Something I love

is when there's a book, and it's great (maybe even amazing), but then you read something else and finally get one of the parallels that were totally invisible before.

So we're reading Frankenstein in my english class and I'm finally getting more out of Storm Thief. I loved the book before, but now it's like there's a whole 'nother level that I never even noticed. I was spacing out about it through the entire class just thinking "that's so COOL". And I finally read the Rime of the Ancient Mariner and understand the significance of the Vago's seagull necklace.

Also, Frankenstein is pretty fantastic. I freakin' love British lit.

~Medeia

And the bookmoviefail CONTINUES

Oh you thought it was over. That we wouldn't get together again and watch yet ANOTHER horribleawful book movie. Well you were wrong. *evil/insane laughter ensues* What is it this time? The Golden Compass!!

So first off, daemons. I never realized just how many animals would be terribly awkward to have as a daemon. Most animals actually. Having a flamingo? Or a giraffe? Or a spider?! What if someone stepped on it? That would be the WORST. Imagine it, people would just be dying all over the place because they steppped on an ant or something that was someone's daemon. And don't they find it weird that it's all "OHMYGOD that boy doesn't have a daemon!!" but in every scene with the witches, you don't see a single one and it's totally normal.

Also, we noticed that there was a slight imbalance in the budget for this movie. They spent a ton on the gorgeous three-second scenery shots but then remembered that they had to pay for actors... enter Dakota Blue Richards. And I love how they completely screwed up the ending. Everything was shuffled around so I kept getting confused. And then at the end Roger definitely isn't dead and they fly off into the sunset. *headdesk*

Off to watch the Neverending Story 2 (which I believe Aella will post about on her blog soon),

Medeia

PS My favorite part from the book actually made it into the movie. I was incredibly happy.

Epic bookmoviefailcakes

Scary, isn't it?

I stayed at Aella's for New Year's Eve... and New Year's Day... and most of the day after that, actually... aanyways, on January 1st, 2009 (still getting used to the whole '09 thing):

Me: *is on computer... blogging or something*
Aella: "Oooh, I know what we should do!" *pulls out Stormbreaker DVD*
Me: "Isn't that....as in...--"
Aella: "The Alex Rider series, yes"
Me: "Hmmm..." *looks at cover...* "Okay"
[note: Alex Pettyfer is on the cover.]

Unsurprisingly, there were some (well, quite a few) moments where Aella and I just had to say, with puzzled expressions, "What?" and pause and rewind to see it again. We also did it because some of those fight scenes look incredibly funny (and awkward) backwards.

Some of those moments:

• Ian Rider's car (super spy BMW) has a license plate with R1D3R on it. Yeah sure, Agent 00Fail, I'm sure no one will notice that it's your last name.
• Alex Rider teleporting back to get his bike and then chasing down a creepy white van. During the chase, every cliche thing you can do with a bike (like sliding under things all dramatic-like) happens. And then once he gets to the junkyard where they've taken his uncle's things (including his BMW) he crouches behind his bike as though it's going to hide him from the scary junkyard workers as he follows the van.
• The junkyard workers ambush him and they're all scary men with shaved heads wiping old car parts with rags. Every single one.
  
• Alan Blunt (see above picture) randomly, suddenly, and disturbingly popping up when you least expect it and making weird dramatic hand gestures.
• Alex is inside the Stormbreaker computer (when they don't know he's a secret agent or anything, mind you) and strikes up a random conversation with a scary Swedish woman. "My father was murdered, and I'm going to find out who killed him" She responds, "Not today you won't."
  

And this isn't even all of it. If you ever have nothing to do and just want to laugh at the awfulness of a movie, watch Stormbreaker. It just takes it past awful and into hilarious. Especially because Alex Pettyfer only got the role for his looks, not his acting ability.

Hugging her copy of The Dark Knight,

Medeia

In other, other news:

• It's really really ridiculously snowy. If I had a nickel for every snowflake that fell in my eyes today... wait, that would hurt... and in nickels that wouldn't actually amount to much.
  
• This week I've been having a Jim Carrey movie marathon. He's just sooooo funny.
  
• I bought the fedora de awesome that we're going to put everyone's name in when the Fiercely Fawesome First Contest ends. *cough*youshouldenterifyouhaventalready*cough*
  
• Psht. Jacob? Please. I've resold my soul to Thaniel Fox.... and Seth... and Shevraeth... and Drizzt... I should just stop here. *sobs and wishes they were real... and points out that they pwn Jacob*
• Malice comes out in 2009! *shrieks fangirlishly, realizing that she's probably the only one who cares*

Speaking of which, what books of 2009 are earning your fangirlish shrieks? Or, you know, not... if you're the type that doesn't shriek... Aella, I know you must be looking forward to Envy and Death by Denim *winkwink*.

And I know Little Brother and Hero-Type are on the top of my list, but what were your favorite novels of 2008?

~Medeia~

I wanted to paper-cut myself with it until I BLED TO DEATH

So, Aella called me up the other day.

Aella: "Medeeeeeeeeiiiiiaaaaa. We got a book in the mail today and I don't have time to read it.... soooooo...."

Me: "Sure sure, I've got this one. What book is it?"

Aella: "Uhm, it's the fifth book in that Vampire Kisses series. [note: Here is where my natural mistrust of all vampire books kicked in. And also note the fact that it is the FIFTH book]"

Me: *looooooong sigh* "Does that mean I have to read the whole series first?"

Aella: "Well you don't have to."

Me: *thinking: it'sgoingtobeawfulit'sgoingtobeawfulit'sgoingtobeawful* "Okaaaaay"

And so the next day, at the library, I checked all of the books in that series out. I got home and started reading the first, Vampire Kisses.

W O R S T E V E R

The main character's this "Gothic"chick (yes, every time an instance where the word goth could be used, "Gothic" with a capital G is used) who is an outcast and no one understaaaands her *insert whiney teen stereotype here*. And this "Gothic girl" (not even Goth Girl, so I could be reminded of the awesome book by Barry Lyga) lives in "Dullsville" with her mother and father (former hippies) and her younger brother, "Nerd Boy". And somehow, though everyone hates her, the head jock keeps wanting to drag her off for make-out sessions. Oh what is poor Raven (named after the Poe poem, of course) to do?

Meet a "sexy Gothic guy", a "knight of night", a "Gothic Dream Mate" who also happens to be a vampire, evidently. And not only am I quoting from the book word for word, but everything in quotes is used a million times (the phrase "totally out of this world!" is used twice. On the same page.) Oh the redundancy.


And the best part? It was the wrong series. *slightly crazed giggle* Hehehe, there go several hours of my life I'll never get back.


Moral of the story: If you value your sanity, don't go near Vampire Kisses with a ten-foot cattle prod. Though, it is pretty hilarious. I was laughing at the awfulness when I didn't want to beat myself over the head with it.


Pulling Crown Duel, the Haunting of Alaizabel Cray, and Wicked Lovely off her bookshelves in the hopes that they will help her rehabilitate from the mental torture she has been subjected to,

Medeia

P.S. Aella: You. Owe. Me.

P.S.S. Oh and also, we don't have the series that I was supposed to be reading. Great.

P.S.S. No, I didn't make the second half of the post in a larger font on purpose. Blogger apparently loved Vampire Kisses and wants to punish me for slamming it. Well, you know what Blogger? *mutters stream of (thankfully) unintelligible suggestions*

aaaand we're back!

So, we've been gone from the good ol' Mael for a while now, and coming back has instilled me with a sense of nostalgia, but seems to have instilled in others a sense of frustration. One question we've been asked since we came back was from Cassandra who said in comments "eek! why do you guys keep switching blogs? *grumbles to self while changing bookmarks AGAIN* actually, that's a good question. why do you change blogs? isn't one just the same as the other? except, you know, the color scheme and stuff..." and I'm not sure if we've ever actually answered that question thoroughly. I mean, we know why we switched, but you might not.

We switched from the Maelstrom to Charybdis Reviewz because 1.) there were legal issues with us having the same name as a publishing company that impeded us from some of the things we plan on doing and 2.) because blogger was frustrating. It was hard to manipulate everything that we wanted and Wordpress offers some things that Blogger doesn't, like multiple pages for one blog (instead of multiple linked blogs) and more detailed statistics about which posts are popular, incoming links, etc.

We came back because 1.) the legal issues were cleared up and 2.) we just missed the Mael too much. We did enjoy our stay in the realm of Wordpress, but unlike on blogger, you have pay to change the HTML code and make other, more advanced, changes in the layout and this was something we had not anticipated. I'm not saying that Blogger is better than Wordpress or anything, only that the format of Blogger is better suited to our tastes.

Again, we apologize for switching blogs, but we do also hope that the opportunity to win some fawesome prizes makes up for any inconvenience.