The Girl Who Blogged

Lately I have been engrossed in Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy. It started off with stumbling upon a copy of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and being hooked within the first few pages. I wanted to give the book a chance, whether I liked it at first or not, because of the hoopla surrounding it. That and I was curious about the movie because of all the casting buzz. And now that I've finished The Girl Who Played With Fire and am halfway through The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest, I can say that it's one of the most intriguing storylines I've ever read. The first one doesn't have much to do with the second and third (the latter two are more alike in storylines) but most of the characters are the same and in the first book you come to understand the bond between Blomkvist and Salander. Casting Daniel Craig as Mikael Blomkvist was a great choice. He fits the image I have of him. And I'm really curious to see what Rooney Mara does for the character of Lisbeth Salander. Out of all the books I've ever read in my life, Salander is probably the most interesting character of them all. Even though she's kind of crazy (but not the kind of crazy people think she is), you really root for her. You want her to kick butt all the way until the end. Well, at least I do. But it's characters like her and Blomkvist and several others I've encountered in this trilogy that inspired me to put pen to paper (or finger to keyboard) and start writing again. I also love that all three books were translated into English. I would love to see what the books look like in Swedish. I wonder if I could get a copy through Amazon? (Maybe I'm the crazy one).

My parents celebrated 25 years of marriage yesterday, which is amazing. 25 years...can you imagine? I wonder what this world will be like when I hit that milestone. Will blogs still be around to write about it? Maybe everything will be electronic by then and paper will cease to exist. Maybe we'll finally get those flying cars they've talked about since Back to the Future made it cool ;-)

Speaking of 25...I am about to turn a quarter of a century in a matter of weeks. Talk about SCARY. Not scary as in "5 more years until I'm 30!?!?" but more like, did I do everything I wanted to do by then?

Maybe not but I did, however, get a lens I had my eye on for months now. It's a basic macro lens, the 50mm but it takes GREAT pictures. Here are a few test shots I started with.

"i'm an orphan!"

I was recently thinking about the fact that I rarely see my parents anymore. So when I learned they were going to Mohegan Sun next weekend, I jumped at the chance to go with them. It'll just be the two of them, Michael (the baby of the family) and me. It's going to be very tame but that's exactly what I need! My dad just wanted to be by the pool while my mom is gonna be the butterfly that goes from place to place. I definitely get a little of that from my mom. As Jonathan tells it, I always have to be some place. =P My dad & Michael are going to try to score WWE tickets at the Mohegan Sun Arena for the 3rd of August but I highly doubt there will be any left. If they do succeed though, I bet non existant money my mom's gonna want to do a little shopping spree. I am all for that =D

Orphan was such a sick movie. I saw it with Robyn and Tiffany on Friday and by the end of the movie we were all practically yelling at the screen. I kept thinking to myself, "kill whoever you want, just don't kill the little girl!" She was THAT adorable. (The little girl I mention would be the biological daughter of the couple). I highly suggest watching it if you want a good scare! The twist definitely surprised me but I don't know how I didn't think of it.

Lately I've been reading Columbine by Dave Cullen. He's worked/interviewed/followed the survivors closely since the event on April 20, 1999. Am I twisted for being fascinated with the story? I don't know...something about tragedies like that get me. I want to know what led the killers to do something like that, what the survivors were thinking while they were stuck inside that school...yeah, I'm a little looney. But regardless, the book is very well written. I highly recommend it. The story is not told in chronological order so if you don't mind jumping around a bit, time wise...

the bell jar

I had heard of Sylvia Plath of course, and knew of The Bell Jar, and her tragic story but never bothered to read the book. I made the mistake of judging a book, not by it's cover but by an assumption I had. That because she was depressed, the book was to be a long, sad, winding tale. Couldn't be farther from the truth! My sister is reading a bunch of Sylvia Plath books for her Psychology class and I got curious one day last week and started reading. Esther Greenwood, the protagonist, is someone you can sympathize with. Even if you don't feel like killing yourself, everyone knows what it's like to worry about the future. The Bell Jar follows Esther Greenwood through her descent into insanity, or something like that. She constantly felt like she was looking at the world as if through a bell jar.

The Bell Jar is supposed to be semi autobiographical. I believe this, because I was reading some of her diary entries in The Journals of Sylvia Plath and both women went through similar experiences. Even little details for Esther were things I read about in her private journal. She was 18 at the time she wrote them -- her ability to tell a story, to draw you in and her use of words are astounding. To know that she doubted herself...man! It sounds funny to me that I say I can relate to Sylvia Plath, yet I have no desire to kill myself. I feel like those thoughts consumed her. She saw it as an out, as the means to end her pain. I don't believe in easy way outs. God doesn't give us anything we can't handle. It's a shame that her life ended at such a young age because she had so much potential; I would have loved to read more from her. I didn't read much of Plath's poetry because I am not a poem person, really. (I remember dreading Poetry 101 a few years ago).

An example of one of her poems that caught my eye:

To a Jilted Lover

Cold on my narrow cot I lie
and in sorrow look
through my window-square of black:
figured in the midnight sky,a mosaic of stars
diagrams the falling years,
while from the moon, my lover's eye
chills me to death
with radiance of his frozen faith.
Once I wounded him with so
small a thorn
I never thought his flesh would burn
or that the heat within would grow
until he stood
incandescent as a god;
now there is nowhere I can go
to hide from him:moon and sun reflect his flame.
In the morning all shall be
the same again:stars pale before the angry dawn;
the gilded cock will turn for me
the rack of time
until the peak of noon has come
and by that glare, my love will see
how I am still
blazing in my golden hell.

Kinda morbid but hey, she did die by sticking her head in an oven. I give her credit for her dry wit. I found the book to be kind of comical at times.

What would Matthew do?

Not to knock my professor but this Art History class has got to be the worst way ever to spend 2 & a half hours. At least I had something to offer to the discussion, since we briefly touched early Christian art, including the one off to the left (Matthew the Evangelist). The professor wanted to know what the Gospel represented and I was kind of appaled when no one raised their hand to offer up the answer. "The word of God," I said. "The Holy Spirit guides Matthew as he writes." What I didn't notice until the professor pointed it out, was a little angel drawn in the upper right hand corner. It looks as if it's being drawn into Matthew's ink cup. Brilliant work of art if you ask me! I like most Christian paintings. It was a wake up call hearing the professor talking about the reasons behind the painting as if they were assumptions. To me, they are facts. The gospel isn't "the word of God"; it is THE word of God. Oh! Best news of the day: I passed the midterm with a 75%! I know that doesn't sound great compared to a 100% but this isn't my best subject so I am proud I did okay.

Moving on...

The first time I ever heard of Jodi Picoult was in 2005, when my sister was a senior in H.S and didn't have time to do her English homework. She asked if I could read a book for her. That book was Picoult's The Pact, a fascinating, almost modern day Romeo and Juliet with a twist. From then I was a lifelong fan. On the 3rd of this month, her new book Handle with Care was released. Immediately, I was hooked. This one gets a 2 thumbs up from me. I got through it so fast because it just sucks you in. The only book of hers that was hard for me to get through was Vanishing Acts but when I gave it a second try, it sucked me in too. Handle with Care is the story of six year old Willow, who was born with Osteogenesis Imperfecta, or what you may know as the brittle bone disease. Or if you haven't heard of that, surely you've seen Sam L. Jackson in Unbreakable? Anyway, Charlotte and Sean O'Keefe, Willow's parents, are struggling to make ends meet. Charlotte decides to file a wrongful birth suit, to ensure financial security for Willow for the rest of her life. Of course, drama ensues when you find out who exactly she's suing and so on. I was not happy with Charlotte throughout most of the book but by the end, I understood why she did what she did. I'm not going to include a spoiler, just in case you accidentally lay eyes on the next few lines, but I was not happy with what happens at the end. Still, a beautiful story that I really recommend! What I love about Picoult's books is that you always learn something new from each one. You can tell she challenges herself as a writer and I love that. She's definitely one of my literary heroes.