Hereafter

So this weekend is a pretty packed weekend - so packed that I literally sat for about a half hour trying to figure out how to fit everything in.  I'm finally going to get some community service in this weekend, I'm going shopping with my lovely grandmother, going on a Spyder (motorcycle thing) ride with my beloved uncle, and possibly going to see a movie.

Before I talk about this amazing movie I want to go see, I want to talk a little bit about the don't ask don't tell policy and the revoking/re-instating of it.  First of all, I've come to the conclusion that soldiers and the military itself weren't ready for this huge change.  Secondly, why on earth should it matter if a soldier is gay?  I'm sorry, but if you're fighting in Afghanistan, I really don't think you'll be wondering who you think is cute or that you're interested in in your unit.  And vise versa, I don't think you'll be worrying about who's gay in your unit.  There are a million other things that should be, and very well are, on their minds over there.  Homophobia isn't one of them.  Thirdly, I want to know who decided to listen to that judge?  My cousin told me that the judge didn't even have power of the army, because the army has their own 'court system' and are not under federal law, therefore the judge had no authority to make that jurisdiction over the army.  Now, as for putting it back in effect, it's better that it's in effect than if it's not.  If it's not in effect, no homosexual may serve in the military.  If it is in effect, homosexuals can serve, but not openly.  I do think it's a dumb of the army to say that someone has to hide who they are to be in the services, considering that these people choose to be in the military, and are not forced.  However, I do understand where they are coming from, but hopefully one day anybody can serve in the military and be themselves.  Just because they have different feelings doesn't mean that they fight any differently nor do they care less about the mission they're on.  If they're fighting for their freedom and for ours, what difference does it make?

So this movie I want to see - "Hereafter" - looks incredibly amazing and actually makes me want to start writing the story project I have in my head and I kind of want to start writing.  I'm pretty sure that made absolutely no sense.  I don't really want to talk about this project, but I will say it's totally different than SOLACE (which is on hold until further notice, if I haven't told you guys already) and that it's a lot more personal than SOLACE, which is kind of hard to imagine.  Anyways, here's the trailer for "Hereafter"



I hope you all have a good weekend.

With eternal love and blessings,
Officially Inspired

School

So I'm a bit mad at school.  It makes it very hard to read anything.  With homework and student council and after school activities, it's a lot to handle when last year I had a lot of free time.  Granted, I don't have all that much homework, but getting everything done and making sure it's done the way my teachers want it and everything like that, it's a bit tiring.  So needless to say, by the time I get a minute to read I really don't want to because I've been sitting around doing school work for a while.  

Hence why I've been reading John Verdon's AMAZING Think of a Number for...you know, a few months.  It's a really, really, really good book and I feel so bad that I'm taking so long to get through it!  It's a bit adult, so I'm in no way saying that everybody my age should read it.  It's got some gruesome details in it in relation to the murders and the language is very true to the cop stereotype.

Anyway, I really don't have anything to talk about.  Nothing's really going on.  Oh!  I could post a few pictures from homecoming!

Me sitting down

Me and my "date"

(no, I didn't take him to the dance...I thought about it)

Me and my cousin "chocking" my brother

Me and my Papaw

Me with the flag

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner by Stephenie Meyer

A short second life for Bree Tanner, indeed, but not such a short title. 

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner by Stephenie Meyer was the thirteenth book I read this year. 

I was so excited when I heard that Stephenie Meyer was having a new Twilight book coming out!  I'm a die-hard twi-hard, so how could I not be jumping up and down in anticipation?  I told a lot of my friends about it, but a lot of them didn't remember who Bree was in Eclipse.  Now, you must keep in mind that a lot of my friends, including myself, read the books before they were popular and everybody wanted Edward to bite them.  With that said, the last time any of us had read Eclipse was a while back.  Except for the friends that read books over and over, which I can't do, no matter how much I love the book.  Long story short, it took them a while to remember Bree.

I was interested in this story - it was a different side to the vampires that I've grown to love in Meyer's world.  I bought the book a few days after it came out.  Before I actually begin to review the book, I'd like to point out a few things.  A few months ago I got this comment on YouTube saying that Stephenie Meyer doesn't care about her fans and she doesn't do anything to help the community or anything like that.  I can prove both of these statements false by only using this book as an example (although there are many more).  When this book first came out, it was available online to fans - FOR FREE -  for a limited amount of time.  I mean, Stephenie had to make some revenue some way, so they couldn't keep it on there forever, but she wanted it to be free to her fans at all times.  It was her way of saying thank you to her devoted readers who have made her story a success and have continued to support her and love her characters.  Also, this book was a contributor to the Red Cross.  One dollar from every book sold went to the Red Cross to help with the earthquake relief efforts in Haiti and Chile.  I know one dollar doesn't sound like a whole lot, but in only the first two weeks of its release, an estimated 700,000 copies were sold - that's $700,00 right there - in only TWO WEEKS.  Seven-hundred-thousand dollars.

Now, onto the review:

This novel was very different from the rest of the Twilight Saga, because you're not dealing with the perspective of a human, nor the life style of the 'vegitarian' vampires.  These vampires kill without mercy and whenever they're hungry.  They believe that the sun will turn them to ashes and that they must stay indoors at all times when the sun is up.  It's a surprisingly dark side to the teen series that girls (and guys - whom rock by the way) have fallen completely and irrevocably in love with.

With that said, I think the fact that it was so different made me take so long to get through it.  Also, knowing how the story ends, it made it a lot harder.  Not only do I have difficulty finishing a book if I figure out how it ends or if someone ruins the ending for me ahead of time, but also I fell in love with Bree and knowing her ending made me not want to finish it. 

The book was still great, don't get me wrong.  It was humorous and aggravating that Bree and her fellow "newborns" don't know the Volturi and other vampire rules, but that made me realize just how much the Cullens do know and how important it is that they know it.  With Riley (the ring-leader of the newborn army) keeping them in the dark - both figuratively and literally - it creates a lot more problems than it spares them.

Another thing about this book that somewhat bothered me - no Edward.  Well, until the end.  But his name is never mentioned.  But it at the end it explains a lot as to what was going on with Bree in Eclipse that we couldn't really understand before this book.

If you want to read this book, read Eclipse first - it will kind of ruin Eclipse for you if you don't.

With eternal love and blessings,
Officially Inspired