tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-72289202914278371802024-03-19T12:29:49.578+09:30Books & DalmatiansAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05313479884291199749noreply@blogger.comBlogger173125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7228920291427837180.post-70545696955797314672015-01-01T13:21:00.001+09:302015-01-01T13:21:10.126+09:30Movie Review | Lucy<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGbvix3fHaN0q2Vwx9vaRPYTF4TOPoB5qxZs6U1TmO_0Syuw79Dtqc9wNuhSLBw6AD7KbhKo7R0wnoY5bFxh79vi0TyFRsC9kQ5MWBaZsy-3H4eCH2UJWq4tu8NHp-wci8TyLqLqZp7uRa/s1600/Lucy_(2014_film)_poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGbvix3fHaN0q2Vwx9vaRPYTF4TOPoB5qxZs6U1TmO_0Syuw79Dtqc9wNuhSLBw6AD7KbhKo7R0wnoY5bFxh79vi0TyFRsC9kQ5MWBaZsy-3H4eCH2UJWq4tu8NHp-wci8TyLqLqZp7uRa/s1600/Lucy_(2014_film)_poster.jpg" height="400" width="251" /></a></div>
Firstly, don't let yourself be persuaded by the comments made on the YouTube trailer on decided whether or not to watch this film. My dad and I had been planning on watching this film for the longest time and yet never got around to it, so when we finally did I was excited! In short, the film's plot is revolved around what would happen if we were able to use all 100% of our brains.<br />
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Another fair warning, if you're unable to suspend your reality and live in imagination for the film in terms of the science then you perhaps might not enjoy this film so much.<br />
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The graphics were first and foremost the highlight of this film. You don't get the complete works until the end sequence of the film, but it leaves you so stunned in awe that you cannot help but give the film major props for this aspect. The graphics are riddled through the film earlier on too--showing the muscles of a back that Lucy touches, people as stands that are joined to the sky. Most of these you get quick glimpses in the trailer, but the end sequence is definitely something worth holding out for.<br />
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Underneath the graphic effects and Scarlett Johansson are some really powerful questions about the universe and our purpose. One of the opening lines of the film instantly makes you wonder, "Life was given to us a billion years ago... what have we done with it?", to the last line which sets a feeling in your stomach that is hard to fully describe: "life was given to us a billion years ago... Now you know what to do with it."<br />
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The questions are continuously made with Morgan Freeman's character who talks about our bodies choosing immortality or reproduction in an effort to pass on knowledge. One thing that I think I really enjoyed about this film in hindsight is how effortlessly it talks about revolution with religious connotations. There are a few interpretations about it floating around on the Internet that I particularly found interesting so if you have the time I definitely think they're worth looking into.<br />
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An interesting film that I think definitely deserves a second viewing to fully understand and appreciate the speculation of the questions this film brings up.<br />
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3.5/4 starsAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05313479884291199749noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7228920291427837180.post-21842760973196339132014-12-10T12:07:00.003+09:302014-12-10T12:08:31.511+09:30Review | Talon by Julie Kagawa<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlCb-8fr3CsKoPoNPsGyuMGQGGJIzzf_66d-ru4xkvjmGmogtAD5kEfdDGWl-Zeg1Zgn9qevCnE0p7-VpFpn2iSCK2m8jrv3qIVv0q_cSymOrbeFQIyLWbvhWJXJXLeufZ8Zjz4huRF4xY/s1600/17331828.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlCb-8fr3CsKoPoNPsGyuMGQGGJIzzf_66d-ru4xkvjmGmogtAD5kEfdDGWl-Zeg1Zgn9qevCnE0p7-VpFpn2iSCK2m8jrv3qIVv0q_cSymOrbeFQIyLWbvhWJXJXLeufZ8Zjz4huRF4xY/s1600/17331828.jpg" height="400" width="276" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">L</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">ong ago, dragons were hunted to near extinction by the Order of St. George, a legendary society of dragon slayers. Hiding in human form and growing their numbers in secret, the dragons of Talon have become strong and cunning, and they're positioned to take over the world with humans none the wiser.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">Ember and Dante Hill are the only sister and brother known to dragonkind. Trained to infiltrate society, Ember wants to live the teen experience and enjoy a summer of freedom before taking her destined place in Talon. But destiny is a matter of perspective, and a rogue dragon will soon challenge everything Ember has been taught. As Ember struggles to accept her future, she and her brother are hunted by the Order of St. George.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">Soldier Garret Xavier Sebastian has a mission to seek and destroy all dragons, and Talon's newest recruits in particular. But he cannot kill unless he is certain he has found his prey: and nothing is certain about Ember Hill. Faced with Ember's bravery, confidence and all-too-human desires, Garret begins to question everything that the Order has ingrained in him: and what he might be willing to give up to find the truth about dragons.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;"><b><u>Review:</u></b></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">I won't lie, I was on a Kagawa high when I finished this book. I have adored practically every novel Kagawa has put out on the market (except for The Lost Prince) and when I saw this on the bookshelf it seemed like the answer to my reading slump. A way of getting out of this ridiculous bitter hole I'm in.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">However, once I put the book down (which I did finish in a number of days) and I really thought on it… I realised that I didn't really care all that much here. I think the biggest problem here is the world building. Or lack of to be honest. Talon (which is the organisation of dragons that trains and protects them) sets teenage dragons in modern California beach homes to… well, nothing. Supposedly they're there to learn to be human but that translated into surfing, hanging out with friends, getting a tan, partying, and meeting two dangerous boys.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">Honestly, the largest chunk of this book has very little actual plot. Ember spends her mornings training with her trainer so they can figure out which dragon career she gets to go into and then she spends her afternoon having fun and begin a teen. Of course, the two dangerous boys are involved, one being a rogue dragon and the other being a dragon Hunter who is trying to figure out if she is a dragon or not. That's the basic plot.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">Plot aside, there was nothing dragon like about this book. The thing I except about world building is to be surrounded by this world. The only dragon world building we encountered were rare. And that was disappointing. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">My other issue is Ember. I never expected to say this about a character Kagawa has, but she is so boring. Maybe it's her boring and overdone California lifestyle (we could have put this in Miami or another beach town and it'd be the same boring thing), but I felt nothing for her. I didn't believe her romance or love for Garret and I even felt myself annoyed at how much of a cliche the our-dragons-our-soulmates plot point she had with Riley. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">Not to mention the girl is a dragon. The reason they're here to assimilate and learn to be human and she has no trouble! She's a DRAGON. Her human image is projected, she's chosen to look more beautiful so that way she's accepted in society easier. That should all lead to the idea that her personality would match a dragon since she's a dragon first and human second. You never would have known that by reading Talon.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">Overall, Kagawa can write a story. She can write compelling characters and edge of your seats plots and she's made me cry in the Iron Fey series. However, Talon just didn't do anything for me.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">2 stars</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05313479884291199749noreply@blogger.com33tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7228920291427837180.post-65780133535815437122014-11-24T13:10:00.000+09:302014-12-10T12:08:09.592+09:30Movie Review | Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The first few scenes of this film are heavy with Finnick declaring that he wished Annie and the other tributes who were captured in the Capitol and were dead, then declaring that he wished "I was dead too." That's the ending of the first few minutes as we then get a quiet and blunt title sequence, something I can't even recall from the first two films.<br />
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Mockingjay is depressing. There is no other way to put it. Not depressing in the sense that it's a bad film, but in the sense that you walk out of the film feeling cathartic. A lot of the film resembles a political thriller as we set up the story for the revolution that District 13 plans for.<br />
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Lawrence is (as it always seems to be) fantastic in this film. Katniss's emotional journey in this film is everywhere but happy--although you see glimpses of the Katniss we met at the beginning of the first film. Sarcastic, loyal, and stubborn. And in contrast to how depressed she is now, you realise that even when she seemed bitter, angry, and perhaps cynical in the first film, Katniss was okay. She was surviving. In Mockingjay we experience a Katniss who isn't really sure.<br />
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Something that I really want to touch on though, is how even though Katniss here is a depressed and sad and empty as it seems a person can get, she still keeps going. That's strength. There's been a lot of talk in what is strength and in action the physical and emotional strength can be a little blurred, especially when the heroine is physically kick ass. Here we get to see what it means to be emotionally strong in an "action film" that is mostly directed through characterisation. Katniss cries, is depressed, and sometimes seems on the brink of insanity, yet she still stands up for what she wants and what she thinks is right. And Lawrence does such a damn good job of showing how even though Katniss is tired and almost wants to be done with it all, she keeps going.<br />
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The other characters who got just as much screen time might surprise you. President Coin (or Madam President as they all call her) and Plutach seem to get the next biggest amount of screen time. They persuade and coach Katniss into being their Mockingjay, their face of the rebellion to keep people going. <br />
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The scenes that are most touching are the ones that Cressida and her film crew use for their propaganda. The scenes were the Capitol are at their most horrific (the scene from District 8 where the infamous line "if we burn you burn with us" comes to mind). Another scene is where Katniss sees the destruction of 12 for the first time too.<br />
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Mockingjay was a good film. The acting was superb, and there was just enough action to keep you going when it started to feel a little too much like <i>Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy</i>. I particularly loved it when Haymitch made it on the screen--the entire cinema made a collective "yes" at him and Effie's debut in Mockingjay.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05313479884291199749noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7228920291427837180.post-47007627592711749762014-11-03T16:13:00.001+09:302014-12-10T12:08:22.155+09:30Movie Review | Gone Girl<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSWLUBJwu23wzV6vOSgsvPkkN-h58ZxnIuH9bG9qEClhYAsKBwcwNybc6hOvk3lqi4b9Pyn1mhS65xrguW-XrbjR306ll6bJJMK8A2nXVwOE1thiO3GRuMfG7FhI9a6BdXdiFE9NdneZ_f/s1600/Gone_Girl_Poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSWLUBJwu23wzV6vOSgsvPkkN-h58ZxnIuH9bG9qEClhYAsKBwcwNybc6hOvk3lqi4b9Pyn1mhS65xrguW-XrbjR306ll6bJJMK8A2nXVwOE1thiO3GRuMfG7FhI9a6BdXdiFE9NdneZ_f/s1600/Gone_Girl_Poster.jpg" height="400" width="270" /></a></div>
This film was everything that the trailer and other people's comments made it out to be. Often I find with books and movies that when they are hyped up, I tend to set myself big expectations and thus find myself constantly disappointed. <i>Gone Girl</i> definitely could have disappointed myself. I found myself talking to my Aunt about the film and book a week ago and she said she fell into that trap of disappointment and didn't enjoy the book.<br />
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I, however, loved the movie and have bumped up <i>Gone Girl</i> to the top 3 of my to read list since I bought it last week (and am now thankful for the foresight).<br />
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There was not one single casting choice in this film that I disagreed with. Having never seen a Ben Affleck film that I could recall, I found myself pleasantly surprised about his casting choice. His acting for the character Nick. I feel like Affleck's acting is very much about 'under acting'. (FYI, yes I made that term up.) His emotions were there, easily seen and felt, yet they simmered beneath the surface on the brink of a break out and it left me on the edge of my seat knowing that there was something coming, something big was going to happen. However, I feel like the real winner here is Rosamund Pike. I have adored Pike since playing Jane in Pride & Prejudice with Kiera Knightley, but here she shines and honestly terrifies me. Everything about her character was beautiful and horrible and she was absolutely perfect for this role. If she does not get an Oscar nomination, I will honestly be surprised.<br />
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David Fincher's direction of this film and its editing has to take some credit. In his true style (he also directed <i>The Social Network</i>), it had very ominous tones, lots of close ups, and a blue tint that hyperbole the drama and suspense of the plot.<br />
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The plot itself… Well, I was constantly changing my mind and finding myself wide-eyed and whispering to my sister "this is crazy" (throw in a few expletives in there). A must see for those who enjoy thrillers, dramas, and Cleudo as a kid.<br />
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Notes: I have not read the book.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05313479884291199749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7228920291427837180.post-26910500996889919622014-05-03T10:35:00.001+09:302014-05-03T10:35:15.000+09:30Review | Pawn by Aimee Carter<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLdO0LjrpSvXX1Ta0AZ-GJhXmPFf5D3DQFjXn52pgGDtbmWiSKV64mLPoXnMt8WiD-P5YVlR8YtVdTUe7ywLAvNrwFjFDun7lXVWiT-ycmFCquRxa3oplDeTt79PMcPKak6Po7jAr4y-3r/s1600/10838787.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLdO0LjrpSvXX1Ta0AZ-GJhXmPFf5D3DQFjXn52pgGDtbmWiSKV64mLPoXnMt8WiD-P5YVlR8YtVdTUe7ywLAvNrwFjFDun7lXVWiT-ycmFCquRxa3oplDeTt79PMcPKak6Po7jAr4y-3r/s1600/10838787.jpg" height="400" width="251" /></a></div>
<strong style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">YOU CAN BE A VII. IF YOU GIVE UP EVERYTHING.</strong><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;"> </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">For Kitty Doe, it seems like an easy choice. She can either spend her life as a III in misery, looked down upon by the higher ranks and forced to leave the people she loves, or she can become a VII and join the most powerful family in the country. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">If she says yes, Kitty will be Masked—surgically transformed into Lila Hart, the Prime Minister's niece, who died under mysterious circumstances. As a member of the Hart family, she will be famous. She will be adored. And for the first time, she will matter. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">There's only one catch. She must also stop the rebellion that Lila secretly fostered, the same one that got her killed and one Kitty believes in. Faced with threats, conspiracies and a life that's not her own, she must decide which path to choose—and learn how to become more than a pawn in a twisted game she's only beginning to understand.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">Review:</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">If there's one thing Aimee Carter knows how to write then it's a quick, effortless read. I finished this in a matter of hours and barely registered the fact that I gotten through so many pages without it feeling like it dragged. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">There are some aspects that I loved and that I hated. I loved the idea of being Masked. Essentially it's when your body is turned into somebody else. It's creepy, screams government conspiracy, and has a whole lot of problems that come with it. Kitty, our MC, has been Masked as Lila, a level 5 (which is the highest level in this universe). A Level 5 has everything and anything. Mansions, money, fame. Essentially, every level below gets less and less. Level 4s are pretty respected, but anything under Level 3 and basically you're dirt and doing all the "crappy" manual jobs. Kitty, a level 3, gets the opportunity to be Lila because they have similar eyes which is something the Masking process cannot alter.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">I felt like Kitty kind of blended into this version of a perfect Lila. So much so that Kitty and Lila started becoming the same person. [spoiler] You really begin to notice this when we actually meet Lila who is in hiding and not dead [/spoiler] I loved meeting some of the other characters though such as Lila's fiancé Knox and her brother Greyson. I despise Benjy. I don't know why, but I do. Something about his character just makes me roll my eyes and go 'ugh'. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">I did feel like there was a bit of a The Selection feel to Pawn. I think it's because of the rebellion and politics and marriage with royalty/politics. There's not much more than that in terms of similarity, but I just kept getting the same feel for the two novels. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">I definitely enjoyed it. Carter's writing is simple and easy to read and the characters are likeable enough. Some plot twists were predictable, some weren't (Elsewhere, anyone?), but it was enough for me to really enjoy myself.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">Rating: 4 stars</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">Read: March 2014</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05313479884291199749noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7228920291427837180.post-22259477612639842442014-04-29T14:24:00.000+09:302014-04-29T14:24:31.423+09:30Review | United We Spy by Ally Carter<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">Cammie Morgan has lost her father and her memory, but in the heart-pounding conclusion to the best-selling Gallagher Girls series, she finds her greatest mission yet. Cammie and her friends finally know why the terrorist organization called the Circle of Cavan has been hunting her. Now the spy girls and Zach must track down the Circle’s elite members to stop them before they implement a master plan that will change Cammie—and her country—forever.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">If there is such a book that could be considered too fast paced, this is it. United We Spy is the 6th and final book in the Gallagher Girls series and we finally have our conclusion. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">This book was everywhere. It was like a big mess of spaghetti which didn't get straightened out until the very end. Seriously. I think now that this series is finished I would recommend it, because it has been too long since the books were released and that kind of makes my head spin when I try to remember what exactly happened in the last book.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">I do have to give credit though, as United We Spy does tie up all the little ends and even references things from the very first book which were probably long forgotten. It has a sweet ending and there really is a satisfying feeling knowing that the characters are all tied up nicely and their plot lines. There were a few very happy moments in this book, a few predictable and long awaited ones, and a few surprising ones.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">Really, I think you need to brush up on your books before hitting this final one. Otherwise, it was a satisfying end.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">Rating: 4 stars</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05313479884291199749noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7228920291427837180.post-24322552834984266992014-01-27T13:01:00.002+09:302014-01-27T13:01:58.692+09:30Review | Ink by Amanda Sun<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">On the heels of a family tragedy, the last thing Katie Greene wants to do is move halfway across the world. Stuck with her aunt in Shizuoka, Japan, Katie feels lost. Alone. She doesn’t know the language, she can barely hold a pair of chopsticks, and she can’t seem to get the hang of taking her shoes off whenever she enters a building.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">Then there’s gorgeous but aloof Tomohiro, star of the school’s kendo team. How did he really get the scar on his arm? Katie isn’t prepared for the answer. But when she sees the things he draws start moving, there’s no denying the truth: Tomo has a connection to the ancient gods of Japan, and being near Katie is causing his abilities to spiral out of control. If the wrong people notice, they'll both be targets.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">Katie never wanted to move to Japan—now she may not make it out of the country alive.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">If you followed my status's while I was reading this book then you've come to the same conclusion as me: conflicted.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">I am so conflicted.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">Like never before have I been as conflicted as I am here.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">The story is about a girl named Katie who has had to move to Japan to live with her aunt after her parents die. She doesn't speak an ounce of Japanese and has pretty much been thrown in the deep end while she waits for her grandparents in Canada to get better so they can take her in.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">Katie is what really let this down for me. She has got to be the most suspicious YA narrator I have ever met without any reason to be. She obsessed over Tomo and is a drama queen. Like, who climbs up a tree in a skirt to shout at a stranger in the school yard over nothing? Ah, Katie does.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">And on the other hand, the relationship between Tomo and Katie was really nice. The two of them together were great and a joy to read. I found myself smiling and going 'aww' in some moments. Then they separated and Katie made me wish I could draw her and stab her to death.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">The mythology in Ink is about the Paper Gods or "Kami" as they are referred to here. Basically, a Kami can draw things to life. I found this so interesting and unique, especially when the drawings take on a mind and not always a good one, however I found a flaw or two. Namely, the dimensions. Tomo draws a horse and when they horse jumps out of the drawing it is a life sized animal... Even though it was drawn on a A4 piece of paper. Which doesn't make much sense, because in that case you could draw an entire building as a sketch and it would come to life as a ten storey building.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">Sun has a nice, flowing writing style once the story gets moving which also won me points. However, Katie was a real let down here and she's the main reason why this has 3 stars. If she was a little different, I don't think I'd hesitate to rate this higher.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">Mak is young, beautiful- and in grave danger. An international fashion model, she arrived in Australia on assignment, only to find her best friend brutally murdered, the latest victim of a serial killer with a very deadly fetish. Before she knows it, Mak herself is caught up in the hunt for the killer and trapped in a twisted game of cat-and-mouse. Who can you trust and where can you turn when you are the dark obsession of a sadistic psychopath?</span><br />
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This was exactly the book I needed to get me out of my reading slump!<br />
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I have been wanting to read a Moss crime book for a long time. I watch her show on the CI channel and she has a damn impressive research resume (which includes being set on fire, knocked out, and gun training), so I had a high hopes and those high hopes were definitely met.<br />
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The way that Moss writes is effortless and captivating. The pages were flying by and before I even knew it it had ended. My biggest regret is not buying the entire series at once when I had the chance, because I want the next one stat. The descriptions are clear and I loved all the small details, which is where I feel like Moss's knowledge of the modelling world and her research definitely pay off.<br />
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Mak is the main character and she's a Canadian model in Australia (much like Moss herself). On a shoot she discovers (literally) that her best friend and fellow model Catherine has been murdered. Catherine is one of many girls being murdered by the Stiletto Killer, a killer with a fetish for women in stilettos. Mak is also studying psychology and with a detective as a father, she has a decent amount of knowledge of police force operations. This, however, does not stop her from interfering when she does and I can see this definitely being what gets her in trouble. While Mak does appear to be too perfect of a character, there were hints dropped in about a traumatic past that I am curious about. I'm also curious about how the consequences of the events from this book affect her way of relationships and mannerisms.<br />
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I do have to criticise the character of Andy, the kind of love interest. I say "kind of" because the romance takes a backseat here, which is something I enjoyed, however I couldn't see the appeal of Andy. I also would be very hesitant if I were to hire him because he gives out information so easily and as addressed in the book, his anger issues result in major problems.<br />
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But I think this was a strong and fun beginning to a series I'm looking very forward to reading.<br />
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Rating: 4.5 stars<br />
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05313479884291199749noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7228920291427837180.post-7483252430194577052013-11-03T14:58:00.000+09:302013-11-28T14:59:23.357+09:30TV Review | The Vampire Diaries 5x5 "Monsters Ball"<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">Loose threads:</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">- Again, what the hell is Nadia up to?</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">- What's with the Dr Maxfields?</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">- What will happen to Jesse?</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">- How does Meghan know Elena's father?</span><br />
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I don't really know what to say about this episode. I feel like it was a bit of a filler, reminding everyone of these plot lines, and closing off these loose ends, and making some more plot lines in the wake.<br />
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Jesse, now a vampire, is basically a dummy vampire of sorts, being tested on with who knows what by Dr Maxfield's (I remembered his name!).<br />
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Elena meets a human who knew Meghan at the girl's memorial and it looks like we are back to this plot line once again. And again, throughout the entire episode, we don't get many answers. Elena compels answers out of him. Turns out, he is pretty much the male version of Elena having lost everyone in his life, including his parents, and people continuously dying around him and that Dr Maxfield is his ward. I feel some more head banging here. Can we leave the self righteous Elena angst at the door please? Dr Maxfield, in true warden style, tells him to stay away from Elena and for Elena to leave town because people are watching her.<br />
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In a twist that I really liked, it turns out that Nadia is Nadia Pertrova, Katherine's daughter. I felt the hints of this when Nadia was telling a story of how Katherine killed her mother in Paris, but am so glad it's true. More Katherine all around!<br />
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Caroline and Tyler, in typical fashion, are broken up once again and apparently for good. Tyler has it in his head that the only reason they are together is because Klaus gave them the a-okay, and that's not what he wants. So, they're done. And to be honest, I'm kind of glad. While back in season two, these two were my favourite couple, it's become tiresome watching them together.<br />
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Damon teams up with Silas and keeps Stefan occupied (snapping his neck) so Silas can pose as Stefan and with his mental powers, stop Tessa from grabbing a talisman that will allow her to reach her full power. Stefan gets one on Damon and reveals the entire plan to Tessa, resulting in Silas being turned to stone.<br />
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At the end of the episode, Damon calls Katherine over and feed Katherine (the cure) to Silas.<br />
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And can I just say that when Katherine rolled over dead, I declared right then and there that if she was dead I would stop watching. And I am serious, folks. Katherine is my favourite out of all of them. No, Katherine did not and shall not ever die.<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">Loose threads:</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">- Again, what the hell is Nadia up to?</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">- What's with the Dr Maxfields?</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">- What will happen to Jesse?</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">- How does Meghan know Elena's father?</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">- What will happen now that Silas is mortal?</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05313479884291199749noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7228920291427837180.post-31052724452195511872013-10-27T14:40:00.000+09:302013-11-28T14:41:32.742+09:30TV Review | The Vampire Diaries 5x4 "For Whom The Bell Tolls"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWswsxtdFv13DyA_KrVzXhgZme29lEdw0131E854RCg4PPfAhyphenhyphenRIRWGVVn5dCNQrWk5wp6-T3zcYWOfiMWczgIuGH12Z3NJdXr0AdkMNRNz4cxn5ELWJ_5WSCiu-vXtQBej0w-stp6DhNw/s1600/tvd.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="167" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWswsxtdFv13DyA_KrVzXhgZme29lEdw0131E854RCg4PPfAhyphenhyphenRIRWGVVn5dCNQrWk5wp6-T3zcYWOfiMWczgIuGH12Z3NJdXr0AdkMNRNz4cxn5ELWJ_5WSCiu-vXtQBej0w-stp6DhNw/s320/tvd.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Last weeks loose ends:<br />
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<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #212020; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">-<span style="font-size: 7pt; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"> <strike> - </strike></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #212020; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strike>What will Elena and Damon tell Stefan about his amnesia?</strike><o:p style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">-<span style="font-size: 7pt; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"> - </span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #212020; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Again, what the hell is Nadia up to?</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">-<span style="font-size: 7pt; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"> - </span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">What’s with the teacher? Obviously part of the council, but why?<o:p style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">-<span style="font-size: 7pt; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"> - </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">How did Megan know Elena’s father?</span></span></div>
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The episode opens up with Damon rehashing the last two hundred or so years of Stefan's life as Stefan reads all his old journals (who ever thought they'd come in handy, huh?). Throughout the episode I feel like as if Stefan went through twenty different stages. He went ripper, he went emotional, he practically fell in love with Elena all over again and then Elena practically broke his heart all over again.<br />
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I was amazed by how well Nina and Paul were able to reestablish their character's chemistry so quickly! I honestly felt like they were both falling in love in the span of one episode and almost as if Damon would be shoved off to the side.<br />
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The plots throughout this episode were all pretty much dropped at the hat when Jeremy finally revealed to everyone that Bonnie is actually dead. I never really cared much for Bonnie's character to be honest, but the funeral scene was actually pretty moving and I loved the little sentiments the characters brought forward. In particular, I loved how Elena placed pillow feathers on Bonnie's make shift grave from the pilot episode where Bonnie makes them float.<br />
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Tyler returned, if only briefly, to be supportive for Caroline, but it was great to see them all together. I will admit, there was a point in this episode where I felt like Stefan and Caroline would be heading down that path (and that's not the first time I've thought that). Seriously, though. I think they balance each other out great, which is what makes them great friends, but the fact that amnesia Stefan said he'd before there for Caroline about Bonnie's death really made my heart soar.<br />
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The side plots that I mentioned before mainly involve Jesse as the plot lines for Katherine, Tessa, and Silas took a backseat this episode.<br />
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Basically, Stefan went ripper mode (as mentioned) and ate Jesse to the point where Caroline had to heal him with a tonne of vampire blood. Now, Jesse has been turned into a vampire by the creepy professor guy. Odd, but I'll roll with it.<br />
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Loose threads:<br />
- Again, what the hell is Nadia up to?<br />
- What's with the teacher?<br />
- What will happen to Jesse?<br />
- How does Meghan know Elena's father?<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 7pt; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"> - </span></span></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05313479884291199749noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7228920291427837180.post-87325756588334893272013-10-23T19:42:00.000+09:302013-10-24T09:37:06.298+09:30Review | Origin by Jennifer L Armentrout<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtzqk7S7b18QQRgvl4sMVPnwZMnfrwdxIZeQ7qPSm5AZQTacFFA7ivw7nQR2Y9p6OETaZO4dyI2CbFlxHTD63WEiiLBtSHVnc6rWUPhx2FNc1wa3A6ZxEky7oFZJkyyHn36WY4L20V7-9r/s1600/13644052.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtzqk7S7b18QQRgvl4sMVPnwZMnfrwdxIZeQ7qPSm5AZQTacFFA7ivw7nQR2Y9p6OETaZO4dyI2CbFlxHTD63WEiiLBtSHVnc6rWUPhx2FNc1wa3A6ZxEky7oFZJkyyHn36WY4L20V7-9r/s320/13644052.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
<em style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">Daemon will do anything to get Katy back.</em><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">After the successful but disastrous raid on Mount Weather, he’s facing the impossible. Katy is gone. Taken. Everything becomes about finding her. Taking out anyone who stands in his way? Done. Burning down the whole world to save her? Gladly. Exposing his alien race to the world? With pleasure.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><em style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">All Katy can do is survive.</em><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">Surrounded by enemies, the only way she can come out of this is to adapt. After all, there are sides of Daedalus that don’t seem entirely crazy, but the group’s goals are frightening and the truths they speak even more disturbing. Who are the real bad guys? Daedalus? Mankind? Or the Luxen?</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><em style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">Together, they can face anything.</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;"> </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">But the most dangerous foe has been there all along, and when the truths are exposed and the lies come crumbling down, which side will Daemon and Katy be standing on? </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><em style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">And will they even be together?</em><br />
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">Review:</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">I really don't know how to start off this review. I'm truly and utterly disappointed. If you read my reviews for the previous three books, I loved them. They truly were the best of everything. Origin, for some reason, falls completely off the rails for everything that I did like about them.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">Firstly, this book was boring. I said it. I went there. About 90% of this book is switched unnecessarily between Katy and Daemon when they're in the same place, doing the same stuff, even in the same scene and they switch POV. I feel like this POV switch is what really let this book down. I'm not a big fan of changing a books structure in this way, but I'm not opposed. Here, I'm opposed.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">There was never a real <i>need</i> for Daemon's POV unless you liked to know that our supposed hot head is more like a marsh mellow. Crunchy on the outside, mushy on the in. It was... boring. I'm sorry, but it truly was. I skimmed a lot of it, particularly either the possessive or lovey-dovey parts (which made up about 98% of his portion). </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">Katy, sadly was no better. I feel like Armentrout really missed a part where she could have developed Katy and shown her vulnerable and building herself back up to truly be independent and strong. Katy went through some serious moments, and yet it was like the moment Daemon turned up everything was peachy. It shouldn't have been. If you've read the book, I'm referring to the "test" of all tests. You don't do that and come out of it okay. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">The second thing that extremely bothered were two things: marriage and pregnancy.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">I had the biggest suspicion of pregnancy when the product of a human and Luxen were explained. In short: Origins, who are even better than Luxen. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">I just feel like those are two things that were completely and utterly thrown into the mix unnecessarily. This book was a light sci-fi romance. Not YA with NA issues. That's what NA is for (at least that's my opinion).</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">And you know what? I'm so over cliffhangers! </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">I don't mean to sound so negative, but book was a major let down. No plot, no character development, romance that made my eyes roll, and topics to make this book seem "heavier" that really just weren't necessary.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">I'll probably read the next book, just to see what happens though.</span></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05313479884291199749noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7228920291427837180.post-39771454157083356962013-10-23T19:26:00.001+09:302013-10-23T19:26:08.358+09:30Review | Ready Player One by Ernest Cline<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<strong style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">It's the year 2044, and the real world is an ugly place.</strong><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes his grim surroundings by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia that lets you be anything you want to be, a place where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">And like most of humanity, Wade dreams of being the one to discover the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this virtual world. For somewhere inside this giant networked playground, OASIS creator James Halliday has hidden a series of fiendish puzzles that will yield massive fortune--and remarkable power--to whoever can unlock them. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">For years, millions have struggled fruitlessly to attain this prize, knowing only that Halliday's riddles are based in the pop culture he loved--that of the late twentieth century. And for years, millions have found in this quest another means of escape, retreating into happy, obsessive study of Halliday's icons. Like many of his contemporaries, Wade is as comfortable debating the finer points of John Hughes's oeuvre, playing Pac-Man, or reciting Devo lyrics as he is scrounging power to run his OASIS rig. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">And then Wade stumbles upon the first puzzle. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">Suddenly the whole world is watching, and thousands of competitors join the hunt--among them certain powerful players who are willing to commit very real murder to beat Wade to this prize. Now the only way for Wade to survive and preserve everything he knows is to win. But to do so, he may have to leave behind his oh-so-perfect virtual existence and face up to life--and love--in the real world he's always been so desperate to escape. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">A world at stake. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">A quest for the ultimate prize. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">Are you ready?</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">Review:</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">I'm probably the last person on the planet to read this. I definitely feel like it, especially considering the only reason why I even heard of this book was because of the booktube community who preach it. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">There are a few things that I loved about this book, and a few things that I definitely had problems with. Mainly the writing and info dump. This book is littered with 1980s pop culture references and a lot of those references are explained right after they are mentioned because this is a book and every of all ages is going to read this and will need to understand. While I definitely felt like we needed the information and background to the most relevant references, I felt like the execution was flat.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">The writing style is very plain, almost reading like a textbook but centred around characters. There really isn't much dialogue to begin with (or at all really) and I struggled with that. It took me a fair few sitting to get through this, even though by the end I thought it was a really smart idea/read.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">Also, a quick touch on the romance. I wasn't entirely feeling it. Their entire relationship is developed and experienced in the OASIS, which is this virtual reality. They don't even know what the other person looks like. It just felt a little too... Well, I'm a believer in stranger danger and I don't online date so I guess that says where I stand.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">However, I felt like this book was really smart, which is where I really enjoyed it.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">It's not the smart kind of book where you see it as you read it. It's the kind of smart where you finish it, you sit back, and you go 'yeah, that's... Wow, that's smart'. It makes you </span><em style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">think</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;"> and</span><em style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">question</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;"> things. About society, technology, friendships, the value and importance of teamwork where a lot of things nowadays are very much individual or 'on your own'. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">Like I said, it's smart.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05313479884291199749noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7228920291427837180.post-48938543038347929762013-10-20T21:36:00.001+09:302013-10-20T21:37:13.580+09:30TV Review | Super Fun Night 1x1 "Anything For Love"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
<br />
As a law student myself, I am always keen for some legal shows, no matter how fictional they may be. Not only was the legal profession aspect appealing, but the fact that Rebel Wilson stares, produces, and writes the show. Now that is impressive.<br />
<br />
We meet Kimmy and her three geeky best friends who have all made a vow to have a super fun night on the weekend (hence the name). This particular weekend they go to a karaoke bar where Kimmy has decided she is going to face her fears of public speaking by singing a song.<br />
<br />
There were definitely some laugh out loud moments here. While it's not the hilarity that could be watched over and over again (unlike Pitch Perfect), I definitely think that there's potential here even though it may have missed the mark a little on this one.<br />
<br />
I think this is definitely a show that I will keep watching with hopes of it getting better and to support our very own Rebel Wilson.<br />
<br />
Favourite Lines:<br />
<br />
"Dracu-lawyer" -- Kevin Bishop (actor, cannot remember his characters name!)<br />
"You just got lawyered!" -- MarikaAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05313479884291199749noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7228920291427837180.post-55801463109878874442013-10-20T14:24:00.000+09:302013-10-20T14:24:36.895+09:30TV Review | The Vampire Diaries 5x03 "Original Sin" <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<!--StartFragment-->
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhniHFY6c9M9P8aJvVVpmMV9x9flTMzGcSYjZFD0EufJhljI269DhIW0O-__4vKcEBlYUHl4KpZzqAiERToBmlfAsnwVw4b2OPin-Vzs4ubxp-WkAM0jbJgAeoms0fsJSPWp6oaqat4qisL/s1600/tumblr_muvewiN24E1r1c2klo2_1280.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="359" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhniHFY6c9M9P8aJvVVpmMV9x9flTMzGcSYjZFD0EufJhljI269DhIW0O-__4vKcEBlYUHl4KpZzqAiERToBmlfAsnwVw4b2OPin-Vzs4ubxp-WkAM0jbJgAeoms0fsJSPWp6oaqat4qisL/s640/tumblr_muvewiN24E1r1c2klo2_1280.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Last week’s loose
threads:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<s><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- Where is
Stefan?<o:p></o:p></span></span></s></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- What’s with the
teacher? Obviously part of the council, but why?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><s><span lang="EN-US">- Who is this
gypsy girl</span></s><span lang="EN-US"> and what’s her agenda?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<s><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- Why does
Silas want Katherine so bad?<o:p></o:p></span></span></s></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- Why did Megan
know Elena’s father?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Warning: spoilers
for this episode and pervious episode. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you follow me
on Twitter then you would have seen me live tweeting as I watched. You would
have also seen the tweet that had me saying that I thought this was by far the
best episode of the season and probably my favourite of all time.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Why?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">One word people: </span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #212020;">Qetsiyah. Or Tessa.
Whichever one is easiest to pronounce. </span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Yes, Silas’s
raging ex-girlfriend (who gave him the cure for immortality) is back. Turns
out, when Bonnie opened the veil between the living and the dead, </span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #212020;">Qetsiyah </span><span lang="EN-US">decided that she wanted in. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And that her sole
mission is to kill Silas.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I loved this episode.
I have a feeling there isn’t a time period that The Vampire Diaries isn’t
willing to go into and ancient Greece is a personal favourite. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Stefan is saved
by </span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #212020;">Qetsiyah</span><span lang="EN-US">, only to be used as a pawn in helping damaging Silas’s mind
control. We get a lot of background in this episode and it would be on the
verge of boring if </span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #212020;">Qetsiyah</span><span lang="EN-US"> wasn’t such a funny, raging character. Oh, and the flashbacks.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">We all know the
basics. Silas fell in love with a girl, tricked </span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #212020;">Qetsiyah</span><span lang="EN-US"> into
creating immortality so they could be together then left her at the alter for
his other girlfriend. Here’s a little bit of a twist for you: Silas and </span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #212020;">Qetsiyah </span><span lang="EN-US">are travellers/gypsies like what we met last week with Nadia. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One of the
biggest twists in this episode (yes, there’s more than one) is the fact that
the girl that Silas fell in love with? It’s Elena. Katherine. Tatia. The
original doppelganger: Amora. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the meantime,
Katherine and Elena reveal that they’ve been sharing dreams about Stefan
burning outside of a bar in the sunlight. The two of them and Damon share an
amusing car ride with Katherine being… Well, Katherine. Saying everything to
get under Elena’s skin. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Katherine is
captured by Nadia and brought to Silas who then compels Nadia to kill herself.
Simultaneously, </span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #212020;">Qetsiyah
hacks into Silas’s mind using Stefan and weakens his ability to compel people.
Nadia takes Katherine and holds her hostage. Over the phone to Silas, he
reveals to Katherine that her blood is the cure to immortality. Remind anyone
of anything? Yep. Elena’s blood was what was needed to create hybrids, and now
Katherine’s blood is needed to create immortality. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #212020;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I’m beginning to wonder if maybe this show is running out
of ideas, or if they are purposely recycling these ideas to create a sort of
doppelganger cycle or something. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #212020;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The last twist of the night? Well, Stefan wakes up after
being brain hacked by Qetsiyah and he has no memory. Amnesia, folks. In a
vampire. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #212020;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Side plot: Nadia places the other traveler (Gregor) she
killed in Matt’s body to confront him (hello, accents). Later, Matt wakes up in
the Lockwood mansion with muddy foot prints and blood everywhere. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #212020;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Favourite quotes:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #212020;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“It was like watching a soap opera except without volume
control”—Qetsiyah/Tessa <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #212020;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Loose leads:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: 360.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #212020;">-<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #212020;">What will Elena and Damon
tell Stefan about his amnesia?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: 360.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">-<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #212020;">Again, what the hell is
Nadia up to?</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: 360.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">-<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US">What’s with the teacher? Obviously part of the council, but why?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: 360.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">-<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--></span><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How did Megan know Elena’s father?</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05313479884291199749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7228920291427837180.post-15306339465864056682013-10-20T14:19:00.001+09:302013-10-27T10:22:16.448+09:30TV Review | The Vampire Dairies 5x02 "True Lies"<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWswsxtdFv13DyA_KrVzXhgZme29lEdw0131E854RCg4PPfAhyphenhyphenRIRWGVVn5dCNQrWk5wp6-T3zcYWOfiMWczgIuGH12Z3NJdXr0AdkMNRNz4cxn5ELWJ_5WSCiu-vXtQBej0w-stp6DhNw/s1600/tvd.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="209" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWswsxtdFv13DyA_KrVzXhgZme29lEdw0131E854RCg4PPfAhyphenhyphenRIRWGVVn5dCNQrWk5wp6-T3zcYWOfiMWczgIuGH12Z3NJdXr0AdkMNRNz4cxn5ELWJ_5WSCiu-vXtQBej0w-stp6DhNw/s400/tvd.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Last week’s loose
threads:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #343434;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">-
<s>Matt was attacked, some magical guy chanted words to turn his eyes black and
then he collapsed</s><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #343434;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">-
Why did Megan know Elena's father?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #343434;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">-
Silas ended the episode by getting the entire town to find Katherine. Why is
she so important?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<s><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #343434;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- Will Stefan shut off his humanity to
cope with the feeling of being drowned?<o:p></o:p></span></span></s></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_ft7s0UyN0Ohf3jebokTe8RGEbI4-rbRr3GsKZWGW_Xa4FXsXcMBjlDBkqcAcNHjlSQMmUocuzu4Ys6Es3JB6tZQ6VJBT7eTOjydOLYSwBdUAtuHuOyOxWi6y040NQ2ys6rUOrltoFqy2/s1600/the_vampire_diaries_true_lies.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_ft7s0UyN0Ohf3jebokTe8RGEbI4-rbRr3GsKZWGW_Xa4FXsXcMBjlDBkqcAcNHjlSQMmUocuzu4Ys6Es3JB6tZQ6VJBT7eTOjydOLYSwBdUAtuHuOyOxWi6y040NQ2ys6rUOrltoFqy2/s400/the_vampire_diaries_true_lies.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #343434;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This episode was definitely better than last weeks. By
far.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #343434;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It opens up with human Katherine being pepper sprayed by a
resident of Mystic Falls since the entire town is hunting after her and what
does Katherine do? She jumps her. Even as a human, I’m finding Katherine’s
spirit to be completely enthralling and I’m seriously wishing that she was the
main character, not Elena. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #343434;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The freaky black-eyes thing that happened with Matt was
done by a couple of gypsies who nowadays call themselves travelers. It blocks
Matt’s mind from being controlled by Silas (very handy). And one of those
travellers killed her partner in a show of trust towards Silas (ouch). It seems
there’s to be an alliance here, but what is this woman’s agenda? <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #343434;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Matt and Jeremy are busy baby-sitting Katherine, which
feels very déjà vu given the amount of times Elena has needed babysitting. The
three end up in the woods, hiding from Silas and his possessed townsfolk who
are all hunting for Katherine (reasons still unknown). In a very human and
unexpected moment, Katherine saves the boys life with a shotgun. I have to
admit, I really found these moments funny. Katherine has relied solely on her
vampire powers that things like a gun are foreign to her. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #343434;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Matt died for the first time tonight, thankfully (or maybe
not) he was wearing the cursed ring. During this time, Matt was able to speak
to Bonnie and she finally told him that she was dead. To be perfectly honest,
I’m not finding Bonnie’s storyline to be very compelling. I know that she’ll
stick around (I have this gut feeling that she’ll be very helpful on the other
side when it comes to killing Silas), but it’s just… boring. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At university,
Elena and Caroline are on a mission to figure out what’s going on with Megan
with nothing coming up. Her storyline drops in favour of Silas coming to visit
under the pretense of Stefan. Silas (as Stefan) tells Elena all about Jeremy
being kicked out of high school and the trouble from last weeks episode,
enraging Elena. He then compels her to weaken Damon and then kill him.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The next scene
reminded me a lot of season three in the cafeteria when Stefan fights Kalus’s
compulsion. The trigger here is Elena’s anger, so she has to stop being angry.
And to do that, just stab yourself. Repeatedly.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On Caroline’s
end, she’s being chatted up by her human admirer (I forget his name) who
reveals that one of the teachers (the doctor who signed off on Megan’s autopsy
report) is a part of some ancient, secret council. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The episode ends
with Elena, Sherriff Forbes, and Damon opening up the coffin that Stefan was
locked in only to reveal that it’s a human with a ripped throat.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Favourite Quote:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“I’m the freaking
moonstone” – Katherine<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“You can
understand why I’m a little upset, that I’m on the verge of being defeated by a
sinus infection!” - Katherine<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This week’s loose
threads:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- Where is
Stefan?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- What’s with the
teacher? Obviously part of the council, but why?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- Who is this
gypsy girl and what’s her agenda?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- Why does Silas
want Katherine so bad?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- Why did Megan
know Elena’s father?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br clear="all" style="mso-special-character: line-break; page-break-before: always;" />
</span>
</span><br />
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<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05313479884291199749noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7228920291427837180.post-27575799489770844292013-10-05T14:26:00.000+09:302013-10-27T10:21:43.170+09:30TV Review | The Vampire Diaries 5x01 "I Know What You Did Last Summer"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have been anxiously waiting this season premier for months. It feels like it was never going to come. It was the same feeling I had throughout the previous four seasons where Elena and Damon were concerned.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I can at least rejoice there as Elena and Damon are definitely on!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The episode opens up basically with a recap of the Summer which consists of Caroline preparing for college, Elena and Damon getting it on, Jeremy walking in on Elena and Damon getting it on and playing Siri for Bonnie who is still pretending to be dead and having Jeremy be her voice of communication.</span><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3QGXxxd_beN0AKm2cia_M4_vmHA1_mW3OAlgX5afbexMIfzF-Q1cYtrSub5oGjZchQYPYhcV5TpG34MugLdtlgIiWEszmro5ix69PuRZdu6fjp1V2gTOvrVwKOfFFOi0s1xWP0qy-CpEb/s1600/The-Vampire-Diaries-season-5-episode-2-True-Lies.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="163" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3QGXxxd_beN0AKm2cia_M4_vmHA1_mW3OAlgX5afbexMIfzF-Q1cYtrSub5oGjZchQYPYhcV5TpG34MugLdtlgIiWEszmro5ix69PuRZdu6fjp1V2gTOvrVwKOfFFOi0s1xWP0qy-CpEb/s320/The-Vampire-Diaries-season-5-episode-2-True-Lies.png" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I liked this episode. I don't think it was the most explosive or the best of their previous episode openers but there are definitely a few things I liked.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1- There's no BS when it comes to Silas. I was sort of worried that it would take forever for everyone to figure out Silas was about since his character was sort of on the dead end of last season. But he's here, controlling the entire town, and Jeremy and Damon are the only ones who actually know it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2- Katherine. I've always loved Katherine. She's sassy, got guts, drop dead gorgeous (I prefer the curled hair to straight her for), and always seems to have a way out. Until now that is. She's human, her hair is a mess, she's got nothing to protect her and 500 years worth of enemies after her. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">... And that's the end of the highlights.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I don't know what it is. Maybe I'm just not as into it anymore as I was, but for some reason I didn't find Elena/Caroline's storyline very compelling:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyZQ1bUs_PwohMiJ9amX8AtbbYg9WQIZ4a3er_aYFrXUxIZvF9lX6Iis6c7wufvKlqGFd73hqbbtzIyMUEKP92DL8TRXDq01iVCkGK5gj_haRz6Zjd-diygUUGmPRC9HmJukJ9irtRhrS8/s1600/vampire-diaries_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyZQ1bUs_PwohMiJ9amX8AtbbYg9WQIZ4a3er_aYFrXUxIZvF9lX6Iis6c7wufvKlqGFd73hqbbtzIyMUEKP92DL8TRXDq01iVCkGK5gj_haRz6Zjd-diygUUGmPRC9HmJukJ9irtRhrS8/s320/vampire-diaries_1.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Essentially, Elena and Caroline end up with an unexpected roommate who drinks vervain water and by the end of the episode, is dead. The roommate Megan is frantically screaming on the other end of the phone to Elena for help while her and Caroline try to figure out how to get inside a house they weren't invited into.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Megan's body falls out of the house right in front Elena and Caroline and it turns out she was killed by a vampire (vampire bite marks on the neck). Even more surprising is when the cops tell the girls it was a suicide. A</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">nd in another twist this girl somehow knows Elena's father (not John, the other father).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Also, how on Earth did those two girls get such a large dorm room that is so dark without compulsion? (Elena and Caroline seem to be on a "try in normal way" streak)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Side note: Caroline and Tyler seem to be on the outs. Again.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Death Count:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- Megan</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- Bonnie's Dad (whose name I forget)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Loose Ties:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- Matt was attacked, some magical guy chanted words to turn his eyes black and then he collapsed</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- Why did Megan know Elena's father?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- Silas ended the episode by getting the entire town to find Katherine. Why is she so important?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- Will Stefan shut off his humanity to cope with the feeling of being drowned?</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05313479884291199749noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7228920291427837180.post-84911668026621798652013-09-29T11:33:00.000+09:302013-10-06T11:34:27.601+09:30Movie Review | Star Trek Into Darkness<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGRWs7n934b_NfGxr-UXvPSDnoSxAB7jJZvhOkfPOoKalG1EewVgKju8zNlh8nJG1khnGnuQ7HkWf9YDxmBlblgVSTV_9OAO7UG3ZJ2eKhollo0vD5iNet8OQnnHfLKZ92LW3VMByWuEMP/s1600/Star-Trek-Into-Darkness-Worthless-Crap.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGRWs7n934b_NfGxr-UXvPSDnoSxAB7jJZvhOkfPOoKalG1EewVgKju8zNlh8nJG1khnGnuQ7HkWf9YDxmBlblgVSTV_9OAO7UG3ZJ2eKhollo0vD5iNet8OQnnHfLKZ92LW3VMByWuEMP/s640/Star-Trek-Into-Darkness-Worthless-Crap.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The most surprising thing about these movies is a) how long they've been going for and b) how fun they are which explains a.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is my first Star Trek experience I will openly admit. My dad is ashamed to hear me say that. I've seen just about every major popular sci-fi saga out there but Star Trek? I don't know why, but I've just never seen them.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That, I will confidently say, has now changed.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Star Trek Into Darkness was fun. It didn't drag, yes the structure was a little too formula and everything worked out, but it was fun. So fun I didn't mind.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This movie sees Benedict Cumberbatch (BBC's Sherlock) play the villain Khan. I am absolutely loving Cumberbatch in any smart-assy, villain role. I've loved him in Sherlock and I've always been anxious for his role in The Hobbit, I'm even more excited now. There's just something so villainous about Cumberbatch that makes him perfect for it. Sort of like Tom Hiddleston in Thor/Avengers. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The graphics here were good; at least I thought so (<i>The Independent </i>disagrees) and the characters banter were fun. I particularly like the banter between the four Kirk, Spock, Nyota, and Scotty. They were refreshing and kept it light and comical.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I would recommend this movie to everyone, including those who haven't seen Star Trek before. You may miss out on some past references (thankfully, my dad filled me in), but just make someone watch it with you!</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05313479884291199749noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7228920291427837180.post-57185606487989020322013-09-13T20:12:00.000+09:302013-10-02T20:13:40.847+09:30Review | Heist Society, Uncommon Criminals, and Perfect Soundrels by Ally Carter<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hey everybody!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have another book video, this one from YouTube! In fact it's a series review of Ally Carter's Heist Society series! I am only going to put in the blurb for the first book as the second and third reviews are kind of spoilery. I will do seperate written reviews for each of the books though, so do be on the look out for that. Otherwise, enjoy the series review in case you were looking to get into them!</span><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Heist Society:</span></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">When Katarina Bishop was three, her parents took her on a trip to the Louvre…to case it. For her seventh birthday, Katarina and her Uncle Eddie traveled to Austria…to steal the crown jewels. When Kat turned fifteen, she planned a con of her own—scamming her way into the best boarding school in the country, determined to leave the family business behind. Unfortunately, leaving “the life” for a normal life proves harder than she’d expected.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">Soon, Kat's friend and former co-conspirator, Hale, appears out of nowhere to bring Kat back into the world she tried so hard to escape. But he has a good reason: a powerful mobster has been robbed of his priceless art collection and wants to retrieve it. Only a master thief could have pulled this job, and Kat's father isn't just on the suspect list, he is the list. Caught between Interpol and a far more deadly enemy, Kat’s dad needs her help.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">For Kat, there is only one solution: track down the paintings and steal them back. So what if it's a spectacularly impossible job? She's got two weeks, a teenage crew, and hopefully just enough talent to pull off the biggest heist in her family's history--and, with any luck, steal her life back along the way.</span></span><br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05313479884291199749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7228920291427837180.post-85825557958547565002013-09-03T19:42:00.001+09:302013-09-03T19:42:21.705+09:30Review | The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx81Kh2Sy278zaVY21N15xofuVWfgia-55zRnEWBOGC9B7aaP5qoHhPwqlql5FNXSEySDEycyJf1AZL6ZEATWVcTwxVJhVxkm1syC8KFekRdimHYOF0y6oGzVBHTlj7W8HyebNVWYlorGm/s1600/16101128.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx81Kh2Sy278zaVY21N15xofuVWfgia-55zRnEWBOGC9B7aaP5qoHhPwqlql5FNXSEySDEycyJf1AZL6ZEATWVcTwxVJhVxkm1syC8KFekRdimHYOF0y6oGzVBHTlj7W8HyebNVWYlorGm/s320/16101128.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
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Blurb:<br />
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<strong style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;"><em>The Passage</em> meets <em>Ender’s Game</em> in an epic new series from award-winning author Rick Yancey.</strong><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">After the 1st wave, only darkness remains. After the 2nd, only the lucky escape. And after the 3rd, only the unlucky survive. After the 4th wave, only one rule applies: trust no one.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">Now, it’s the dawn of the 5th wave, and on a lonely stretch of highway, Cassie runs from Them. The beings who only look human, who roam the countryside killing anyone they see. Who have scattered Earth’s last survivors. To stay alone is to stay alive, Cassie believes, until she meets Evan Walker. Beguiling and mysterious, Evan Walker may be Cassie’s only hope for rescuing her brother—or even saving herself. But Cassie must choose: between trust and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life and death. To give up or to get up.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">I'm not entirely sure how to start this review. There are so many awesome things about this book that I would love to share, however I feel like I wouldn't be a very good friend if I didn't admit that there were a lot of things that bothered me about The Fifth Wave.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">The biggest thing that bothered me about this book was the fact that some of the many characters aren't even mentioned. There are certain characters whose POV take up a lot of the book and they're mentioned nowhere in any of the blurbs. And some of them are characters a lot more interesting than Cassie. Zombie, for starters, I found to have a more interesting story line (although I'll admit it wasn't all that compelling). </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">Also, the lack of warning between POV changes at first really bothered me. There wasn't very much of a hint as to who you were reading and while I did figure it out, I thought that maybe the voices between characters could have been a bit more distinct. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">I'm not entirely sure what it was, but there was something about this book which wasn't all that compelling. At times I found my mind wandering away and I'd put the book down and not pick it up for days. I can't pinpoint what it was exactly, but I think it may be just the lack of connection I had with the characters. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">However, having said that there are a few things that I really did like. Firstly, the writing. I absolutely loved his descriptions. It's not purple prose in anyway however there were similes and metaphors which were very visual and they weren't things I had read before. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">Also, character development. As much as I didn't like the characters, I really loved the building Yancey did for Cassie and her brother. I found the other narrators to not be as in depth but I expected that at first given that Cassie is our first narrator. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">I think I will definitely give the sequel a go.</span><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05313479884291199749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7228920291427837180.post-63805694491253534432013-06-16T09:41:00.001+09:302013-10-02T20:23:20.782+09:30Book Haul #1 + Book Depository Unboxing<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Hello!<br />
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Long time no see my friends. I've been caught up in finding a balance right now, but I thought I would pop back into my blog to share some of the books I've gotten recently. They are, after all, some of my most favourite blogs to read.<br />
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Without further ado:<br />
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Leave me a link to your blog posts sharing what you've got recently and I'll pop on by! :)Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05313479884291199749noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7228920291427837180.post-52700177144222096512013-06-10T14:37:00.000+09:302013-06-10T14:37:00.128+09:30Review: Paper Towns by John Green<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6916043-paper-towns" style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #666600; float: left; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><img alt="Paper Towns" height="320" src="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1299965422l/6916043.jpg" style="border: 0px;" width="206" /></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;"></span><br />
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Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs back into his life - dressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revenge - he follows.<br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">After their all-nighter ends and a new day breaks, Q arrives at school to discover that Margo, always an enigma, has now become a mystery. But Q soon learns that there are clues - and they're for him. Urged down a disconnected path, the closer Q gets, the less Q sees the girl he thought he knew.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">I'm so disappointed. I went into Paper Towns with a level of expectations and I really enjoyed the first half of Paper Towns so much. I loved Quentin and his friends, thoughts that they were unique and I absolutely fell in love when I realised both our parents had pulled similar sixteenth birthday car tricks on us.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">So what happened?</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">Margo Roth Spiegelman happened. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">Margo, to me, comes across as the most selfish and unrealistic character ever. Not too mention the most manipulative to have Quentin wrapped around her finger like she did! I really wanted to love her intelligence and her opinions on people, I really did. But Margo is just a mirror--she's saying all these things about people when she is what she says. Is that the point Green was trying to make with Margo? Possibly. Did it work? I don't know.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">When the half-way point came I also came to really hate Quentin. Here is this smart, funny guy who is basically chasing after wind. He's in love with a girl who doesn't exist and I don't think that anybody would do this for someone who they have supposedly "loved" from afar. I just... The second half of this book rubbed me the completely wrong away and I can't seem to move on from that.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">I am more than filling to try The Fault In Our Stars. I really liked Green's humour, although I did have problems with some of his dialogue. Did anybody else find those big chunky paragraphs of "she said, '....', then I said, '....', then she said" etc etc annoying?</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">Needless to say I was expecting a lot more and was rather disappointed.</span><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05313479884291199749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7228920291427837180.post-4219950148139764362013-04-04T13:22:00.002+09:302013-04-04T13:22:21.174+09:30Review: War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjYjL33m15wTWh_ojShAhUUqSvbT4aP-QWznEduhp8rhFE1CP-Szn0FqXYbgCAh2nYQqmOHT1hoLFKORYXgqCH9siJhEgc11GxbJnzZSzBU356wFgHKOs9uUuXy_K7SslEDMTHoIyQbaOb/s1600/8909.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjYjL33m15wTWh_ojShAhUUqSvbT4aP-QWznEduhp8rhFE1CP-Szn0FqXYbgCAh2nYQqmOHT1hoLFKORYXgqCH9siJhEgc11GxbJnzZSzBU356wFgHKOs9uUuXy_K7SslEDMTHoIyQbaOb/s400/8909.jpg" width="261" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man’s and yet as mortal as his own.” Thus begins one of the most terrifying and morally prescient science fiction novels ever penned. Beginning with a series of strange flashes in the distant night sky, the Martian attack initially causes little concern on Earth. Then the destruction erupts—ten massive aliens roam England and destroy with heat rays everything in their path. Very soon humankind finds itself on the brink of extinction. H. G. Wells raises questions of mortality, man’s place in nature, and the evil lurking in the technological future—questions that remain urgently relevant in the twenty-first century.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;">Review:</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;">I'm not entirely sure how I feel about War of the Worlds, mainly because I'm conflicted. Overall, I feel like Wells writing style and devices should give him five star ratings and on the other hand I just feel like while War of the Worlds is relatively short, it was a little too long.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;">Firstly, I want to say that coming into this I honestly expected it to be nothing like the movie. I really did, so I was relatively surprised at the amount of action Wells wrote in. However after a certain point the storyline and action derailed (I'm talking about the chapters in the brother's POV) and seemed to drag.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;">That's my only complaint.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;">The rest I'm absolutely astonished about Wells's writing style and just how ahead of his time he really seemed to be, writing about martians in a Victorian era is extremely unusual. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;">His writing... I'll say that his style is extremely refreshing. While he overuses on run-on sentences, which seems to be almost the writing style for most classics, he captivated me with his voice which is something most classics fail to do. His technique of switching POV's was seemless even though he's writing in a biography first person format. Despite the fact that I felt this slightly derailed the book from the plot, I can't help but admire the risk he took when writing those chapters.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;">While I wasn't as entertained as I thought I would be, Wells is definitely a writer I'll venture back to. His style, voice, and technique are unique and I loved them! Definitely a recommended read, although don't come in expecting the movie and a lot of dialogue. There's practically none.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;">Rating: 3 stars</span></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05313479884291199749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7228920291427837180.post-37396590252662933532013-04-01T21:00:00.003+09:302013-04-01T21:01:15.605+09:30Review: With All My Soul by Rachel Vincent<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;">After spending the last year undead, Kaylee Cavanaugh has had enough of the paranormal creatures who have plagued her ever since she came into her banshee powers. Now she's ready to take her school back from the evil hellions, once and forever.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;">To protect her friends, Kaylee will need to find a way to turn the living incarnations of Avarice, Envy and Vanity against one another.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;">Yet when one more person close to her is taken, Kaylee realises she can't save everyone she loves without making some powerful sacrifices...</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Review:</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;">First off, I just want to explain how frustrated I am with Australian publishers for switching from the American to the UK covers for the seventh book, which was my favourite of the US book covers even though I overall thought the UK ones were better.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;">There. Now that that's off my chest...</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;">It is always so hard to say goodbye. I absolutely love the Soul Screamer world, it's so unique and all the characters are extremely fleshed out within the seventh novels, although Kaylee is once again the reason why this series has never gotten more than 4 stars with the exception of If I Die.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;">Kaylee's martry attitude is back in full force and I do mean full force. The lengths and hypocrisy Kaylee goes to in this book is amazingly shocking. While I do appreciate her bravery, it's just so frustrating for her to turn into a hypocrite while she saves the world for a seventh time.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;">There were a few subplots that I didn't particularly enjoyed and were once again hypocrisy. The only spoiler I can give for that subplot is that it is a incubus sub-plot with consequences from Before I Wake still needing to be dealt with.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;">There really is very little with what I can say about these books without spoilers other than that it is a great series, and while I don't particularly like how quickly everything was wrapped up (I'm talking about the mental state of some characters), it is a great series. If anything, Tod is definitely worth reading it for.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Rating: 4 stars</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Series: Soul Screamers #7 (final)</span></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05313479884291199749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7228920291427837180.post-12153148768684525222013-03-31T20:13:00.001+09:302013-04-01T20:58:47.876+09:30Review: Personal Demons by Lisa Desrochers<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1vTAkxFzAuE4nVbdQlqoO70WYSxX6bn0fHme6D-8QsKYrC8K1nHqCdMyWqJrfP2XEKS7qagAfcPzS4k_PYJXlLSE26LuUL6tc6dV3kPPYXVoiFQMvFcyZjSfNaDB-YWP3kFht5mDYgvq6/s1600/7823600.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1vTAkxFzAuE4nVbdQlqoO70WYSxX6bn0fHme6D-8QsKYrC8K1nHqCdMyWqJrfP2XEKS7qagAfcPzS4k_PYJXlLSE26LuUL6tc6dV3kPPYXVoiFQMvFcyZjSfNaDB-YWP3kFht5mDYgvq6/s400/7823600.jpg" width="267" /></a></div>
<a href="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1317792296l/7823600.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"></span></a><a href="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1317792296l/7823600.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></a><a href="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1317792296l/7823600.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></a><a href="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1317792296l/7823600.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"></span></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;">Frannie Cavanaugh is a good Catholic girl with a bit of a wicked streak. She has spent years keeping everyone at a distance---even her closest friends---and it seems as if her senior year is going to be more of the same . . . until Luc Cain enrolls in her class. No one knows where he came from, but Frannie can’t seem to stay away from him. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;">What she doesn’t know is that Luc is on a mission. He’s been sent from Hell itself to claim Frannie’s soul. It should be easy---all he has to do is get her to sin, and Luc is as tempting as they come. Frannie doesn’t stand a chance. But he has to work fast, because if the infernals are after her, the celestials can’t be far behind. And sure enough, it’s not long before the angel Gabriel shows up, willing to do anything to keep Luc from getting what he came for. It isn’t long before they find themselves fighting for more than just Frannie’s soul.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;">But if Luc fails, there will be Hell to pay . . . for all of them.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;">Review:</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;">I have been wanting to read this series for a very long time. It sounds amazing and despite the half-hearted reviews, some people absolutely rave about it getting better.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;">However, while I did enjoy Personal Demons, there were a few problems.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;">#1) Dual POV's.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;">I have no problem with multiple POV, but in Personal Demons you switch back for forth between Luc and Frannie multiple times in one chapter. In fact, the two POV changed will occur in the exact same scene! It reads like a Fanfiction at that point and it got really confusing and I constantly had to flick back to remember who's POV I was in because neither of them have different voices.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;">#2) The fawning.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;">In the beginning, the fawning over Frannie between Gabe and Luc was interesting because they used their heaven and hell influence over her so they could "tag" her for either side. However, once Frannie knew about everything, they </span><em style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;">still</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;"> fawned over her. And she completely loved going back and forth between them!</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;">#3) Insta love.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;">I've spoken about this in many YA reviews, but just no. The romance here was developed way too quickly and it could have been developed over the trilogy. I think that would have been best.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;">Lastly, her name. I'm sorry. But I strongly dislike the name Frannie. I would pick a random random name and go by that instead. Because Francis is her middle name because all of her sisters, her included, are named Mary.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;">...</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;">Yeah.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;">Despite these few issues, Personal Demons was a quick and steamy read. I'm not sure whether I'd continue with the series but it didn't make me want to bash it over the head.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;">Rating: 3.5 stars</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;">Series: Personal Demons #1</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05313479884291199749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7228920291427837180.post-13489650769132196162013-03-28T17:21:00.001+09:302013-03-28T17:21:21.827+09:3050 Things To Make Your Blog More Professional<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9N1dFDz2BA38Jloh9hEOG95gTyAM1UyCSl7uNr6iIgON-FGfzA1c9cvhU-VEq63PKPZRvKgoS4qkLPuIxfZD86tw0UKabj8I1RH5wK98FZAivEZGS90USh0dONAlcpJaBgKoRNciaAZzJ/s1600/50things....jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9N1dFDz2BA38Jloh9hEOG95gTyAM1UyCSl7uNr6iIgON-FGfzA1c9cvhU-VEq63PKPZRvKgoS4qkLPuIxfZD86tw0UKabj8I1RH5wK98FZAivEZGS90USh0dONAlcpJaBgKoRNciaAZzJ/s320/50things....jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>1. Colour Scheme</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Colour schemes are so important. They're one of the main things you notice on a blog, the other being the header which should represent your colours. Pick a few (4 is probably the best) colours that compliment each other and alternate between them. If you're unsure about what colours to use, find a colour wheel and use the two colours beside one of the primary colours and the colour directly opposite.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>2. Customize Your Header</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Header's don't have to be complicated looking things. In fact, all you have to do is save a white rectangular background (the width of your blog preferably) from Paint as your template, upload it to an editing site with fonts with <a href="http://www.picmonkey.com/">PicMonkey</a> and away you go. When uploading, go to Dashboard >> Layout >> Click on Header and upload your image choosing the "instead of title and description button" and click Done.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>3. Simplicity is best</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">- Backgrounds: Sometimes, a little colourful background doesn't hurt. If you want something colourful make sure it isn't too bright on the eyes and have the background of the writing columns of your blog white. This makes the posts stand out (which is what you want really) as it creates contrast.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">- <b>Fonts</b>: This is a personal pet peeve and I'm sure I'm not the only one. Keep the font of your blog posts simple with the basic fonts like Times, Georgia and Arial. This makes it easier for the readers. Big cursive fonts in bright colours against a white background can be off putting. If you feel like you need to have some cursive, add it in the header or blog titles.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>6. Get rid of those widgets!</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Widgets can make a blog look crowded and unorganised. You don't need a billion and one widget countdowns. They also make the load up a lot slower. Sometimes, if you have too much then and it takes too long you'll lose readers for that simple fact.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>7. Add Social Media Icons</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">This ties in with #6, but an easy way to save up space, download time, and look good is social media icons. I have a drafted blog post for how to do this which I'll link once it's posted, but these icons are brilliants as they're small, link directly to you (so you don't have to have a large twitter widget displaying your last 5 tweets or an Instagram slideshow) and save up space!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>8. Get Rid Of That Navbar!</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The Navbar is that little bar on the top of your screen, in between your header and url. I also have a tutorial for that if you're <a href="http://elle-osophy.blogspot.com.au/2013/03/tutorial-how-to-remove-your-navbar.html">not quite sure how to do it</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>9. Grammar</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Oh, man. This is one of my biggest pet peeves. Bad grammar. Some small mistakes are definitely alright, and sometimes aren't even noticed, but those big misspellings? Yeah, they're noticed. It looks lazy because even as I type this and a word is wrong, Blogger lets me know.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>10. Download A Template</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">If you don't want the bustle and hussle of customizing your own template on Blogger, simply download one like I have! This is also pretty good if you don't know HTML but you want more than what the free templates offer. There's thousands of sites that come up in Google search engines when you type in "free blogger templates".</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>11. Use Your Own Images</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">I'm still in the process of transferring everything over to the new design, so don't think this is hypocritical of me. But having your own images when you participate in a meme or have a particular blog post (like the picture title above) that matches up with your template and colour scheme just screams that you're pulled together. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>12. Be Consistent</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Notice how I've capitalised the first letter of all my dot points and not every second or third dot point? This may seem small, but people will notice if you're not consistent. The same goes for your blog titles. Do you do a specific meme or do you post reviews? Don't change from "Review: Insert Title" to "Title- A Review" the next week. Readers will scroll through your archives look for key words, like the first word of a blog post being "Review:___". </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>13. Custom Domains</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">If you are serious about blogging in the long run or just want that extra oomph for your blog, definitely consider a custom domain. They boost ratings in search engines (giving your blog better access to readers) and on Blogger it's only $10(USD) for an entire year! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>14. Use Your Pages Wisely</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">This entirely depends on the nature of your blogs, but pages can be extremely effective when use correctly. If you're running a blog that mainly focuses on review (much like mine) have a reviews bar with tabs underneath to guide readers to where they should be.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">- <b>FAQ</b>: If your blog is extremely popular it's probably worth setting up a FAQ page. Slushing through questions that you've answered over and over can be both annoying and tiresome. Setting up a Frequently Asked Questions page saves you from repeating yourself and saves readers the time by finding exactly what they need.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">- <b>Policies</b>: If you run a reviewing site, policy pages are a must. This is where you list the important stuff like what you do on the blog, what you do and don't accept, and sometimes blog statistics. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>17. Add a Favicon</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">What's a favicon? It's that little picture you see in the url bar before the url starts. All you need is a square picture less than 100KB. Go to Dashboard >> Layout >> and in the top left of your blue layout is the Favicon gadget. Upload the image and if it's accepted you're off!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>18. Remove CAPTCHA</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Captcha stands for "</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;">C</b><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;">ompleted </span><b style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;">A</b><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;">utomated </span><b style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;">P</b><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;">ublic </span><b style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;">T</b><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;">uring test to tell </span><b style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;">C</b><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;">omputers and </span><b style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;">H</b><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;">umans </span><b style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;">A</b><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;">part" and it's the box where you have to type out numbers and letters. My advice? Remove it. If commenting is made difficult, you're less likely to actually get comments. From my experience, I haven't noticed an increase in spam. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>19. Have All Pictures the Same Size</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">If you have a feature or you're a photography blog have them all the same size. The uniform size of all the photos looks organised, well presented, and well... uniformed. Why else would schools make students wear uniforms?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>20. Subscribe Links</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">If you run a newsletter or you particularly want subscribers, put those widgets at the top of the sidebar. Why? Because the top corners are where we first look. I think it's the top right first, but I'm not entirely sure. Humans don't really take in all the middle stuff until later, but if the first thing they notice is how to subscribe that's not a bad thing, right?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>21. Contact Page</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">I should have included this earlier, but oh well. If you go to professional sites, they all have a well visible contact page. Why? Because it generates business. People don't like hassle and having to find things. If you lay a "Contact Page" at the very top then you make life easier for everyone.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>22. Search</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Having a search tool is amazing. When I go to a particular blog to find something specific, this saves me hours of scrolling through to find it. Include it, your readers will thank you for it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>23. Related Posts/LinkedIn Plug In</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Chances are that if you're familiar with the blogging world you've seen this... And then clicked on one of the advertised pages. Yes, this definitely works. If you don't have a template that includes this or you're using the Blogger templates, I definitely recommend LinkedIn.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>24. Limit Advertisements</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">If you have advertisements, don't overcrowd your blog. The most professional looking blogs are simplistic. Simplicity is key people. Too many advertisements--especially if they're irrelevant to your blog--can be off putting.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">- <b>Placement</b>: Placing is everything if you want to generate some extra cash through your blog. I recommend starting <a href="http://christianpf.com/how-to-make-money-with-a-blog/">here</a> for a basic run down and if you're interested research further. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>26. Logo</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Logos are your blogs identity when someone isn't actually on your blog. You'll see a lot of people have their logos with html links saying "grab my button/logo!". Create one and do "swaps" with some people. To minimise clutter I would recommend putting all the banners in a slideshow.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>27. Google Apps (Customised Email Addresses)</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Again, if you're serious about blogging, perhaps a custom email address is something you would like. I've always admired them, but never thought it necessary for me personally, but click <a href="http://www.google.com/enterprise/apps/business/">here</a> to get started.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>28. Feature Slideshow Posts</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">I have no idea what the official title for this style is, but I'll link you <a href="http://btemplates.com/2011/blogger-template-spate/demo/">here</a> to what it looks like. These are great ways to advertise certain posts that you want readers to gravitate towards. I absolutely love these and have always wanted one on my blog. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>29. Acting Professional Out and About</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">You may not know it, but people notice immaturity. If people go from following your blog to your social media sites (twitter, facebook, etc) then you have to act professional there too. Anything linked to your blog, you should consider as your blog. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>30. Honesty Is the Best Policy</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Yes, this is again more about mannerism, but everything you do as the creator of your blog reflects you and your blog. I'm using honest as a very vague word, but essential it means be honest about what you write. If you're writing a review of a product tell reader's your honest opinion, even if that product was given to you for reviewing purposes. Readers will appreciate your honest over a product and so do the companies. They want to improve their products and that can only be achieved with honesty.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>31. Acknowledge Sources</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Plagiarism is a big no-no in every blogging community and you will be shocked by how quickly people will pounce on you for doing it. Bloggers notice things, people. If somebody inspired a post, acknowledge it with a sentence with a link to that person. It's only polite and professional.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>32. Have a Consistent Schedule</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">This is important because readers are subscribing for something to read, so ideally you should be posting. It's not necessary to post everyday, but you should be consistent.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">- <b>Plan Ahead</b>: I plan the core of all my posts a month in advance. That means by the end of February, I have the majority of my core posts for March already to go. Somedays I have absolutely no motivation to blog and then I remember that I already have blog posts ready to go for these exact reasons. It's a lifesaver.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">- <b>Blogger Draft</b>: I don't know if many people know this, but blogger actually has a tool that allows you to write and prepare posts and have it published at a scheduled time. It's called Blogger In Draft. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>35. Stick to a Template</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">I'm absolutely horrible at this, but I do see its advantages so hear me out. Your blogger button and your image can be successfully built around the design of your template and the colour scheme you choose. This is why I would recommend finding one you absolutely love and stick to it for as long as you can.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>36. Avatar Image</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">A lot of the time, you'll recognise someone's avatar image before you even look at their name. That's why it's important to have an avatar and spread that out across your social media sites. If you change one, change them all that way you're consistent and people won't mistake you for an impersonator. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>37. Mobile Friendly</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">These days almost everything is done on our smartphones. That's why it's totally important for you to make sure you make sure your blog has a mobile friendly format and that it reads well. To check go to Dashboard >> Template and next to the "Live on Blog" image is Mobile. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>38. YouTube</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">YouTube is being used by everyone and everywhere. It's a great way to increase traffic, subscribers, and sometimes hearing someone's voice is so much easier than reading a blob of writing. A lot of the time when I'm watching YouTube I'm really just listening to their voice and scrolling through other sites.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>39. Signature</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">These isn't just for fourms, folks. Nope. Incorporate a signature to the end of your blog posts where you can include a small bio and some links just like that science guy who has a PhD. See what I mean?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>40. No Music</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">How many times have you jumped when you've landed on a site and there's music suddenly blasting from your speakers? For all our eardrums, no automatic music or advertisements.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>41. Educate Your Readers</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">There's nothing really more professional then sharing your advice. Readers love learning things. If it's something they can incorporate into their daily blogging lives then I'd recommend sharing. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>42. Use Labels Sparingly</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Like most blogging things, labels can be extremely beneficial to any blog. I'd recommend only using broad labels. There's no need to have a label for every kind of animal like "dog", "cat", "rat" if you only post under it once. Instead, use a broader label like "animal". If you think a label is going to be used often, then be specific. I personally have a label for each rating I give my reviews--but that's an integral part of my blog and is used often.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">- <b>List Labels</b>: Under your label gadget in the "layout" section of your blog, you can customise your labels into multiple lists. If you have quite a few, I'd recommend diving them into topics.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />For exmaple, I had three topics. One was "Reviews" where I included my ratings (1-5 stars) and my broad labels. Then I had a topic for "Memes" where I had my weekly posts and lastly an "Ellen's Interest" topic where I included large labels about things outside of my reading/blogging love. I just think this is a great organisation system. It may not be for you, but I hope it helps!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>44. Use Jump Break/Read More</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Do you ever see that "read more" button on a blog post where it only shows a paragraph or two before it goes to the next post and wonder where that is? It's more simply than you think. In the tool bar where you write your Blogger posts and inbetween the "Insert a Video" and "Alignment" icon is an icon called "Jump Break". Simply click that where you want the "Read More" button to go and you're on your way. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">I love jump breaks because they're a great way to make bigger blog posts take up less space and you can show more blog posts on the one page using this method.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>45. Contact Box</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">If you want to take contacting you one step further and easier, include a contact box. These are used often when businesses want feedback on their website, especially if it's new or getting a re-design. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>46. Welcome Page</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">A welcome page is pretty self-explanatory, but basically it's the greeting page instead of the actual blog. Here you can include a small bio, tell people about the blog and make a good first impression. It's like the welcome mat on your front porch, really.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>47. Guest Posts</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">I remember when I first started blogging and seeing blogs have exclusive interviews and guest posts. When I actually got into blogging, I realised that the people who interviews were those who had the followers and the correct mannerism. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>48. No Fancy Cursors </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Oh, man. There are so many websites that I come across that have fancy cursors with glitter dripping from them and all over the screen when you move it. Yeah, it looks great in theory, but in reality it creates lag and is just irritating to some people.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>49. Have Fun!</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Yes, this is one of my items. People say that winners are those who have found what they love and turned it into a career. Whether you want blogging to be a profession or a hobby, you should have fun with it. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>50. Be Unique</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">There are a billion and one (plus a few more) blogs and websites out there. You want to stand out for the right reasons. Have quality, not quantity and be yourself. People will come back if they've enjoyed your posts. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05313479884291199749noreply@blogger.com0