Twilight

Here's an interesting article on "Twilight":

Mormon Vampires in the Garden of Eden



Looking forward to Mr. Granger's latest book.


~~

p.s. I survived November. Let's hope I make it through December.

~~

New Driver and other sundry items

Yep! That day back in June when my oldest took her driver's test...she passed with flying colors! She didn't have any point deductions at all. Yippee! But scary at the same time. She's taken me to work a couple times so she can "have the car" while I work. Weird feeling...

Exercising is still going good. I finished my 30 day challenge a week or so two ago. That was on the medium level. I'll be starting another 30 days on the hard level hopefully next week. I did a hard workout today...one of the preset ones. Boy...that really got me sweating. Then I did the body test on Wii Fit. So far I lost about 5 pounds since mid-January. Probably would be more if I'd give up ice cream...oh well. I have noticed my muscles are more toned and I get less fatigued. My upper back doesn't hurt as often anymore either so that is good news.

Reading....I'm reading a Dorothy Sayers book at the moment. "Strong Poison" was first. The second story is "Have His Carcase". I'm maybe 5 chapters into it but having trouble staying awake at night. Long days at work and getting to bed too late/getting up early to exercise is beginning to take its toll. :yawn:

Knitting....I'm working on this year's Goddess Knits Anniversary Mystery shawl. That is slow going too. No working on that in spare minutes or it would be tinking galore. But it is a pretty blue ...."Jazz" from Knitpicks...hence I've nicknamed this project "Jasper". Yes, a Twilight reference.

New Computer

Well, the new computer is here. But I can't seem to manage to get the pictures in the right place. What this means is that no pictures of my finished items are being posted. :sniff:

I've had the computer for a few weeks but I haven't had time to deal with the issue since I'm a bit busy with a new part-time job and we are trying to adjust our schedules to that. Yes, you did read that correctly. A new part-time job. Dh's job is tenuous at best and even his self-employment is having a bit of a down turn.

I'm off for a few days for appointments...much needed hair cuts, dentist, and oldest dd taking her driving test. The computer getting tweaked is high on my list of things to accomplish this week. Can't wait to post some pictures!

Oh yeah....Twilight......Hogwart's Professor has a new website for Twilight related posts. This article written by a guest author really explains Bella and Edward's relationship very nicely. And along those same lines....Subtlynice has updated her version of New Moon from Edward's POV. Reading today's updated chapter reminded me of Arabella's article.

--

Busy Month

Since the last post....

House sat/Nephew sat while sis and her dh were picking up their oldest from college. Got locked out of their house without a key. Library card to the rescue. (Oldest dd's idea.)

Two days later...finally got the muffler repaired. Now I'm not so noisy.

A couple days after that...Prom for my oldest homeschooled daughter. Who would have thought! She went with a friend from church. His mom works for the DPI (Department of Public Instruction). And dd ran into two 2nd cousins while she was out for the night.

And there was a wedding shower, various church duties, "behind the wheel" class, dentist...once every month for braces, our wedding anniversary which I wasn't home for but we are celebrating tonight with cupcakes that the kids are making.

A bit of unplanned reading was thrown in the mix....The Host by Stephanie Meyer. I didn't really want to read it but my sister had sent it home with me so I figured why not. It made me cry (of course) but some of the characters really were very similar to Twilight characters.

Oh and knitting! Another pattern almost ready....plus the free one still. My Mandala is very close to being finished. (pattern ravelry link) Just another hour or two of knitting then on to the blocking. This year's Mystery shawl started this past weekend but I won't let myself start it until I get last year's shawl done.

But the biggest trouble this month was the computer dying. The one with the patterns and photos and all the other important files. We still don't have the new one here but it will only be another week or so. Luckily we have an old ancient computer upstairs that the kids use and we've got a wireless router. So except for all the files and programs and pictures on the main computer (which is a big BUT!) online life continued mostly uninterrupted.

How could I forget about exercising???? I'm still at it! Back to 5 days a week and sometimes weekends. I was able to save up enough of my exercise incentive pay to buy the new EA Active Sports program. I'm only on the first day of the 30 challenge so the jury is still out on which of the three exercise programs I like the best. This one this morning really had me sweating! But I like the flow of the Wii Personal Trainer and the fun of the Wii Fit. So most likely I'll be doing a combination of two of the programs each day for an hour's worth of exercise. Now if only the scale would start showing some signs that I've been exercising consistently since mid-January. :sigh:

EDIT: It isn't called Wii Personal Trainer. It is called Wii My Fitness Coach.
--

I've been a bit distracted.....

March 3rd was my last entry! Yikes!

I've been reading a lot since December. You already know about Twilight, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and Dracula from previous posts.

I have since continued to read book after book...

Northanger Abbey (Jane Austen)
Persuasion (Jane Austen)
Mansfield Park (Jane Austen)
Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)

and currently Sense and Sensibility (Jane Austen...of course!)

Don't think I overlooked Emma. I've read that book a couple times in the last few years.

I've also been enjoying some (okay maybe more than just "some") Twilight related FanFiction. Someday I'll post a top 10 or 20 list...or wait how about chronological???. I really enjoyed the saga from Edward's point of view. I didn't think I'd ever read FanFiction but some of it is really not too bad. Although there is definitely plenty to avoid so please do use some caution at that site if you venture over there. (Especially anything with a "M" rating!)

Here's a few I enjoyed...
Continuance of Midnight Sun (This story picks up where Stephanie Meyer left off with Midnight Sun) although I preferred Phoenix Rising for the account of the action in Phoenix.
And this last link is one chapter called The Video Tape.


I had Atlas Shrugged checked out from the library but after vacuuming off many of our books and bookshelves I found some books I wanted to read that I had forgotten about. Yes...we have many books and bookshelves and that is not necessarily a good thing. Anyway....for now I just settled for reading reviews for Atlas Shrugged at Goodreads (above link). 1000+ pages and such a fine print was just too daunting at the moment.

Dd#2 was also confirmed on Palm Sunday (April 5th). (Hence the reason for the extreme dusting of bookshelves.) Very exciting day!

I have been knitting also. I've got one free cloth pattern and one $1 lacy cloth pattern about 99% ready to be released. Those posts and pictures will be coming in a few days or so.

~

Thoughts on the Twilight Saga

I've read all four books plus the extras at the website. Here are some of my disjointed thoughts.

Overall I enjoyed the story. I had a hard time putting it down.

I liked seeing the strength of the family, trust, loyalty, love and humor. And these qualities were even able to affect the feelings between natural enemies. (I'm trying to keep this general in case you haven't read the books yet.)

Things I cringed at...but it offered nice talking points with my girls:
works righteousness (but I wasn't reading this story for theological purposes),
some intimate bedroom scenes,
and a seemingly unhealthy "devotion" to a boyfriend.

Don't miss the extras for New Moon. Meyer has three snipets of the story from three other points of view. Jacob is a "crack-up". [NB: pgs 250-251 of Breaking Dawn]

I really liked reading the story from Edward's perspective. He had a lot more thoughts going on in his head than Bella who seemed kind of hung up on age and beauty. Hope Meyer decides to finish that book.

Is this saga a "classic"? My unprofessional opinion is "no".

Did I enjoy reading it? Yes.

Some are trying to compare this saga to Harry Potter. I'd say there really isn't any comparison. The Harry Potter novels are much deeper with more layers of things to experience on each reading. More mystery and surprise twists too.

If I had to apply movie ratings to these series of books....
I would rate Harry Potter as PG and Twilight as PG-13 (because of the bedroom scenes).

--

Twilight

Okay...I've finally succumbed to reading Twilight. My two older girls devoured the books (all four! plus the draft mentioned below!) in the month of December and continued to beg me to begin.

I balked. I chose to read Dracula instead via DailyLit. I'm at about half way through that book. Just a little after the point where Dr. Van Helsing placed the garlic around Lucy and filled her room with it. (I thought I wasn't going to give any spoilers but.....Spoiler alert below in the quoted section!)

Someone had posted about Twilight and vampires and questioned what it was about the garlic. Another posted at that site that perhaps it is that garlic is good for our blood and that wouldn't be good for a vampire with evil intent (paraphrased).

Then today I read the first two chapters of Twilight and the first two Chapters of Midnight Sun (from Edward's point of view). It was the two chapters from Midnight Sun combined with the last lines I read today from Dracula that connected in my brain.

"Van Helsing did not go to bed at all. He went to and fro, as if patroling the house, and was never out of sight of the room where Lucy lay in her coffin, strewn with the wild garlic flowers, which sent through the odour of lily and rose, a heavy, overpowering smell into the night."

Ahhh...the "heavy, overpowering smell" of garlic....that's the thing about garlic!

Now go read chapters one and two of Midnight Sun. It is a pdf file at Stephenie Meyer's official blog link I gave you above.

p.s. The girls told me yesterday that the DVD of the movie is coming out March 21st. I didn't go see it either of the two times that they went. But I know that the books are always better than the movie!