If there's anything that would give adults everywhere the incentive to vote, it's orgasm. I wish I'd climaxed during the '08 elections. (Scratch that. It would've been awkward with my parents there and all.
Anyway. This is an interesting ad by the Young Socialists of Catalonia in Spain. I'm just waiting for somebody to spoof it when Sarah Palin runs for President in 2012.
This film held a perfect balance of action, humor, romance, and suspense. Err... Why am I writing this like a review? Here's some stuff that stood out to me:
Before the titles appeared
When Harry looked back into the cupboard under the stairs for a few moments, it felt so nostalgic and bittersweet. Maybe it was just me, but I had this creepily realistic sense of how he felt when he saw those toy knights inside the cupboard. Part of me thinks I only notice these things because I've read the books, while part of me hopes it's just outstanding film-making.
For the first time ever, we're shown Hermione's muggle household and bedroom. We see her parents in the living room, talking about Australia. She takes out her wand to erase herself from their memory, knowing that she is about to embark on what is probably the most dangerous quest of her life. This is where we realize that these kids really know what they're up against and are taking the proper precautions as to not hurt anybody else. It's also a great example of how good Hermione is at magic. I'm sure erasing oneself from somebody's memory isn't something you can just learn in charms class.
Every scene with Fred and George in it
I was so glad they kept the "holey" joke in there. Besides being hilariously cute, it served to remind us that the twins are firm believers that happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light. I was also glad to see they treated the twins as individuals. There was no more of this finishing-each-other's-sentences nonsense.
Ron Weasley's character
If there was anyone that stood out to me particularly, it was Rupert Grint. He stepped up his game by a lot. In the first six films Ron was always funny, silly and made dumb comments. In this one, he grew into someone who knew he had priorities in life and that didn't want to be wasting his time with friends while he had family in danger. He finally started to think about the consequences of what he was doing. However cowardly he was in having left Harry and Hermione, he naturally made up for it by... well, killing a freakin' Horcrux and saving Harry's life.
And because I'm biased, I loved watching scenes where Ron and Hermione show their true feelings for each other. Including, but not limited to: the Horcrux revealing he had worries about Harry and Hermione having feelings for each other, watching Ron be jealous of Harry and Hermione when they were together, Ron being worried when Hermione was tortured, Ron admitting that they wouldn't last two days without her . . . The list can go on.
Dobby!
I love Dobby so much. So so so much. So cute and cheesy and funny. I remember even squealing when the first trailer was released and he made an appearance. Of course, I knew what was coming and I emotionally prepared myself for it. "Such a beautiful place to be with friends." Tear.
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If you want to hear me discuss this more from a person-who-can't-separate-the-book-from-the-movie point of view, be on the lookout for my vlog later today. In it, I discuss what I saw, what I liked, and what I would've like to have seen. (I'll add it to the end of this post once it's uploaded. Beware: It's almost ten minutes long.)
Update: The video is up!
If there's any particular scene you'd like to discuss, feel free to leave a comment and we can talk on there.
Earlier today, the Sons of Admirals song "Here Comes My Baby" was featured on a UK radio station for the first time ever. It normally isn't news to me that a song is on the radio, but I thought this particular case was special. The Sons of Admirals is composed of four YouTubers (Alex, Charlie, Tom, and Ed) who decided to bring their musical talents together and create a work of their own. It was originally supposed to be a side project, but ended up turning into something bigger as a result of their combined online following. I think it's pretty awesome that four friends/musicians/youtubers could accomplish something like this.
I've been subscribed to Alex and Charlie for a while, and found Tom and Eddplant through them. Not that they're super popular or totally mainstream, but it's been pretty awesome watching their careers grow throughout the years. Last year, Alex and Charlie took part in a project called Chart Jackers, where they were trying to raise money for Children In Need by getting an original song to hit #1 on the UK charts. While they didn't accomplish this, they did manage to raise a good amount of cash for the charity and make it to #1 on the indie charts. I hope the Admirals continue to make music together and maybe and do a similar charity project in the future. It seems that by now the guys have had enough experience to know the power of the internet and that the power can be used for good. With enough new media and music industry knowledge, they can figure out how to get to No. 1 (or at least be very close to the top) if they wanted to.
In related news... ALL CAPS, a music duo that also came from ye ole' tube, managed to take the #1 spot in electronic albums on iTunes today for their album titled "lowercase". That's pretty awesome. (It's also kind of ironic because it's an acoustic album.) I've also been subscribed to Luke and Krsitina on YouTube for a while, and they're both pretty rad. I watched them perform at ROFLCOPTOUR and VidCon 2010, which were just loads of fun and gobs of awesome. It's obvious they genuinely enjoy what they do and they're proud of how far they've made it, especially since they used to only make music together for fun. With the launch of their new album, they also released two music videos: one about Pokemon and one about The Hunger Games. Both clever songs and videos, though I would have preferred the Pokemon song to be electronic. It would've suited the video a lot better.. Nonetheless, still good stuff. I wish them both the best of luck on their musical endeavors. If you get the chance, go check them out at the Triple Rainbow Awesome Tour.
Just thought I'd drop by for a bit and post a short blog. This is the real me. You won't be hearing from me often I'm afraid, as pen and paper are my priority at the moment*. Nobutsrsly. I wanted to make one last post before I turned 20.
I've never been a dedicated blogger, but I feel that blogging was the one thing that I've been doing consistently online through all my years as a teenager**. While every website, forum, and social network have evolved, the blog has always been here for me. I've jumped from one site to another, depending on where the crowd was. I've been a part of different communities online, but never stuck to just one. And even though I've transitioned between LiveJournal, MySpace Blogs, WordPress, and Blogger, I've made it a point to move all my old posts over to whatever new platform I choose to use. Even my embarrassing private ones. I want to make sure that wherever I go online, I'm able to access bits of my old self. I want to be able to use this as a time capsule. All my old old old posts are set to private because 1) no one wants to read about a whiny early teen and 2) I shouldn't have been revealing that much information about myself at that age to begin with. Maybe someday I'll look back at posts from today and realize that no one wants to read these either. But that will be just fine with me because every time I look back at old posts I realize "Man, I was stupid. I'm so glad I'm not like that anymore." I realize that even if I don't notice it, I have matured and I'm okay with the person I'm growing up to be. That said, if you're reading this, thanks. There really is no reason why you should be sitting down and watching me contemplate crap that probably makes no difference to you. You could've gone the rest of your life not knowing about my fangirlgasms, mishaps, and general nonsense. I really do appreciate each and every person that reads these posts. I know there aren't that many of you, but... if you took a few minutes out of your schedule to do it when you could have easily been doing anything else, that's saying something. I appreciate you.
Also, thank you blogging platforms. You've given me somewhere to vent when no one else was there, or when I was afraid to talk to actual people because I knew how harshly I could've been judged. What an odd thing to thank. Blogging platforms. As if they have feelings and shit. Haaa.What the heck am I even saying anymore? Thanks, internet. I can honestly say you made my teenage years.
Random tidbit of the [yester]day: I watched the Britney Spears episode of Glee and it was awesome. Last coffee shop visit: The Coffee Bean in Hollywood, Ice Blended Pumpkin (Fall is an awesome month for caffeined goods)
* I'm kidding, btw. I don't even like writing all that much. Context.
** Okay, not ALL my years. I wrote my first blog post at 14.
First post of September and we're already twelve days into the month! Good job, Rey. Now,
let's take a look at the Things You Might Have Missed Since My Last Post (AKA "Things I post on Facebook/Twitter" AKA "ReyNews") in reverse-chronological order. Weeeeee.
I got a haircut. Now I look like this:
I was sick for a few days. It sucked.
Somebody figured out what font point we'd need to use if we wanted to type out the word "helvetica" between Earth and the moon. It's really cool and really pointless. (Actually, it's not pointless at all. It's 282.6 billion points. But let's not get technical.)
It reminded me of this video... which is also awesome.
Apple announced some new products, which I'm not gonna type about because I want to keep this short. I will, however, talk about their new social network for music. It's called Ping. It's somewhat of a cross between Last.fm and MySpace Music, except you can only access it through iTunes. I upgraded my iTunes and got a Ping account, just to see what it was like. Don't really like it. Not enough to navigate through. It made me feel trapped. I don't like feeling trapped. Especially with social media. Totally defeats the purpose. I'll continue to use last.fm to share music (and for it's Pandoraness) for now.
I posted a tweet about DFTBA artist Mike Lombardo, and he responded to it via video. Freaking awesome. This is one of the reasons I love some of these YouTube artists. I appreciate the ones that don't act like they're too cool to respond.
There were seriously no news posts this past week that caught my attention enough for me to even link on twitter. What the heck, world? Be more exciting (to me), please.
On the updates-on-Reyna's-life front: I finally read "Mockingjay". (SPOILER WARNING.) Most people talked about how they thought the book and its ending were brilliant and left them speechless. I feel bad that I don't share these feelings. It wasn't anything I didn't expect or was surprised by. I remember predicting Prim's fate, and felt a little bad that I was right about it. I figured from the start this series wouldn't end in a happily ever after. I'm glad it didn't. I'm not gonna post an in-depth analysis until I read it a second time around (which might not be for a long time). It released at such an awkward time of my life that the last half didn't get the emotions out of me the way it should have. The hopelessness. The grief. Shit, I wasn't even enthralled enough to have finished it in one sitting like everyone else did.
The upside about having read this book and the previous two --along with having recently bought a Kindle -- was that it got me slowly back into the habit of reading. I finished "Mockingjay" midday yesterday, and now I'm a quarter way through "Eat, Pray, Love." I've been seeing this book on display at Barnes & Noble for the past two years and figured that I might as well give it a read now that the movie's out and all. I must say, I didn't always want to read this book because the words "Pray" and "Love" is in the title. I knew they'd be symbolic, but they automatically gave me the impression that the book would focus a lot religion, which would just annoy me. But I like what I've read so far. I was never much of a religious person to the point where Jesus is answer to everything, and it makes me glad this book is much more about spirituality, having a positive mindset about life, and enjoying its simple pleasures.
My next venture will probably be "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," as it's also been on display forever and I haven't gotten a chance to read it..
I don't know how I keep up with the world sometimes. Listening to daily podcasts, catching up on my reading, watching YouTube subscriptions, reading blogs. Information overload. I guess I used my reading to make up for the fact that there was nothing newsworthy (IN THE WORLD OF REYNA) going on this week.
Random tidbit of the day: I really really want to learn French. Last coffee shop visit: The Coffee Bean in East LA, Chai Latte.
I've been meaning to use my blog to archive news posts and other media from websites that I visit frequently. I link to most of these things on Facebook, but 1) not everyone can see them because I don't add people that I don't talk to and 2) I want them to be somewhere more permanent. I'll post links to stories that caught my attention every few days. Most of these will be stuff I discover through my favourite blogs and publications. The majority of my posts will have to do with: technology, Harry Potter, TV shows I like to watch, and random weirdness.
I'll start off today by posting stuff I linked on Facebook the last two weeks, in reverse chronological order. Each will have a brief explanation. Okay? Okay.
I <3 FOXCONN
Foxconn is a manufacturing company in China responsible for making iPhones and other gadgets. Their employees have been known to commit suicide. The company has been boasting recently about how they installed safety nets for any employees that try to jump off buildings. Fuckin' safety nets to prevent their workers from dying, guys! How about... better working conditions and higher wages? ANYWAY. What I found Ridikkulus about this story was that Foxconn employees had a freaking RALLY to raise morale after the suicides. Whaaaat. Don't party, assholes. Mourn. Or at least cut back on the "I [Heart] Foxconn" shirts.
The promo for Season 4 is out and it is awesome. I've been wanting to learn French for a while, and this made me want to do it even more. ReyFact: Helvetica Neue (Light) is probably my favourite font ever. I don't know much about typography, but it either is or is very similar to the one used on the GG logo.
Googlerizon Tablet
I doubt I'm gonna buy one because, well, I don't have the money for gadgets right now. But I'm sure it'll be awesome once the specs are released. I kinda wish tablet devices were common already. I'm tired of this iPad hype and wish netbooks would die already. Not that I don't love my netbook. It's so cute ^_^.
I could NOT stop laughing when I saw this. I think the best viral videos I've seen are the ones that I discover only because of my culture. This goes right up there with "La Caida de Edgar." Even if you aren't Mexican, this is probably funny... right? I mean, you can tell what they're supposed to sound like based on their expressions and attire. Then it pops out with the most annoying (and brilliant) song in the world. Ah, I could not ask for more.
Charlie McDonnell is one fourth of a Time Lord rock band -- they play songs about Doctor Who -- called Chameleon Circuit that I love very much. I squealed when I saw this video in my subscription box because 1) Chameleon Circuit will probably be back with another album soon, and 2) he used the melody from the 5th series. I love it so much when they use music from the actual Doctor Who soundtrack and make it their own. That's probably why "An Awful Lot of Running" is my favourite Chameleon Circuit song. This new one is a VERY VERY VERY CLOSE second. OH MY GOD HE'S WEARING A FEZ.OH MY GOD HE'S WEARING A FEZ.OH MY GOD HE'S WEARING A FEZ.
Google & Verizon Discuss Tiered Interwebz
Since this was posted, the story has developed a lot and it may not be as bad as it sounds. This was the initial reaction I posted on Facebook, though: Google, I love you. Verizon, you're awesome. BUT WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! >_< No no no prioritization. It's hard enough to let the internet stay a democratic medium when we already have corporations monopolizing the cloud. Don't let the co's with money dictate the speed/quality of our content. I like net neutrality :( -----
Edit: I noticed after posting this that TWO of these stories talk about Google and Verizon together. I bet they're down for DP. ...or they want tiered internet to work on wireless internet so their tablets sell better than Apple's. Hmm. Yes, Reyna. Because the SOLE PURPOSE of doing away with net neutrality is to sell a tabled devise. Yeah.
