course, is the "bad guys". They are truly bad, greedy, selfish, murderous, crafty, cunning, and all the other things a proper Holmes villain should be. One of them (off-screen) has seduced one of the maids of the house, though nothing graphic is said, the only word used is "despoiled", and the young woman very much regrets her choices.

Mycroft also features in this story, with the murder of two of the men renovating the house being, apparently, a major cause for concern among the man who occupies a "minor position in the British government" (quote from the BBC series there). Their murders bear a remarkable similarity to Rizzio's murder, though I don't want to give away too much. The book takes a ghostly turn, with Holyrood House seeming to be haunted by the ghost of "the Italian gentleman", as the Scottish locals call him. Even Holmes gives credence to the power of ghosts, a fact Watson finds very unsettling. (It is a Holmes story, though--spoiler*)

There are, of course, murders, a few battle or fight scenes, one man is missing an eye and has a glass replacement that falls out--Watson is grossed out, if I may use the term--, the body of the most recent victim is described by Watson the surgeon, but it is, like everything else, not too graphic and very much in keeping with Doyle's manner. The psychology of the thing, the villain's plot, was always more important.

With all these elements, combined with a well-paced plot, (and a rather large and Victorian vocabulary), The Italian Secretary is a book I'd give perhaps a PG-13 rating, but heartily recommend to anyone else. It is a very fine addition to the already marvelous collection of Holmes stories, and a book I've already re-read.




*spoiler--though not quite a big one:


The ghost isn't real, though there's the conspirator who was never found who bore a remarkable similarity to the description of Rizzio. At the end, Watson follows a girl (also remarkably similar to someone who was murdered years ago) into an also presumably haunted house, only to find her gone, seemingly vanished. He weakly says that she must have ran into the other house, but the reader is left to think that she hadn't. Holmes then explains his statement, that he gave credence to the power of ghosts. He had meant that if people believe something, even if it isn't true, it gives it power, because this belief forces a person to act in a certain way. Even if you deny it's veracity, the very act of denying it proves its existence, because you must have something to deny. It's a rather true statement, actually.