Some of you readers may know I live in Washington state. Without going into details about exactly where I'm from, let's just say that if you've read Twilight, you'll have read about my hometown. I first read the book shortly after it came out, not because it was a huge national craze (it wasn't at that point), but because our local newspaper ran a story about it. Our newspaper has to search out news a little bit, so a book taking place there is sort of a big deal. So I read the first one, casually enjoying it, started the second one, had to return it to the library and never finished.

Fast forward several years to the present. Until about three weeks ago, I had not seen the movie. I wasn't hugely oppsed to it, I just knew that I would be risking all my man-points (yep, this lady has man-points). However quite a few of my friends have been counting down the days until the second movie comes out, and being shown a few scenes I decided to break down and watch the whole thing.

Not brilliant acting, not brilliant movie-making, but mildly entertaining.

Then, because the ending is left so open for a sequal, I'm thinking I better go see the next one in a few weeks. But wait, I don't want to be one of those people that has only seen the movie! This of course, means I had to read the books.

So I did. All of them. I kept reading, not because they are well written, but the stories are at least somewhat intriguing. It's pretty cool to read about characters doing things in your home. A few things realy got on my nerves though, and I mean aside from Stephenie Meyer's lack of adjective vocabulary (if I have to gaze into Edward's liquid topaz eyes one more time, I swear...) No, the things that bugged me woud not be noticed by the avarage reader (not just because I'm twice the average reader's age either). There are several things that they say that someone who lived in the area would never say. Nothing major generally. However, I don't recall the situation or even which book it was in, but once someone was giving directions, and they said, "take the one-oh-one north." (Hwy. 101, the main thoroughfare around the peninsula) Nothing sounds wrong wiht that statement. But no one calls it "THE one-oh-one." It's simply "one-oh-one." "Take one-oh-one north," it should have read. Several time she also calls it a freeway, which it most definitely is not. We're talking two-lane, narrow highway. There is also a reference to "Crescent Lake." It took me a few beats to realize she was talking about lake crescent. If you went to the Olympic Peninsula and asked for directions to "Crescent Lake," people would look at you blankly until they understood.

I know these are not hugely important, and they don't change anything about the story. But it's those little things that bugged me the most. Perhaps I am just protective of my beolved home, and think it should be treated with the proper reverence.

-biscuit

P.S. Seriously though, have you SEEN those warewolve's bodies?!?!?

P.P.S. I may or may not be wearing bunny ears right now... Fyi...

Midterms are upon me already. Today in my voice lesson my voice teacher was trying to encourage me to practive and be motivated, and she said "Hey, at least your homework is music. You could be having to do math problems!" I kinda laughed and said yeah, but then realized that I would much rather do math than practice music. Math is not emotionally trying. It does not touch your soul, it just IS. And I think my soul could use a break.

-biscuit 

I've been told I have great facial expressions. Some of my personal favorites are the "Are-you-kidding-me," and "I-care-why?" This tends to give the impression tha I don't care about anything, and generally this holds true, at least in the more superfluous areas of my life. One area that does not transcend though is my readership, small though it may be. I wish I could say I wrote only for myself, but in truth, I care a great deal that someone would care enough about my thoughts, experiences and observations to read them and leave their own two cents.

It would be so much easier if it didn't matter to me.

Do you think anyone posts public blogs and honestly does not care at all one way or the other if anyone comments?

QOTD: "Sometimes the stones in your hands are good for throwing, sometimes they are good for building, and sometimes they are what's dragging you down."

P.S. Hey tech-nerds... Are you as into the conceptual Kyocera Eos as I am?

According to my professor, music is a system of proportions in service to a spiritual impulse, and our job as musicians and music theorists is to make subjective calls on complicated relationships of objective facts.

Wow.

According to me, music theory is absolutely fascinating, and rediculously confusing.

The expecations of me keep getting higher, and I feel like my potential keeps getting lower and lower. WIth every passing term I feel further and further away from understanding and success. I have yet to figure out if this is the "I was smart, then I went to college" phenomenon, or the "The more you know, the more you know you don't know" phenomenon.

Something like a phenomenon. (Uh huh, go ahead daddy...)

Oh LL Cool J, where have you gone? Where has all the good rap gone, long tiiiime passing... Where has all the good rap gone, long tiiiiiiime ago...

But I digress.

Perhaps the more my mind is opened the more vulnerable I feel. I have gotten a lot of support from the faculty lately, which has been very much appreciated.

On a more uplifting note, these are two of the most subtly powerful videos I've seen in a while. Check it out. This one too. Take ten minutes and watch them both.

-biscuit

I get quite irritated when people say "wow, your camera takes really great pictures!" It's surprising sometimes how often peope say that too... I mean really? My camera?!?! Ugh.

Maybe sometime I'll get around to repacing my broken camera. Until then, I'll make do.

I just got back from a little photography expidition. Went well, but I'm tired. Art is really the art of seeing, which can be quite exhausting.

However, I have decided that autumn is nature's way of annually reminding us that death can be beautiful.

-biscuit

Or, the moments that leave me speechless.

Dumb tourist quite of the week:

I was talking to my group of fishermen before we left the dock, reassuring them the rainy weather would not make for bad fishing, in fact quite the opposite (obviously not real fishermen), and I mentioned that the weather on the docks is usually the worst on the island; it gets much milder going north or south. Then I'm offered this gem:

"Island? I thought Alaska was a state!"

After two years, I still don't really know if I love my job or hate it.

On another train of thought, since I know you have all been worried, I'll let you know that I don't have leukemia. I might have some other platelet disorder, but even that I'm not too worried about. My guess is that I work too hard and don't take care of myself the way I should.

-biscuit

Or, "I don't want to step on anyone's toes, but I wore my steel-toed boots, so..."

Maybe it shouldn't be a big deal, and to many others it isn't. But to me, it is. It's a very big deal.

I want my bus back. #790, my constant companion from last summer. They said I would have dibs on her this year, my boss said I could have her. Now the back pedling is commencing.

It's not just a bus; it's my haven. I know her quirks, I know the exact placement of all her switches, I know whats normal and whats not. The mirrors and seat all set to my specifications... I know how you have to jiggle the front compartment handle to get it to open, because let's face it, she's been truckin' since 1972. I know her turning radius and the speeds she shifts gears. I know you have to move the microphone before you turn it on, or the wiring will squeak. I know you can sit in the middle of the back seat with your legs on the arm rests on front of you, and while it may look like a gyno-chair, it's the best nap placement.

Here's to hoping he will let her go. Because legitimate or not, to me, it's important.

And I can tell she misses me.

-biscuit

Smile for me daddy.

Grills. Whats up with them. This qestions goes out to all my (zero) Hoodstarz readers (does that one even still exist?).

Unfortunately I found myself in the position a few nights ago of watching the music video for the Whisper Song by the Ying Yang Twins (We'd been watching Lonely Island videos, decided to check out some origionals).

I'm not all that up on the gangsta ways, and as such don't have much experience with "grills" as the kids are calling them. All I know is that for the first half of the video, at least the portion I watched, I thought Mr. Ying or Mr. Yang, I don't know whch one is which, had a set of grossly rotton, braces clad teeth. Then I realized I'm suposed to find this attractive.

In other news it's being said that Michael Jackson will be melted down and made into Legos, so kinds can play with him for a change.

And in even more important news, I'm back in the hemisphere, no longer have a fever, and leave tomorrow for Alaska. Will someone shoe me where my slow down button is? I can't find it.

-biscuit