Jo holds a Master's degree in Music, works for an online advertising solution as client support and studies programming and web development on the side. She's a pop culture fanatic and goes through frequent quick bursts of obsessive behaviour, where she will post frequently on a topic before moving on to a new Shiny.
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book was recommended to me by a bookshop girl in Oxford Street, who I need to go back and thank. I could not put this book down – I ate through this in a day.
Glass Houses is yet another YA novel with vampires, but the vampires are scary beasts who you need to hide from, not creatures to have meaningful or co-dependent relationships with. Our Heroine, Claire, is in Morganville to go to college when she is pushed down the stairs of the dorms by the dorm bully who has it in for Claire after Claire made her look stupid. Claire survives, and escapes into a house share in the town, which it turns out is run by vampires. If you’re not under vampire protection in Morganville, it’s open season on your blood. And in this house, no one is under protection. Claire, having made an enemy who has powerful friends, is in big trouble.
I was honestly scared by the book. Okay, I’m a wimp, but I was on the edge of my seat (so to speak) the entire time. Well written, great world building, good characters, and one entirely unbelievable Goth girl (see the Eve diaries at the end for maximum eye-rolling effect) – could’ve researched that part a bit better. But fair enough, the world doesn’t revolve around me and my gothness, and it was delightful to have a heroine that was young, strong and very smart.
Of course this is a series, and I’ve already ordered the next three books.
In a fit of spontaneity Mr Pharmacist and myself decided to go to the cinema when we were supposed to go grocery shopping. For no good reason we decided on Daybreakers, and I was informed by the guy who checked my tickets that it was “very scary”. I answered “It’s only a vampire movie,” and I was right.
The guy probably thought I was a Twilighter who thought vampires are cuddly fluffy stuff, but I’m not a n00b to vampire movie and I can tell you right now they hardly ever scare me. Zombies are totally creepier than vampires, and in this movie they made the vampires creepier by, err, letting blood withdrawal turn them into creatures that seemed like zombie bat ish things. I don’t know either.
Plot: It’s in the future, vampires have taken over the earth and there’s too few humans to feed on. Ethan Hawke is a vampire named Edward (no, seriously) who is working at a blood facility trying to manufacture synthetic blood, while the company’s main business is draining humans of blood in a very matrix-like facility that our Edward stares at broodingly every time he has to pass it. See, Edward doesn’t like to be a vampire, and he feels bad for the humans.
I think you can already tell where this is going. Edward meets some humans, there’s a Revelation that changes everything, and basically he’s like Neo in the Matrix but everyone else are Vampires rather than Agent Smith. It starts of very bleak and interesting and goes hardcore into gorefest at the end. It of course has a totally open ending that sets the stage for the unavoidable sequel. Basically it’s a bit like Zombieland if Zombieland was about vampires and not meant to be funny. It’s unintentionally funny several times, not to Van Helsing standard as that’s a hard trick to pull off, but in the end I thought it was a laugh and it held my attention the entire movie. The best thing about it was Willem Dafoe, and how much time had clearly been spent thinking about how a vampire society would look and act like.
This year I’m not going to separate between cinema and home viewings, but keep a tally over what I see overall. I’m not going to aim to beat 2009’s number as I did in fact see 52 films in the cinema last year and that’s high enough to feel satisfied
See this guy? This is Vincent Frank, aka Frankmusik, and he released his debut album Complete Me earlier this year, a delightful piece of electronic music that never fails to put me in a good mood. Very recently he also release the entire album as an acoustic work, named Completely Me, just him and piano, and it’s still pretty damn good. The beats are infectious, the hooks addictive and the voice impressive. I saw him live in December and his voice is as strong live as on record – what you get on the record is what you get live.
But don’t take my word for it internets, here’s some songs for you to check out.
I want to know what you think I might have missed out on this year. Is there an album that will always be the album that reminds you of 2009? Did you fall in love with a new artist? Did you re-discover an old love? Did an artist surprise you by knocking you sideways with a new album when you’d given up on them? What was your musical 2009 like?
I also almost worked myself to death trying to manage a full time job and three university courses at the same time. That’s not a mistake I am likely to make again, after coming too close to exhaustion than what is healthy. My only resolution for 2010 is to not destroy myself by trying to manage too much in too little time. I also promise to have MORE FUN and play more video games.
To be honest I spent less time listening to music this year than I’ve ever done. I can’t manage to study and listen to music at the same time, so most of the time my speakers were off. But my new artist of the year is without a doubt Frankmusik, who I also managed to catch live at Koko last month.
TV shows I enjoyed:
True Blood
How I Met Your Mother
The Big Bang Theory
Gossip Girl
Flash Forward
Doctor Who
Battlestar Galactica
Buffy (although I’m a bit slow and have only reached season 2)
Good things this year:
Got a seriously good grade in my Java course, go me!
Completed two courses during the year
Got a new job in an industry that’s more right for me and is very supportive with regards to my somewhat special needs.
Got an implant in my arm to replace taking the pill every day
I moved my blog over to Wordpress, which I’m liking a lot
Exchanged commitment rings with Mr Pharmacist
Saw a lot of films at the film festival!
Went to Disneyland Paris
Had the bathroom redone while we were in Disneyland
After two years of waiting, finally got placed in weekly therapy
Saw Faith and the Muse again! Their new album is gorgeous
I had a root canal. Not good for most people but for someone like me who has dental phobia it was a win!
Saw some awesome musicals and plays in West End, and am now a massive fan of David Shannon, previously of Les Miserables, currently of Phantom of the Opera. FAB singer!
Saw Rufus Wainwright with family and friends at Royal Albert Hall
Appeared as a guest on Made of Fail, which was awesome
Ran Race for Life again and beat my old fund-raising amount
Not so good things this year:
Had a ridiculous amount of migraines
Panic attacks returned with a vengeance
Gained even more weight – blah!!
Dropped a fair bit in salary so struggling more month to month
Only went on holiday for four days – very little time off in general
Most of my time off was spent studying
Light sensitivity at gigs reached all time low – lost almost all interest in live music that isn’t singer/songwriters as I am very unlikely to have any fun at large gigs as I’m too worried about the lights triggering migraines
Didn’t have much energy to socialize and lost touch with a fair few people as a result
Twitter took over my brain and I ended up blogging less
My good friend Mads passed away in a motorcycle accident in May. I met up with his mother and went to his grave during Christmas. I miss him terribly.
Another friend, Jan Kenneth Barkved, was found dead in his own home in October. His ex girlfriend is a very close friend of mine, they were still good friends. I urge you to check out his band Elusive, if you like goth rock. They were fantastic.
To the ones we lost, you can never be replaced. To the ones who were there when I really needed someone, thank you. To the new year and new decade – bring it on. It was a tough decade in many ways, I’m glad to see the back of it.
To Mr Pharmacist and my family, by blood or otherwise: I love you. Happy new year!
Mr Pharmacist and I went to see Avatar earlier today, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. We saw it in 2D because Mr Pharmacist is partially sighted and can’t see 3D at all, so I pretty much have a big hate-on for this whole 3D mania that’s going on right now.
The plot itself is nothing new or special, and the noble savage element of the movie is very troubling, no doubt about that. It’s absolutely colonialism, where the evil white people come to a distant land to take the resources from the native tribal society, who aren’t able to save themselves but must instead be saved by the human who understands this is Wrong, and becomes the bestest tribal man that ever was. The human hero is an ex marine in a wheel chair who only landed himself there because his twin brother died and they needed someone with the same genes to take over the gig. His brother was a scientist, but Our Hero knows nothing of the science or research, but ends up being the Bestest Avatar Driver anyway. The film is narrated by the human by way of video diaries.
The baddies, predictably a corporate hack and a crazy old marine, are paper thin and not very interesting, but the “plot” doesn’t really even matter that much because as soon as the protagonist starts to interact with the blue people (The Na’vi), that’s all you really care about. The world is beautifully created and you want to GO there. The different species are really interesting, and their version of horses are great. They also ride on what can only be described as dragons. Seriously awesome dragons, which they interact with by.. you know what, I’m not even going to tell you.
I liked the lead a lot, the narration worked well for me and disabled hero getting to walk again is a profound scene for me, even if he’s mentally controlling an avatar it feels real to him. Rather than “it ain’t easy being blue” it turns out the human is much happier as a Na’vi than he was as a disabled human. He then turns on the humans that want to destroy the tribe, of course.
The story all the way through is entirely predictable, but the effects are spectacular and the movie is visually stunning. It actually did blow my mind. It was three hours, but I would’ve happily sat there for a while longer and stayed in this beautifully created world. It also has Sigourney Weaver being her awesome self, which is always a thrill to watch.
The first thing I said when it was over? “I want my own dragon friend..” to which my taller half hugged me and said “I know, darling.”
I don’t actually know. Is Christmas day the first one? Or in the middle? Is it the five gold ring day?
What I do know is that watching the video below will not answer any of my questions, but it makes me laugh so hard I get tears in my eyes, so I’ll settle for that.
I need to echo this post by Sylvia regarding the Hope Witsell suicide and how we treat “sluts” in our society. Hope Witsell, a 13 year old girl, sent a phone picture of her naked breast to a guy she liked. It got spread across her school and neighbouring schools. She was punished by her school, her parents and ridiculed by her peers. She hanged herself in her room with a pink scarf.
Of course it wasn’t a slut-shaming, woman-hating, sex-hating culture that divides young women into “good” (virginal) and “bad” (fallen) and allowed a 13-year-old girl to believe that she had ruined her life forever by showing a boy her tits.
No, it was her “impetuous move” and somehow also the dangers of the INTERNET (even though the internet was not involved, except in that her internet access, probably one of her major sources of social support, was taken away by her “churchgoing family” as a punishment for an act that they had no goddamn fucking idea what it even was or what technology it used).
As the sad, sad story of Hope Witsell shows, there shouldn’t be any distinction made between those who deserve a bad reputation and those who don’t. No girl deserves to be called a “slut.” After all, when was the last time a sexually active boy was punished by his school or harassed by his peers? Dividing “sluts” into the innocent and guilty reinforces the idea that male sexuality is normal while female sexuality is deviant at worst, defiant at best. Look what happens when this thinking is taken to its extreme.
I couldn’t agree more. I myself was bullied badly at my school because I’d had the nerve to have a private discussion with a friend regarding masturbation, and admitted that I in fact had done it. I had guys shouting insults with regards to my sexuality after me on a daily basis for three years. I tried refusing to go to school but my mother wouldn’t allow it.
Was it stupid of me to trust another person with something so private? It would appear so. It didn’t even occurr to me that talking about masturbation would cause me years of grief and torment, and why would it? Thankfully, I was raised by a smart and supportive woman who told me that there was nothing wrong with me. What I had admitted to was a natural thing, and nothing to be ashamed of. I dread to think how I’d managed to get through those three years in that school if my mother had been a less open minded person.
True story. Twitter suddenly refused to post my tweet! And I couldn’t access twitter.com! I figured my internet was down, but then it turned out to be just twitter. I was distraught in my inability to tweet about my inability to tweet in general. Or something. So instead I sent some IMs to sep. Then I realised twitter wasn’t down anymore. The whole thing took roughly three minutes.
[10:28 PM] Self: I R TWITTER ADDICT
[10:28 PM] Self: I DUNNO HOW TO DEAL WITH TWITTERDOWN
[10:28 PM] Self: I CAN’T EVEN TWEET ABOUT IT
[10:28 PM] Self: IT IS NO LONGER DOWN
[10:28 PM] Self: AS YOU WERE
[10:28 PM] sep: >.>
