Chronicles of Narnia, the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

Yay it's Christmas!!! Yes, yes, anyway recently I saw The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Here I'll give you a little side note. Tolken and C.S. Lewis (LOTR and Narnia) were actually very good friends. They often talked about their similar worlds which I will explain is quite funny.

First of all the story seemed to go by slowly. Why? Well first of all you need to understand something. C.S. Lewis's boooks are old and they are slow to get into the story. See his world is for children because the books are only around 200 pages each and they contain small vocabulary. So now you know that let's get into it. The story just seemed to take forever to get juicy because it took Susan, Petter, Lucy, and Edward for forever to get into the wardrobe to transport to Narnia. Yes, I realize the direction needed to establish a settting and stuff but it took 2 visits until all 4 were in there! First Lucy, then Lucy and Edward, and finally all four. Thus because they take too many visits it kind of boggs down the story presentation because the audience feels the story needs to move along faster and not linger.

Yet you'd think that when the children finally reach Narnia that it would seem more interesting. But this is not true. Once again the producers bogg down the audience. How? Well they established the enemy too late, thus this creates the feeling that the White Witch doesn't seem like a huge threat in the beginning. So because they established the enemy too late, the audience can loose interest because the witch isn't exciting enough. If the producers would have established the White Witch sooner it would have helped the story. How? Well the witch would have provided a sense of more urgency if the producers would have made her more of a threat to the children in the beginning. Therefore this threat would have produced anticipation thus making the movie more interesting.

But the producers did a really good job on Aslan! What made him so intriuging was the way he looked. Instead of usuing a puppet or a real lion the producers created Aslan digitally. Thus, they can enhance and make Aslan do more complicated things which intriguis the auidence. Yet because they did Aslan digitally it provides the feeling of power and intelligence. His voice also contributes to this because they choose Liam Neeson as Aslan's voice. His voice is so gentle yet strong. Therefore, his soft voice belies the experience and strength of heart Aslan has.

So yes I did like Chronicles yet it just seemed like a smaller version of Lord of the Rings. But Aslan rules!!! hehe ;)

Scarlet Letter book ooh shivers

Recently we've been reading the Scarlet Letter in class, so now I've decided I can finally talk freely of it because it's something good to analyze and prove my thought on.

Why does the Scarlet Letter make me frustrated while reading? Frist of all the text is small, so there are more words per page. This causes me to become uncomfortable because I'm used to reading larger text. Therefore I cannot get into the book as much because I'm spending too much time trying to connectrate on reading the words so I don't loose my place.

Yet there is another down side.
In my opinion the author spends too much time trying to explanation things like details, or emotions. For example a single paragraph could take up the whole page just on explaining how someone felt or their surroundings! Thus because there is too much detail it boggles (or overwhelms) the reader. The reader can begin to loose interest because they are not always concerned about itty bitty details. Thus because the reader looses interest they can begin to loose their place and not understand what's happening in the story.

Also another thing that I dislike about the book is the vocabulary. Sure I can look up words but I come across so many that I don't know! Because of this I tend to get more frustrated because I don't understand the sentence or what's happening. Plus the author sort of uses old english (yes I understand this book was written a long long time ago) which can annoying. This is because the reader is not used to speaking (or writing) old english so it just seems unnatural and can further push the reader to loose interest.

Yes dispite my comments I do like the Scarlet Letter (somewhat) because I've never read it, but I've heard about it, so I was naturally curious about the book. Hey but now you know why I dislike reading books that have very small text. :) (although maybe I've just been reading too many Harry Potter books ;))

Why can't I enjoy December/Christmas?

Yes it's that time of year again when you play in the snow, sing songs, watch movies, and mostly importantly buy presents. We should all be enjoying this season right? Wrong.......

As I have grown older, it seems that Christmas has lost its magic. But what horrible thing would cause me to think this way? Well let's first take into account this: High School. The teachers always pack assignments and huge projects in right before Christmas. But why? Why do they have to do this dreadful thing to us? I believe it's because the term ends shortly after Christmas. Thus the assignments are usually due before Christmas so that the students don't have to worry about projects over Christmas. But do you see what happends? Because the teachers assign so many assignments, it just adds up. Therefore students can't really begin to think about Christmas because they have to concentrate on homework projects. This stresses me because I want to think about Christmas and not school. Christmas should be a time of relaxation and fun but it because of assignments it just doesn't always seem like what it should be.

The second thing we should look at is what I stated above, when you grow older Christmas just doens't seem as fun. Why? Well when I was little I never knew what I was going to get for Christmas. I always made a list and hoped Santa would get me what was on it. So by the time I found the presents under the tree, I anxiously waited and dreamed of what I was to find on Christmas day. This was always so much fun for me because I was excited and I badly wanted to open those presents. But now that I'm older I don't believe in Santa Claus. I know that it is my parents who get the gifts, not Santa. Also instead of wondering what would be under the tree, I knew what was under it. This is because I now go with my mom to buy the presents I want. Therefore because I don't believe in Santa and I know what I'm going to find on Christmas it has lost it's magic.....

This seems really sad. But once School is over and all of my tests and assignments are over, Christmas will be somewhat more enjoyable since everything will be over! yay!

To draw or not to draw, that is the question

Wow I think I'm really running out of things to analyze. Maybe I should create a list so then I wouldn't be reduced to figuring out what to write about. Anyways here you go! ;)

As it approches closer and closer to Christmas, I began thinking. Why am I so behind in art? Well from that question there are many reasons. First let's analyze why it takes me so long to complete a picture. You have to understand something about me and that is I'm a perfectionist when it comes to art. Why? Well it's because I want my picture to look as realistic or perfect as possible or otherwise in my opinon the picture will look terrible. I am always self concious of how my picture looks because just like my last art teacher said, "You will always be able to find the miskakes in your picture because you took the time to draw it." Therefore because I am self consious of my pictures, I will take more time to make it look excellent. So this is one of the reasons why it takes me so long to complete a picture.

Secondly, because we have a new art teacher this year in AP, she believes that we don't have very many worthy pictures for the AP test (portfolio). So because of this she assigns one picture a week in art. Now as noted above, I tend to take more time on a picture to make it look good. So from this you can see why I'm behind. How? Well the pictures just keep adding up since I will take so much time on finishing one. Yet because I take more time on finishing one, I tend to not have an idea for the next one. This is because I was so focused on finishing it that I hadn't begun to think an idea up for the next one. So as you can see I get more behind because every week she would assign a new project whether or not your finished with the others.

In conclusion, hopefully you can understand something. Many students in class (like me) can get behind easily in AP art because of the weekly assignments. We take time on pictures because we all want them to look good so that they can be used in the AP portfolio. Thus we will be spending most of our Christmas vacation catching up (which I don't want to do).