I wondered who the next Rider is, and these are them:
Angela (my favourite character. I would love for her to be the Rider. Also, it is possible that she is the 'love from noble birth' she herself foretold: I am 99% certain that it is Arya, but one can hope!)
Arya
Nasuada
A dwarf or a werecat
One of the two elven children.
I'm still undecided whether to wait for Christmas or buy it... if the wait gets too drastic I might have to get it!
I bought it.
It did really well to conclude the fantasy cycle. However, there are a few things that I would have done to it:
One: It would have been nice to have an epilogue, seeing as the cycle started with a prologue
Two: 'A Fitting Epitah' onwards would have made an excellent novella. 'Heir to the Empire' would have made the perfect epilogue.
Three: The novella could have come out around Christmas time and have Firnen on the front, whilst Inheritance could have had Shruikan. It would've been nice to see the poor dragon coat a book sleeve.
Sunday, 20 November 2011
Wednesday, 2 November 2011
Halloween
My little brother loves Halloween, which is the Pagan Samhain, both a harvest festival and the time of year when the barrier between our world and the spirit world.
Then came Christianity.
Halloween is more correctly 'Hallowe'en' which is short for 'Hallow's Evening', a Hallow being a Saint. To show that Christianity had officially eradicated the polytheist Paganism, their saints were shown to protect the people from the 'spirits'.
Thus Samhain was Christianised.
Then came Christianity.
Halloween is more correctly 'Hallowe'en' which is short for 'Hallow's Evening', a Hallow being a Saint. To show that Christianity had officially eradicated the polytheist Paganism, their saints were shown to protect the people from the 'spirits'.
Thus Samhain was Christianised.
Saturday, 29 October 2011
The Philosophy of Winter Nearing
Well, time comes around and so does the realisation that I've neglected to update my blog. Winter is nearing and hopefully light snow will fall. Then Christmas! Love Christmas. But October the 29th to write about first.
I want to share a book that I'd started a few days ago, by Jostein Gaarder called 'Sophie's World'. It is a book on philosophy, but done in a way that isn't text bookish. The centuries of philosophy are integrated into the story so one can read, learn and enjoy all at the same time.
Yesterday was productive.
I watched The Chronicles of Narnia and the Dawn Treader. It was the best film out of the lot. I suppose that may be because Peter wasn't in it that much and Peter really annoyed me as a character.
Also, I was given 'Too Far' by Rich Shapero. The blurb sounds interesting, but I can't read it yet. I've borrowed Sophie's World, so that needs to be read soon. I'm also reading 'Eldest' in preparation for Inheritance on the 8th of November [:)] and 'Lorna Doone', and I think a forth book may be going 'Too Far'.
One more piece of news. On the university front, I've decided that the way forward is a Philosophy and Religious Studies course.
In the beginning I was going to do a Genetics Degree, but everyone has only recently decided that they want their genetical students to have at least AS in Chemistry, which I don't do. This really hacked me off because, not only has my two-year ambition been shattered, but all people that I know that have done a genetical degree have said that the chemistry involved is easier that GCSE Chemistry!
So I can't do anything animal-based at uni; that leaves me with Religious Studies. I know that there are other biology degrees at uni, but I only like the evolution/genetics parts of biology and I hate everything else in it.
Philosophy and Religious Studies is the answer because I love everything incorporated within it.
I want to share a book that I'd started a few days ago, by Jostein Gaarder called 'Sophie's World'. It is a book on philosophy, but done in a way that isn't text bookish. The centuries of philosophy are integrated into the story so one can read, learn and enjoy all at the same time.
Yesterday was productive.
I watched The Chronicles of Narnia and the Dawn Treader. It was the best film out of the lot. I suppose that may be because Peter wasn't in it that much and Peter really annoyed me as a character.
Also, I was given 'Too Far' by Rich Shapero. The blurb sounds interesting, but I can't read it yet. I've borrowed Sophie's World, so that needs to be read soon. I'm also reading 'Eldest' in preparation for Inheritance on the 8th of November [:)] and 'Lorna Doone', and I think a forth book may be going 'Too Far'.
One more piece of news. On the university front, I've decided that the way forward is a Philosophy and Religious Studies course.
In the beginning I was going to do a Genetics Degree, but everyone has only recently decided that they want their genetical students to have at least AS in Chemistry, which I don't do. This really hacked me off because, not only has my two-year ambition been shattered, but all people that I know that have done a genetical degree have said that the chemistry involved is easier that GCSE Chemistry!
So I can't do anything animal-based at uni; that leaves me with Religious Studies. I know that there are other biology degrees at uni, but I only like the evolution/genetics parts of biology and I hate everything else in it.
Philosophy and Religious Studies is the answer because I love everything incorporated within it.
Saturday, 17 September 2011
Ice-cream and Camping
It seems ages ago now, going camping. Going to a new school with new people is never a short business. We went to lots of fantastic places, so I've narrowed it down to my top three. Before that, though, you need to her about the ice-cream on the Isle of Wight.
The ice-cream was labeled as 'white chocolate ice-cream with chocolate-coated honeycombs'. In actual fact, it was white chocolate ice-cream with small pieces of Crunchie in it.
So my top three:
Third was Beaulieu.
It was... interesting. Cars, bikes, yeah. Car geeks, bike geeks, young geeks, old geeks, yeah. Did I have any clue to what was going on?
Nope.
All I understood was the Top Gear Exhibition, the blue BUBBLE car, the flying car in Harry Potter, the Trotters' Reliant and Mr. Bean's Mini. From the rear-view mirror, Teddy was swinging so unhappily. Poor Teddy.
There were gardens and a manor house, to, which were much more fun than mere vehicles. For those two things I give Beaulieu its rating.
Second was Marwell.
Easily the best animal place in existence. Just go visit it.
First was Arundel.
Town, castle and gardens.
In all honesty, the town was like any other touristy place, nice and simple. Simple accept for the tea room. The tea room that I cannot remember the name for! The atmosphere was lovely, the food was lovely, the themes, the cutlery, the china, the tea pot, the tea cups... lovely and content.
The castle was HUGE! We got the best ticket, so we could go mostly everywhere, and it was worth it. No one was allowed to take photos, which was a shame because there was so much that was so good. Good to dead: the amount of stuffed antelope heads on the wall was very much disturbing. The animals were beautiful, but where's the appeal of having their heads on a wall? It's one of the more weird things that humans have done over the years.
The gardens were beautiful, and a long walk. Once one has been to Arundel's gardens, one will frown at all others.
The ice-cream was labeled as 'white chocolate ice-cream with chocolate-coated honeycombs'. In actual fact, it was white chocolate ice-cream with small pieces of Crunchie in it.
So my top three:
Third was Beaulieu.
It was... interesting. Cars, bikes, yeah. Car geeks, bike geeks, young geeks, old geeks, yeah. Did I have any clue to what was going on?
Nope.
All I understood was the Top Gear Exhibition, the blue BUBBLE car, the flying car in Harry Potter, the Trotters' Reliant and Mr. Bean's Mini. From the rear-view mirror, Teddy was swinging so unhappily. Poor Teddy.
There were gardens and a manor house, to, which were much more fun than mere vehicles. For those two things I give Beaulieu its rating.
Second was Marwell.
Easily the best animal place in existence. Just go visit it.
First was Arundel.
Town, castle and gardens.
In all honesty, the town was like any other touristy place, nice and simple. Simple accept for the tea room. The tea room that I cannot remember the name for! The atmosphere was lovely, the food was lovely, the themes, the cutlery, the china, the tea pot, the tea cups... lovely and content.
The castle was HUGE! We got the best ticket, so we could go mostly everywhere, and it was worth it. No one was allowed to take photos, which was a shame because there was so much that was so good. Good to dead: the amount of stuffed antelope heads on the wall was very much disturbing. The animals were beautiful, but where's the appeal of having their heads on a wall? It's one of the more weird things that humans have done over the years.
The gardens were beautiful, and a long walk. Once one has been to Arundel's gardens, one will frown at all others.
Friday, 9 September 2011
Results!
As promised, here are the results for my GCSE exams:
B in Chemistry, Physics and Citizenship
A in History, Religious Education both short and long, Maths, Biology and English Language
A* in English Literature.
With B being the grade I was predicted for everything, I think I did quite well!
B in Chemistry, Physics and Citizenship
A in History, Religious Education both short and long, Maths, Biology and English Language
A* in English Literature.
With B being the grade I was predicted for everything, I think I did quite well!
Friday, 29 July 2011
Critique: Harry Potter 8
Yesterday was a success! Two friends and I went to see the eighth Harry Potter film. Quite a sentimental event for me. The Harry Potter films began when I met the majority of people I know to this day; now they end when we all part ways to different sixth forms and the like.
As you may have gathered, I love to read, although I started reading Harry Potter quite late. After the fifth film, I read the first book. I enjoyed it, but I didn't think about the others too much until two years ago when I went to holiday to Scotland. It would have been a pain to bring six books with me, so I got the audio instead. Stephen Fry was a good reader and I enjoyed them, too. Audio books aren't the same, so after Scotland I sought the books and read four to seven because no one had two or three.
For all those interested, here, in dual positions, are the Books and Films in the order of favouritism.
First Place: .........One, Seven.......................................................Five, Eight.............
Second Place: .....Three, Six, Five............................................Four, Six, Seven........
Third Place: .......Two, Four.........................................................One, Two, Three.....
NOW THE REVIEW:
Utterly amazing. I sat down with my bag of Magic Stars and the meaningful music began.Anticipation, at the max. The footage started, and it was a good choice. They had the Voldemort ending from the last film and made it the beginning of this film. The flash of white was bigger, and in this case that made it better.
The way they constructed this film from the book, the choices of what was kept, changed or left out, was sheer brilliance.
However, I hold strong to the belief that the two films should have been one long one. No part is boring. I can prove this with my friends. One of the ones that came with us hates 'magical humbo jumbo' but she was transfixed. She said she wanted to see more!
As always, whilst excusing my use of character names, five of the characters really stood out: Le Strange, Snape, Luna Lovegood, McGonagall and Mrs. Weasley. All are based on superb, flawless acting, and the last two are on events, too.
I loved that Mrs. Weasley got some fighting action, but I was sad to see Le Strange go: she does the lunatic role well.
McGonagall having a lot of screen time was a good decision because as an actress, she is one of the best and she deserves all the screen time she got and more. Doing her 'always wanted' spell and fighting Snape were very entertaining.
Things that tickled me:
McGonagall's 'always wanted' spell
Seamus getting to blow things up
Dumbledore telling Harry 'well of course its inside your head'.
Nineteen Years Later. Using the music from the first film was a great decision.
But herein lies my, I'm quite proud to say, only complaint: Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny. What are they wearing? The year of killing Voldemort is 1997, add nineteen is 2016. People would not wear those clothes in 2016! Or have their hair like that. The only thing realistic was the bear bellies on the two men!
Herein closes my only complaint.
The rating: *****. I don't think there's much more to say.
As you may have gathered, I love to read, although I started reading Harry Potter quite late. After the fifth film, I read the first book. I enjoyed it, but I didn't think about the others too much until two years ago when I went to holiday to Scotland. It would have been a pain to bring six books with me, so I got the audio instead. Stephen Fry was a good reader and I enjoyed them, too. Audio books aren't the same, so after Scotland I sought the books and read four to seven because no one had two or three.
For all those interested, here, in dual positions, are the Books and Films in the order of favouritism.
First Place: .........One, Seven.......................................................Five, Eight.............
Second Place: .....Three, Six, Five............................................Four, Six, Seven........
Third Place: .......Two, Four.........................................................One, Two, Three.....
NOW THE REVIEW:
Utterly amazing. I sat down with my bag of Magic Stars and the meaningful music began.Anticipation, at the max. The footage started, and it was a good choice. They had the Voldemort ending from the last film and made it the beginning of this film. The flash of white was bigger, and in this case that made it better.
The way they constructed this film from the book, the choices of what was kept, changed or left out, was sheer brilliance.
However, I hold strong to the belief that the two films should have been one long one. No part is boring. I can prove this with my friends. One of the ones that came with us hates 'magical humbo jumbo' but she was transfixed. She said she wanted to see more!
As always, whilst excusing my use of character names, five of the characters really stood out: Le Strange, Snape, Luna Lovegood, McGonagall and Mrs. Weasley. All are based on superb, flawless acting, and the last two are on events, too.
I loved that Mrs. Weasley got some fighting action, but I was sad to see Le Strange go: she does the lunatic role well.
McGonagall having a lot of screen time was a good decision because as an actress, she is one of the best and she deserves all the screen time she got and more. Doing her 'always wanted' spell and fighting Snape were very entertaining.
Things that tickled me:
McGonagall's 'always wanted' spell
Seamus getting to blow things up
Dumbledore telling Harry 'well of course its inside your head'.
Nineteen Years Later. Using the music from the first film was a great decision.
But herein lies my, I'm quite proud to say, only complaint: Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny. What are they wearing? The year of killing Voldemort is 1997, add nineteen is 2016. People would not wear those clothes in 2016! Or have their hair like that. The only thing realistic was the bear bellies on the two men!
Herein closes my only complaint.
The rating: *****. I don't think there's much more to say.
Friday, 15 July 2011
Critique: Harry Potter 7 (film)
Yesterday, I watched Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part One. It's taken forever to get hold of the DVD, but my friend felt sorry for me because another one is taking me to see Part Two on Sunday. Hopefully.
I thought that it was very good, like they always are. But they do do too much of the not-playing-music thing. If it was done less, the running through the woods scene would have been amazing; really fast paced music like the main menu on the DVD would have bee perfect instead of no music.
Action was fighting for existence in the film, although that isn't a bad thing. The amount of action in each film has been building and building, so that, wrongly, many feel like HP7 doesn't compare to the others. The last film probably has lots of action in it, so the lack in HP7 will just make the action in the last one seem even bigger and better. Clever tactic, Harry Potter People!
I really liked what they did at the beginning with the three characters doing their own little things. The Story of the Three Brother's cartoony bit was utterly brilliant. The Dursley's not getting more film time was disappointing, but it wouldn't have been anything that moved the story along so no wonder their film time was limited.
The last five minutes or so felt very unwanted as if the editors were fed up by that point but not fed up enough to stop it being brilliant. It is over two hours long so I don't really blame them, but they'll make it up in the eight film! If they don't I know a few people who might cry...
So star rating? **** and a half. The extra star would have been there if all of my little moans were resolved. A shame, really, because the acting was flawless. I especially liked the person who played Bathilda, that was very good. ***** for her!
I thought that it was very good, like they always are. But they do do too much of the not-playing-music thing. If it was done less, the running through the woods scene would have been amazing; really fast paced music like the main menu on the DVD would have bee perfect instead of no music.
Action was fighting for existence in the film, although that isn't a bad thing. The amount of action in each film has been building and building, so that, wrongly, many feel like HP7 doesn't compare to the others. The last film probably has lots of action in it, so the lack in HP7 will just make the action in the last one seem even bigger and better. Clever tactic, Harry Potter People!
I really liked what they did at the beginning with the three characters doing their own little things. The Story of the Three Brother's cartoony bit was utterly brilliant. The Dursley's not getting more film time was disappointing, but it wouldn't have been anything that moved the story along so no wonder their film time was limited.
The last five minutes or so felt very unwanted as if the editors were fed up by that point but not fed up enough to stop it being brilliant. It is over two hours long so I don't really blame them, but they'll make it up in the eight film! If they don't I know a few people who might cry...
So star rating? **** and a half. The extra star would have been there if all of my little moans were resolved. A shame, really, because the acting was flawless. I especially liked the person who played Bathilda, that was very good. ***** for her!
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