Saturday, February 24, 2007

Axel Doll

My younger brother has been reading lots of comic books latel. One of the ones he got out of the library, and read over and over again, was Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. I had heard of the story before, and I knew there were Kingdom Hearts video games, but I didn't know that there were manga books about it.
My brother kept mentioning this character called Axel, and I thought, "I want to see this character!", because one of my favorite Bionicle characters is named Axxon. And when I saw a picture of Axel, I liked him even more, because he looks like I picture Durza from the Inheritance books, except I picture Durza with shorter red spiky hair, and without the little eye markings. And then I read the book, and I really liked him, because he's mysterious, funny, and handsome. And then I had to doll him.



Base

The one on the right is my avatar at Fairytopia at the moment, which means that everytime I post something, I get to see an Axel doll. This makes me very happy.
His hair was easier to doll that I had thought it would be. I thought that the hair would be the hard part, but the silver details were actually harder to doll and make look right. It was also difficult to make his eye marking look right, and not as though he had a big ugly black bug on his face.
While I was making this doll, I kept saying to my brother, Moose, "Axel is so cute!". Moose would just look at me weirdly, because Axel is not normally cute. This doll of him is, though.
The other nice thing about making this doll was that I had an excuse to stare at lots of pictures of Axel for a long time to get all the details right.

The Rasmus - Guilty

You should go listen to this song. You don't have to watch the video, but you should listen to it while you're looking at other things. It's a very good song by The Rasmus, who are a Finnish group. They're sort of a gothic punk rock group, with very gothic videos.

Tuesday, February 6, 2007

Eragon

Yup, the best selling , instant hit, fantasy book with a major movie made from it. Here I will discuss the pros and cons of the book, but mainly the cons, because they're more interesting.
If you haven't read the books, don't read this. There will be an abundance of spoilers.

Pros
The dragons. The dragons are wonderfully written, and very interesting. I think Saphira is one of my favorite dragons from any book.
Durza. I loooove Durza. He's so nicely evil. He also seems a bit more thought out than some of the characters.
Murtagh is also a great character. He's nicely mysterious at first, and he's very three dimensional.
Brom is also a wonderfully written character. I was very sad when he died.
The female characters, especially in the second book, are very strong, and well written. And there's a decent amount of them, too.


Cons
The plot seems to drag in some places, as they wonder over the countryside for forever (but then again, I think The Fellowship of the Ring does the same thing).
The world seems a lot like Middle Earth in some ways. There are the Urgals, which resemble Orcs (although they get a lot more three dimensional in the second book, so that's okay), and the elves, who are aloof and almost perfect, and the dwarfs, who mine and aren't very sociable. It gets a bit predictable at times, since some of the races are so close to the ones in Middle Earth.
The plot resembles Star Wars a bit much for me. Brom is basicly Obi Wan (he even dies in the first book, like Obi Wan dies in the fourth movie), and Eragon resembles Luke in many ways (including the fact that he goes stupid in the second book), and he's the son of King Galbatorixes evil right hand man (no, Luke, I am your father!). This gets better in the second book, which is much better written (even if Eragon is a bit of a jerk), and has a better plots ( there are at least three major plots in the second book). He also fleshes out all of the characters more.

Although the cons seem to outweight the pros, I actually enjoyed both books a lot, and am eagerly awaiting the third. The amazing thing to me is, that while there are flaws in the books,, they are still very enjoyable to read, and he started the first one when he was 15, and he managed to finish that whole huge book.
Overall, I think that the Inheritance trilogy is a good fantasy series, and I hope Christopher Poalini keeps writing even after he finishes the third book.

Monday, February 5, 2007

Meme (Ain't that a cute word?)

Action – Favorite action movie?
Zorro 1 and 2

Beautiful – Most beautiful performer?
Audrey Hepburn

Comedy – Favorite comedy (TV or movie)?
Dharma and Greg,

Drama – Favorite drama (TV or movie)?
Deep Space Nine

Event – Historic event that kept you riveted to the TV?
Umm... The last few Olympics.

Favorite – If you could only own and watch one DVD the rest of your life, what would it be?
Totoro!

G – Favorite G rated movie?
Totoro! (I think Totoro is going to be the answer to most of these questions)

Head over heels – Which star were you in love with when you were younger?
Jason Isaacs (big surprise). He's so handsome and suave.

Ice – Did you see the “Miracle on Ice” live (tape delayed) in 1980?
What's that?

Justice – Did you watch any of the famous O.J. Simpson chase down the freeway?
Who? What? *feels very clueless*

King of the Thriller – Favorite Hitchcock movie?
North By Northwest

Laettner – Did you see Duke’s Christian Laettner make the winning shot against Kentucky?
Huh?

MP3 Player – Do you own one?
Nope. I've got a boombox and an old portable tapeplayer, that's all I need.

Never get enough – Which movie have you watched the most times and how many times have you seen it?
Totoro! Who'd've guessed that? I don't know how many times I've seen it. Lots.

Opie – Opie or the Beaver?
What are those?

Pride and Prejudice – Do you prefer A&E or 2005 release?
I haven't seen either, but I want to see the A&E version, because it has Colin Firth, who's a good actor, in it, and the 2005 one was not reveiwed well by readers of the book.

Quality – Best TV show of all time?
Deep Space Nine! I loooooooove Deep Space Nine!

Remote control – Who is in charge in your house?
Me and my mother, because the guys are clueless, although my younger brother is getting good at using it.

Super Bowl – Game or commercials?
Commercials.

Television – How many in your house?
One, which we've had all my life.

Ultimate – Who is your favorite movie star?
Ummm........ This question's too hard! Of the newer actors, I'd say Hugh Jackman, Catherine Zeta Jones, Alan Rickman Jason Isaacs (surprise!), and Rupert Grint. Of older actors, I'd say James Stewart, Cary Grant, Katherine Hepburn, and Audrey Hepburn.

Victory – The best sporting event/game you’ve watched live on TV?
The olympics. They've all been good.

Walkman – Did you ever own a Sony Walkman?
Nope.

X – Movie you wish you had never watched?
Planet of the Apes, the older version. I couldn't get to sleep for a loooong time after that one.

Yesterday – How many hours of media did you consume?
Three. We watched Oklahoma! with Hugh Jackman in it. It was really, really good.

ZZZ’s – Best music to fall asleep to?
WCPE, the classical music radio station.


That was fun! I must find more Memes *goes off meme hunting*.