Weekend Review #4 {The End of Summer}

This week really felt like the end of the summer. The weather's been getting slowly cooler and we've had some rain. Today is the last day of the Summer Reading Program, which really means that summer is over for me. Plus, Mom was back at work all this week (except for Friday), and all of that adds up to mean that Fall is pretty much here. The only thing left to make it official is for school to start again, which won't happen until next week.

Monday, I took the bus to the library from my house, and volunteered there. This was the first week after the girl who volunteered with me for two years left for college, so it felt very quiet. I also taped stakes onto the last of the yard signs, which is a sure sign that summer is coming to an end.

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday all included Dracula rehearsal, plus Park Day, and visiting with friends. 

Friday morning, we left for Leavenworth, WA, a cute little Bavarian themed town just on the east side of the mountains. We used to go every year, usually for just the day, but we haven't in a few years. Leavenworth is fun, but there isn't much to do other than wander around the shops in town, which we did a lot of. We stayed in a little hotel that night.

Saturday, we did some shopping, played miniature golf, ate (one of the best reasons to go to Leavenworth is the food), and headed home in the evening.

This week, I finished Daemon by Daniel Suarez (which I really liked, and promise to review when I can), and started Freedom, the sequel. I also watched the movie Men In Black for the first time. I've also been listening to a lot of Welcome to Nightvale. I've been kind of slow about it, but now I'm finally catching up to the current episodes.

Weekend Review #3 {Pizza, Birthdays, and Art}

Monday, I volunteered at the library.

Tuesday, my friend came over, and my mom took us to driver's ed. After driver's ed, Mom, Isabelle, and I went to see the movie The Hundred Foot Journey, which I would definitely recommend.

Wednesday was Mom's first day of work, so Isabelle and I got a ride with some friends to park day. Before park day, a bunch of people got to the park early to do some art stuff, and I, not really wanting to draw or paint, read while other people drew me from two different sides. After park day, I had a Dracula rehearsal, then dinner and golf at another homeschooler's house.

This is just after I fell of the slackline at our friend's house.

Thursday, Isabelle and I had lunch with friends, then she went to her ballet class, and I hung out with my friend until her mom took us to driver's ed.

Friday, Mom was not working. Our dance studio had an open house, so we were there for a few hours in the morning, dancing on and off for prospective students (and, at one point, just ourselves). Afterwards, we went to the Bagelry (guess what they sell) for lunch. That evening, I went to Fat Pie Pizza for dinner with some friends, because one of them had just turned 18.

The three of us at dinner.

We ate on the roof, and the sunset was gorgeous, though it's hard to tell from this picture.

Saturday, there was a birthday part for a homeschool person. I did some driving, and (mostly) drove home from the party.

Today, my mom and I walked down to the bus stop near our house (about a 20 min. walk), to try taking the bus downtown, but when we got there, we realized the bus doesn't come down this far on Sundays, so we walked back.

I started a book this week called Daemon by Daniel Suarez. It's really good, and I will most definitely review it once I finish it.

The Giver {Book vs. Movie}

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On Sunday, I watched the movie of The Giver. This is a collection of my thoughts about it. This post will have spoilers for both the book and movie, so if you don't want to know what happens, stop reading now.

The movie was actually pretty good. Graphically, it was very pretty. The transition from black-and-white to color was done very smoothly, and it looked very nice. On the whole, it was a quite good movie. But, it's not just a movie. All of my complaints come from where it differed from the book.

1. They aged all the characters up. I knew they were going to do it, and in some ways I understand why they did it, but it felt wrong.

2. The romantic sub-plot. Of course, this is one reason they aged them up. I really didn't like it. In the book, Jonas is really supposed to be completely alone, except for the Giver. But here, he had this companionship and understanding with Fiona that was just weird. And, when Jonas leaves, he promised her he'll come back.

This happens.

3. And, of course, most importantly, the ending. When Jonas left the community, we continued to see what happened there. We saw Fiona almost be killed for helping Jonas leave (what the heck?), we see the Giver almost give up all hope, and then we see the moment that all the memories are returned.

4. But for me, the worst part was the very last few seconds. In the book, the ending is left purposefully ambiguous. When I read the book for the first time, at the age of ten, that was what made it stick with me so strongly. But in the movie, Jonas sleds down the hill, and knows that the house is real. He made it. He gets up and walks, with Gabriel, towards the house.

These are my issues with the movie. The ageing up of the characters didn't bother me all that much, and if that had been the only major change they made, I wouldn't have been too bothered by it. The character of the Chief Elder (played by Meryl Streep), barely exists in the book, and had a major role in the movie. That doesn't bother me too much, and they integrated it well.

The Giver.

Jeff Bridges as the Giver was really great. He is the reason to watch the movie. He played a tortured man, tired with the world, but driven by grief and a deep sense of duty incredibly well. A lot of the acting in the movie was, well not at all bad, not that great (most of the main characters were played by unknown actors), but the adult characters (Jeff Bridges, Meryl Streep, Katie Holmes, Alexander Skarsgard) were all very good.

Jonas is pretty cute, which is obviously a plus.

In the end, I enjoyed the movie a lot more than I expected it. While I can't give it a full recommendation,  I would recommend it with reservations. It's not a movie to avoid at all costs. It's good, just different.

Weekend Review: Dancing, Shopping, and The Giver

It's been another busy week.

On Monday, I went to ballet class, volunteered at the library, and went to Irish dance class. This week was the last week of summer dance classes, and so Monday was my last day until fall.

Tuesday, I had Driver's Ed.

Wednesday was park day, and then I had rehearsal for Dracula.Then, because my mom was hosting a "Mom's Night" at our house, my friend's dad picked us both up after Dracula, and we went back to one of the other family's houses, where we joined a bunch of other kids and dads, and we ate dinner. Then, most of the kids and dads went to the driving range to for some golf lessons, but some of us stayed behind and hung out for a few hours.

Thursday, I had another rehearsal, and my mom and I went driving before that.

Friday, my sister had soccer in the morning, and after that my mom and I tried out the city buses. We took the bus to the college,  from there downtown, which is where the library and my dance studio are, and then from there back to where we started, which is a few miles from my house. There isn't a convenient bus stop close to my house, but there is one a few minute drive away. Then, we had an Irish dance performance Friday night in the beautiful Birch Bay state park, on a stage overlooking the water.

Saturday, we went shopping with our grandmother.

Today, my sister is doing a mud run, and then I am going to see The Giver with a friend this afternoon. I'm a bit nervous about The Giver, because I've heard some not so good things, and the trailer wasn't promising, but I promise to write a blog post about it tonight after I see it.

This week, I read two books I really liked: The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, and Thirteen Reasons Why. Thirteen Reasons Why is a book I read for the first time probably five years ago, but it was fascinating to read it now, and connect with it in a whole new way. The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry was a beautiful book that made me so happy and so sad at the same time. I am writing a review of it right now, and it will be published later this week.

Weekend Review: August 4-8 2014

It's been a busy week. Monday, I went to ballet class, volunteered at the library (we cut out hot pink crowns for the Frozen party they are holding), then had two Irish dance classes. Tuesday, we picked blueberries, and then I went to driver's ed. Wednesday was park day and a Dracula rehearsal, and Thursday I just had Driver's Ed. On Friday, we did some shopping, and then I had ballet in the evening, and today my mom has her 30th high school reunion, so Isabelle and I are spending the afternoon and evening at our grandparent's house.

Driver's Ed is boring mostly, but there is some stuff that is actually new information. Ballet is hard, but I do feel like I'm a lot better than I was at the beginning of the summer. I am thinking about writing a post soon about what it's like to be the "new girl" in ballet at 16. It's a strange, but not necessarily bad, experience.

It's been a busy week in some ways, but there isn't a whole lot to talk about beyond that. I imagine these posts will be pretty short for the next month, but will get a little more interesting after school starts in September.

Blog Changes: Coming Soon

I'm not dead! In fact, things have been going pretty well. They have just been super crazy. In light of recent happenings, as well as my knowledge of what the future is going to look like, this post is going to outline what I imagine will be some changes coming to the blog.  But first, here is a bit of a recap of what I've been doing since I blogged last. 

We went camping in Bend for a week with our friends, which was awesome. We played a game of Capture the Flag with the cross country team who was camping next to us. This is something I definitely intend to blog in depth about as soon as I have a spare minute. After we got back, things have been really, really crazy. I started taking Open ballet classes this summer, so I've has two ballet classes a week, plus two Irish dance classes. I also somehow ended up being in my dance school's production of Dracula, so I've had rehearsals four days a week for that. I started driver's ed last week, so I have that twice a week as well. And of course, there are still all the normal things like volunteering at the library, park day, soccer, golf and more. There have also been plenty of other events going on, like the boat party we had last weekend, and the Hunger Games we held this weekend as well. I'm not even going to bother blogging that one, since Autumn did it so well. 

I know I had promised some posts before I left, but I'm not sure I'm going to be able to manage that right now. This summer has not ended up looking anything like what I expected it to look like, and that means I have a lot less time for things like blogging than I anticipated. I also have done a lot less reading this summer than I had hoped, which is a bit disappointing, but I'm glad to be able to be doing all the other things that I am doing right now.

The reason I'm mentioning this is that I don't feel like I can commit to blogging like I have been able to in the past. This summer schedule makes it hard, and next year, my schedule is going to be pretty variable, and a bit hard to pin down all the time. I will be taking classes at the community college, doing school at home, dancing, and doing any number of things I don't even know about for sure yet. Because of this, I'm going to change some things around here. First of all, I will probably end up posting a bit less (though hopefully more than the last few weeks), and bit more sporadically. However, I do want to have some goals, so that I have something to work for, and you have something to expect. 

1. I will be starting a new feature called the Weekend Review, where I will post each weekend, talking about what I did that week. This is the only posts I will promise at this point. I will publish one post each weekend, even if that's all I'm able to do for weeks on end.

2. This blog is book blog, and I'm trying not to stray too far from those roots. I will write and post book reviews as often as possible. That might not be too often, but I'll do my best. Same goes for TV and movie reviews, and for writing posts.

3. All other kinds of posts will be completely sporadic. If I have something to write about, and time to write, I will. But, I might not have time, and if I don't, then I don't. 

This is all I can promise right now.  Hopefully, I'll have the chance to do way more than this, but I can't have the blog be a priority at the moment. I'll be back this weekend with a review of my week!