Vital Vocab 30 - An Ass-Kicking English Class

Vocab: vocation, wane, whimsical, zealous, zenith

Commonly Confused Words: its/it's, they're/there/their, you're/your, except/accept

Grammar Focus: parallel structure and semicolon/colon

Hi, all.  

You should spam me with pageviews.  I was hoping I'd reach 1500 page views by the end of the year, but this is my last Vital Vocab, and on Friday, I post my last required post.  (And I'll try, but let's just accept that I don't do a lot of overtime posting - especially compared to this friend and this friend and probably several others.)  I will, of course, post my epistolary when it's finished, and whatever else I write because I actually really like this blog and stuff, but...but I digress.  1500 pageviews.  And look at this!  Look.  At.  This.

Thirty views!  By the end of the week.  Can we do it?  (Probably not, but it's worth a shot.)

But so, on to other end-of-the-year things.  I know other people have already done their final Vital Vocabs on this same thing, and also, I am an awkward turtle and I suck at telling people who I really admire that I really admire them, but that doesn't make this any less necessary.  So, um, yeah.  Mr. Parker...ya done good.

Honestly, this was the best class I've had in a long time, English or otherwise.  Everything we read in class (Killer Angels doesn't count - summer reading) was something to stay with me, something useful to me, something I'll be sure to remember in a year.  We read and discussed books to care about, books to love, books to zealously shove under others' noses (just ask my mom; they're really stacking up for her).  I was excited to go to this class from the first weeks of the year, and that feeling didn't simply reach its zenith and wane.  We've got just four weeks left until summer, and I still look forward to English as much as I always did.  

Now, note that I've got four fabulous friends in my English class, a fortune I haven't been presented with since probably the third grade, so that certainly helps matters.  (And I am so sorry that there's always that constant and useless whimsical chatter from us.  Please don't mistake that for a lack of respect; it's really just our pitiful lack of control.)

Now obviously, being me, I have a personal affinity for English classes.  But this is the best one I've had in a while.  And I generally try to skirt around how people sometimes point out to me that they think I have a vocation for writing, but this class...it's really nice to feel like you're fairly skilled at something, and that maybe your life could go somewhere.  You know, eventually.

So, all in all, I'm kinda bummed about the end of the school year, except I signed up for Mr. Parker's Creative Writing class next year, so there is yet hope.  

Thanks for the reading and the pageviews, friends.  May good fortune come your way and your eyelashes not fall directly into your eyes.  Until next time.

-Allie

Vital Vocab 29

Vital Vocab Dictionary

Vital Vocab 29 - Spider-Man

Vocab: vapid, vehement, veracity, vestige, vivacious

Commonly Confused Words: course/coarse

Grammar Focus: parallel structure and semicolon/colon

Okay, guys.  We have to talk about something.  And that something is Spider-Man.

Specifically The Amazing Spider-Man 2.  

First off, DO NOT SEE THIS MOVIE IF YOU ARE EPILEPTIC.  There is this one scene that is no good for that, I will tell you right now.  Second off, I promote this movie vehemently, but this is not so much a review as it is a rant, which means THIS POST IS GONNA BE CHOCK-FULL OF SPOILERS.  (Mr. Parker, you should go see it before grading this.  I'm not kidding.)  It also probably won't be very cogent.  (<<ha.)

For you to fully understand all the feels I feel about this movie, you need to know two things about me: a.) I view all things media as two parts writer and one part an emotional human being, and b.) Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy always has been and always will be my OTP (One True Pairing, for any non-fandom-y readers), rivaled only by AnthoBea (Anthony Rousseaux and Bea Holmes, one-shots of which surface periodically on my girlfriend's blog here).  Additionally, Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone are like my two favorite actors ever because gosh they are both such adorable dorks and I love them oh my god.  They are perfect.

But so of course, they killed her.  

Yup.  

And it was beautiful.

That is not to say that Death is beautiful.  It's not.  It's harsh and ugly and desperate, and unlike every other perfect and lovely Hollywood actor, the broken way that Andrew Garfield cries portrays that quite nicely.  However, the death is beautiful from my writer-y point of view.  Having seen the movie twice in its first three days, I have such an incredible amount of respect for whoever wrote it.  

They spend the entire movie, it seems, building us up.  They make us so sure of Peter, whose web shooters never miss a beat even when they're broken, who saves every pedestrian, who responds so immediately in every situation; he is the perfect hero.  And they make us so in love with, so incredibly lost for Gwen, who's gorgeous and intelligent, not some vapid damsel in distress, but the high school valedictorian, who knows what she wants and makes her own decisions, who so obviously loves Peter and makes everything un-complicated for him, but also lives and leads her own life.  

Given that, the true excellence of Gwen's death scene relies so heavily on defeating the heavily set conventions of the genre.  When the villain claims he'll kill the girl, you know his words are written without a vestige of truth because a true superhero never loses a soul, especially not the love of his life.  Furthermore, in every other movie, when the protagonist holds their loved one's lifeless remains in their lap, crying over their body, begging them to open their eyes...the person always does.  Sometime, I'll have to review Frankenweenie to fully express my thoughts on this scene, but let's suffice it to say it is the most clichéd thing you could ever write into a story, and I will lose all respect for said story if you do.

But these writers broke the cliché.

Gwen does not open her eyes.  And somehow, whether it's due to the integrity the movie has already shown, or the sheer finality of her limp body once she's hit the ground (she falls from a clock tower, by the way), you know she won't.  And Peter's sobbing, and it's brutal and coarse and unexpected, and although it's a factor that I came in to the movie already invested in the characters, this was the first movie I've ever cried in.  When his web reached down to catch her, the end of it opened slowly into an unmistakable hand.  But he couldn't catch her this time.

But somehow, even without my two-parts-writer perspective, the crushing honesty of Gwen's death doesn't ruin the movie for me, because it ends with Spider-Man coming back to the city after his period of grief because Peter finally watched a video of the speech Gwen gave at graduation.  It says that there are dark times ahead, but not to lose hope, because people need you and things do, eventually, get better.  So Peter gets new hope and closure, and goes back to saving the city, and the movie ends with the same shadowy figure who spoke to Dr. Curtis at the end of the first movie talking to Harry Osborne, setting us up for another sequel.  

Our beautiful Spider-Man will go on without Gwen Stacy, as will his adventures.  And I truly believe that no one beats Emma Stone, but honestly, I'm pretty excited to see what vivacious or sexy redhead may play MJ in the next movie.

I'm gonna really miss Gwen, though.

-Allie

Update: so, it came to my attention in searching for pictures of Gwen's death that she actually died in the comics as well (which apparently I should have known - I really need to find those), but my points about clichés and everything still stand.  but so yeah.

(courtesy of: Sneak Peek)

Vital Vocab 18 | Vital Vocab 30

Vital Vocab Dictionary

Vital Vocab 28 - Hiatus Cont. (Updated!)

Vocab: truncate, ubiquitous, vacillate, utilitarian, undulate

Commonly Confused Words: course/coarse

Grammar Focus: parallel structure and semicolon

Hi, all.  

I think my weekly Isaac Bade posts have been truncated not only by my hiatus, but by the end of the school year.  This is the third-to-last Vital Vocab of the year, I've been told, and so Isaac is gonna have to stay the course and sit with that broken arm for a bit longer.  Now, I was sort of vacillating about where I really wanted this story to go, but beneath the coarse, utilitarian fluff posts and regrettable, ubiquitous stress, I still really like him.  Isaac is a cutie; among other things, he's smart, and artsy, and quiet, and I just really appreciate him as a character, so I think I'll keep him to revisit later.  And also write down all the other stuff I know about his story, that I never actually incorporated here.  Because, even if I didn't have a perfect storyline, it did undulate with little story arcs, so that's something to work with.

Until next time!

-Allie

UPDATE: I actually will be sending you guys a full Isaac Bade story!  I chose him as one of the protagonists for the epistolary story I'm working on for Creative Writing, so you guys'll get to read it before the school year is out!  So I guess you could say...

(courtesy of: tumblr)

UPDATE 2 (which is slightly less important contextually, but still worthy of note): Ava's Demon is back from its hiatus!  Which makes me particularly happy because it'd been on hiatus for a little over a month.  Which was unfortunate.

Vital Vocab 27 | Vital Vocab 29

Vital Vocab Dictionary

Vital Vocab 27 - The Hiatus Continues (Update)

Vocab: tacit, tangent, tenable, tantamount, trenchant

Commonly Confused Words: bear/bare

Grammar Focus: parallel structure and semicolon

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SARA!

I love the internet.
(courtesy of: Amazing Creatures blog)

That said, hi all.

First thing's first, not seeing a need to be tacit, I'll just say, I've never been particularly trenchant about how I get my homework done.  Which is how I managed to miss Vital Vocab 26.  Sorry about that; I was doing a research paper I'd gotten behind on and Vital Vocab got lost in the bare flurry of end-of-unit procrastination. So that was fun.

And now, in this Vital Vocab, the hiatus continues.  Were this still just due to my own failure to outline, I would have written some little tangent of a something (even if it wasn't Isaac-related) to keep you all entertained.  But unfortunately - and I may have said this before (or something tantamount to it) - during or directly after bearing the stress of a something-or-other (usually school), I fall into this small pit of total writerly emptiness.  So I tried to write through it, but after a few hours of sitting and staring and writing and deleting, it became tenable that this is the most I can give you on my midnight deadline.

So.  Sorry for the lack of post.  Until later, my dears!

-Allie

Vital Vocab 25 | Vital Vocab 28

(Vital Vocab 26 does not exist.)

Vital Vocab Dictionary

TFiOS, Children's Stories, and Tiny, Mexican Men

Hello all.

Time for a jam-packed media post!

I was actually gonna post about how to defeat writer's block, but that actually began to give me writer's block and I couldn't deal with the irony.  And yesterday, my friends and I spotted three lovely copies of my favorite book, The Fault in Our Stars (TFiOS) on my English teacher's desk, and the movie's coming out on June 6th [link], and I haven't read that book for - jesus - almost two years now.  (One and three quarters?)  Also, Mr. Parker (English teacher) said it isn't sad, which I kind of have to fundamentally disagree with.  The Fault in Our Stars is a very sad book.  The protagonist has terminal cancer.  Her friend has eye cancer.  Her love interest...well, he doesn't have cancer anymore, but that's beside the point.  But so, I read it in the summer before eighth grade, then thrust it in the faces of all of my friends, and they came back and told me they had to stop at this one particular scene (and a few others) because they couldn't read through the tears.  (Alix actually told me I'd "broken her feels" because the book gave her too many.)

Now, that isn't to say you shouldn't read it because it's sad.  I've actually noticed recently that all good books are sad, or at least have sad parts.  I think that's because you can't really confront the world's problems without including some sad stuff.  (I would like to link to something here, but it's too spoiler-y, so maybe I will...later?)  And if you don't confront the world's problems, your book is really just...a book.

Anyways, the point of all my ramblyrambles here was to say this: I'm reading TFiOS again, and because I haven't done an audio reading in ages (and because those are fabulous fun), I would like to post it here.  But because it's All Rights Reserved and I don't have permission to use it, that's copyright infringement, which is just generally a bad idea.  So I will look into it!  And if, by some miracle, I manage to get permission, I'll update this post, or maybe make a new one with the recording.

So really this part of my post is just a review.  READ TFiOS.  O-O

However, I did promise for this to be a media post, and something I realized today is that I never showed you guys the last project I did in Creative Writing.  So here, I give you...

A Giant Mess

My junior high is located right next to an elementary school, so we went to visit a kindergarten class, and we each got a little kid to write a story for, and I illustrated mine and everything and just, just, gosh.  That project made me happy.  I took my kid's name out of the dedication though, 'cause she's like five, and this is the Internet.

The one other thing I wanted to share in this post is that yesterday morning, I went to a Rotary breakfast thingy and they have an orphanage/school place in Mexico that they were talking about and they gave us these on our way out the door.

they made pen people!  and keychains!  (it's a sombrero.  it says Guadalajara.)

hehe!

  

and that just made my day.  :3

Thanks,
-Allie

An Appreciation for Musical Stuff

Hello, all.  Happy Friday!

In this post, I would like to acknowledge something I particularly love: great movie soundtracks.

Now, I realize this is primarily a fiction blog, but I made my tagline vague, and besides, why pigeonhole myself?  This is my blog, I do what I want.

So!

Music post.

If you ever go to my Grooveshark, you will see I have a slightly obscene number of playlists.  Most of my friends have like, three?  Four?  Fun stuff, sad stuff, party stuff, etc.  I, however...I have eighty-nine.  Ye-aah.  I like to listen to most things in albums, and I like a lot of things, and this is a very simple way to access them.  And it's not like Grooveshark puts any limit on your stuff, right?  So...yup.  Currently eighty-nine.  Makes sense to me.

It looks a bit like this:

 

Exactly like that, actually.  Sometimes, you just need to show the internet your four-and-a-half pages of musical taste.  It's satisfying, somehow.  Like maybe you're a cool kid now.  (Not really, though.  Despite my 89 playlists, I still don't know anything about music.)

Now, those playlists are all lovely, but there are a few I'd like to focus on now, which are all in...

this part.  (minus "Night Visions."  sorry 'bout that.)

That's right.  Movie soundtracks.

I'm not sure movie soundtracks get the appreciation they deserve solely because, well, nobody seems to listen to them!  You'll be fully aware that a movie has an incredible musical score (that's what it's called, right?), but when you're done watching, you just...move on.  There's nothing wrong with that, but I just...I just want to...show you some things.

Fewest Words
Alice in Wonderland (2010) - suspenseful and mysterious, of course
Coraline - creepy and awesome, almost French-sounding, but not quite
Howl's Moving Castle - pretty and waltz-y and god I just love that movie oh gosh!
Inception - very intense, in case you didn't already know
(UPDATE) Ruby Sparks - this is mostly just fabulous instrumentals.  in the middle, there are a few songs with lyrics, but most are in a foreign language, so they don't really count.  a beautiful movie, and if you haven't seen it, I recommend you go find it wherever you can.  like, immediately.

Most Uplifting
Juno - various artists, like Kimya Dawson, just being cool and stuff
Meet the Robinsons - including "Another Believer" and "Little Wonders"
We Bought a Zoo - I haven't completely gone through this, but if you've ever seen the movie (which I fully recommend), you'll know what to expect.  happy and whimsical and a little music box-y and just...hopeful
(UPDATE) Happythankyoumoreplease - lots of cute, happy indie/folk-y songs.  this is one of my favorite movies because gosh, it's just so adorable and happy and uplifting!  watchitwatchitwatchit!

Some Wonderful Misc.
Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog - storytelling and feels-y and adorable and Neil Patrick Harris + Nathan Fillion + Felicia Day = AWESOME and if you haven't seen that, spend 45 minutes on youtube.  Go.
The Great Gatsby - some rap and party music, and I'm not sure what genre "Young and Beautiful" is, but it's good.  I recommend it.

These are all lovely, and all make good writing music (for me, at least), and I just, I fully recommend the lot of them, even if you haven't seen the movies they're from.  I hope you can enjoy them!

That is all.
-Allie

Vital Vocab 25 (kinda)

Vocab: speculate (v), salient (a), scathing (a), scrupulous (a), seminal (a)

Commonly Confused Words: woman/women

Grammar Focus: parallel structure and semicolon

Hi, all.  

     You don't really have to read this post.  Unless of course you're Mr. Parker, in which case...well...I'm sorry you have to read this post.

     I've had a fair bit of writer's block lately, which recently doubled with an unfortunate little cold.  So between the salient, scathing little voice in my head telling me I'll be judged for my writing and the exhausting struggle to breathe through my nose, I find it better just to get this Vital Vocab out of the way, without dragging out poor Isaac's day any farther this week.  I probably will next week, but after that comes Spring Break, which means plane rides and car trips, and ample time to, ah...well, to rethink my less-than-scrupulous life decisions.  (Or really just to speculate about Isaac's future, but you know what I mean.)

     And hey, maybe I'll read something for once, something seminal to my later writings.  Or maybe somehow the fresh air of a week in Chicago will help me learn how to write a female protagonist.  Seriously, I can't write women.  Can't do it.  I don't know why, but they always end up too...something, then they un-develop.  Oh well.  I'll write a woman someday!  (Is it just me, or does saying "woman" sound really weird?  I hardly ever use that word.)

     Anyways, time to write other things.  Sorry I couldn't manage a good upload this week; it just wasn't working out.  Time for me to go, so I can write a little, draw a little, read a little, think a little....

Bye!

-Allie

Vital Vocab 24 | Vital Vocab 27

(Vital Vocab 26 does not exist.)

Vital Vocab Dictionary

The Louvre (and Scout Finch)

Hi, all.  In this post, I recommend to you two lovely things.  First, I give you...the Louvre!

The Louvre (loohv) is one of the most famous art museums in the world, located in the center of Paris.  Now, I'm in French III.  I love the language and the culture, but I try not to talk about Paris too much because, well, if you've ever been into any American shopping mall ever...

...I feel it's become a tad cliché.  I mean, gorgeous!  But cliché.

But this is something Parisian that I really just can't get over.  My teacher showed it to us in French today, and...and...welp.  o-o

You don't need to watch it with sound, but I recommend it, because the music's really pretty.

(I don't trust Blogger with videos, so here's a link to it on YouTube.)

When my teacher asked the class how many people had been to the Louvre, the anticipated answer was maybe two or three kids.  But no.  No!  Nearly half the class raised their hands.  Now, that's fine.  Good for them!  I'm glad!  So long as they don't take it for granted.  But when one girl was asked how she liked it, she only said, "eh, it was cool," and proceeded to stare at her laptop, vastly uninterested with the topic.

Are you kidding me?  It was cool?  I go to the Fine Arts and Natural History museums at the U and I freak out like a little kid.  I end up taking four minutes of video of snails for pete's sake!  (Which are actually pretty cool.  You should see them, really.)

Now, I have to be careful about calling people out on taking things for granted, because I live in a wealthy neighborhood in a very wealthy country.  But she got to go to Paris!  She got to test her broken, third-year French on actual people!  And she got to go to the Louvre.

Actually, maybe I should set something straight.  In science museums, I become like a little kid.  In art museums, I really become a sort of pretentious culture sponge.  I have to be careful not to get all faux-deep on those around me.  At least, that's true last I checked.  It's been too long: another reason I should be in the Louvre right now.

Okay, well right now it's actually like 3:30 AM there, but my point still stands.

Anyways.  One of my many adolescent dreams.

The other thing I wanted to point out in this post - just a small thing - was this:
In English, we recently read To Kill A Mockingbird, which many people may think is a pain-in-the-ass book to read.  If you're thinking that, and you have to read it like I did, just hold true 'till part two (heh, rhyme).  Pay close attention to the characters, because the farther you read, the more attached you get, and the more interesting and meaningful the book becomes.  (There will be fangirling, too.)  It's beautiful, if a little sad.  In my experience, most beautiful stories are pretty sad.  That's just how it works.

And also Scout is adorable.  (I might have to work on my transitions.)

(courtesy of: wikispaces)

Look at her!  Cutie!  Particularly if you know what scene that is.  My mom and I watched the movie last night.  :3

But so, anyways, read the book, then watch the movie, and then go to the Louvre.  I insist.

-Allie

Sleuthing Assistance?

Hello, all.  This post will be short, but purposeful.  This week, I find I encountered a bit of a problem.  It was finals week, and whenever I find myself subjected to large amounts of stress, directly after I'm kind of just...drained of creativity.  Unfortunately, we also started our mystery unit in Creative Writing this week.

There's no hope.

The rest of my class has spent the last three periods planning, outlining, and drafting.  I, however, have spent the last three periods...ahh...sitting...?  Staring...?  Listening to Grooveshark...?

Thinking about fedoras?

(courtesy of: cartoonsnap.blogspot.com)

Or better yet...

(courtesy of: jamknight on deviantart)

I don't watch Sherlock like I should, but that?  That is adorable.

Anyways, I've been painfully un-productive in Creative Writing this past week, because my mind is utterly devoid of ideas.  I do, however, have a character...name.  I have a name.  My sleuth's gonna be a Stewie Elaine.  (Unfortunately, I haven't even decided her hair color.)

So with this post, I implore you: if you have any sort of ideas for a mystery, or even if you don't, leave a comment.  My comment bar loves you.

Just like I love you.  *makes heart with hands*

I'm desperate, guys.  Please.

Please.

*coughs pathetically* 

  please.