WTF Wednesday

I love the original Star Trek, and I love Queen.  What's better than Captain James Tiberius Kirk and Freddie Mercury on their own?  How about both of them together?  Well, guess what?  We have that right here!  William Shatner sings Bohemian Rhapsody!  This doesn't sound like enough WTF for you?  Watch the video and see!

Water For Elephants

I got this book yesterday afternoon.  Less than 48 hours later, I'm done.  I read a 331 page book in less than two days....during school.  That doesn't happen to me anymore.  Not with college-level assignments and a part-time job as well.  I guess that just means that this was a really, really good book!  I quite simply could not put it down!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen is my book club reading selection for November, but since I was scared I wouldn't have time to read it (just like all of my other book club books), I decided to start early so that I could actually find myself prepared for the discussion.  I had no idea that I would finish this early!

Water for Elephants is an amazing book, and I seriously recommend it!  The plot grabs your attention early on, and keeps you interested all the way from the start of the Prologue to the end of Chapter 25!  The tone varies from dramatic and powerfully sad to humorous and amusing.  It's an emotional roller coaster that leaves you feeling satisfied.  To be honest, I was a bit leery about how the novel would end, but I believe I can safely say that I'm satisfied with it.

A quick summary: Jacob Jankowski is in his nineties and living in a nursing home.  Even though he can't remember his own age, he still remembers all of his adventures from his life in the circus as though it were yesterday.  He worked as the veterinarian in the menagerie for the Benzini Brothers Circus during the Great Depression.  It is here that he meets two very important ladies: Marlena, a beautiful circus performer; and Rosie, a very special elephant.  However, things are not all perfect for Jacob, as he also has to deal with August, Marlena's charming, but crazy husband, and Jacob's boss.

I hope you all enjoy this as much as I did!  And please tell me what you think if you've read it :)

WTF Wednesday

This is one of the stranger things I'll be posting for WTF Wednesday.  My brother showed this to me, and although, I found it to be very funny, I was also very confused.  And just for the record, I have not played Kingdom Hearts, so I really have no idea who this character is.  Also, I've not heard the original version of this song.  Either way, it's really amusing.

Book Club Returns!

I've registered for book club again this semester; and I'm so excited!  I missed the first two books, but, at least I get to read the November book: Water For Elephants.  I'll be sure to post a review when I'm done, and I'll be better about attending book club this coming semester :)

The Return of Don Quixote (And of Literary Blog Posts!)

I just finished reading my first G.K. Chesterton novel: The Return of Don Quixote.  I was actually in the library looking for a completely different Chesterton novel (The Man Who Was Thursday), when I stumbled upon this one.  Now, thanks to my dear grandpa, Don Quixote is one of my favorite literary figures.  I love the story, the ideal....I own the book, the musical soundtrack, and even hand-carved wooden figures of the characters!  So, when I saw that there was what appeared to be a Cervantean sequel, I jumped at the chance to read it.

Now, I'll set you all straight right away.....this is not a sequel.  In fact, it took me until I was about five chapters from the end to figure out why the title was what it was, and it was nearly the second to last chapter where I saw the first reference to Don Quixote!  However, that does not take away from the many merits of this book!

I'll be brief, since I'm rather tired, but it was overall a very interesting read.  It was very funny, with humor reminiscent of Wodehouse, with theological and philosophical views intertwined (Chesterton was, after all, a Catholic philosopher).  The plot did get a bit confusing at times, but it was still worth it.  Honestly, it was a delightful reading experience, and, as I crack open my next book, I'm proud to say that it is ALSO a Chesterton: The Man Who Was Thursday.  Hopefully, there will be updates about that one as well.

I'd recommend this book if you like humor, philosophy, and a bit of theological undertones.  But, one thing I'd like to stress about this book: Chesterton cannot be rushed.  If you don't have the time to devote to him, this book will take forever.  But, once you give it your full attention, it's actually quite a quick and easy read.  The last few chapters, in fact, flew by, leaving me without reading material for the rest of the day :P

I'm having trouble creating a good summary, since there is so much going on.  I guess I would just suggest going into it blind, since that's what I did....sometimes, books are more exciting when you don't really know what is going to happen.

Good Reads

Hey!  Just curious, but do any of you have an account on www.goodreads.com?  I've just started an account, and so far, I have no friends on the site.  I was wondering if any of my wonderful bloggers would happen to have accounts as well?  I'd love to friend you on the site :)

If you have an account, and would like to friend me, please include your user name in the comments.  If you don't want me to post your comment on Ramblings, then just include something along the times of "don't post this" somewhere in your comment :)

Halloween 4 (2011)

So, I really should be working on my five page essay about Sir Thomas Wyatt that's due tomorrow, but instead, I'm going to post Halloween #4 for y'all :)

I found this game online, and thought it was just so cute that I had to share.  It's a point-and-click find-the-differences game, which might not be for everyone, but there's a cute little story to go with it, and if nothing else, that should be worth it :)

The game is in two parts: Lilith and Emma.  It's basically the same story, but told from different points of view.  Lilith is a little vampire girl out on Halloween, where she meets a human girl named Emma.  Cute little story, not much I can say without telling everything, since it's fairly short...but, it's a fun Halloween friendship story.  Enjoy :)

Lilith - Meet Emma in time for Halloween

N.B. I've only posted Lilith's story here.  Once you complete it, there's an option at the end to play the other game.  Just click on that, and it should take you right to Emma's story :)

WTH Wednesday is Now WTF Wednesday...

That's just because I like the sound of it better. Also, WTH always looks like I'm saying "with" and forgot to add the "i".  Like this change?  Don't like it?  What do you prefer: WTH or WTF?  Or do you even have a different idea?  Let me know in the comments.  And in the meantime, here's your weekly WTH/WTF.



I don't know what it is, but this picture always makes me crack up!



Blogger is Being Stupid...

And it won't let me post comments on anyone's blogs, or even read them.  If you comment on my blog, however, since I moderate the comments I'll still be able to read them.  However, once they're published, I can't access them.  So, please don't feel like I'm ignoring you if I don't respond to a comment, or if I don't comment on your blogs.  I read every comment y'all post on my blog, and I'm still reading all of your blogs, too.....Just, I can't comment for some reason.  This is a new development that started on Tuesday, and I'm currently looking into things.  I apologize for the inconvenience!

Brad Pitt is Cute

This little child is precious!  Just a little pick-me-up to brighten your day :)

Halloween 3 (2011)

Yes, yes, I am well aware that this is my third post this morning!  Don't worry; it will be the last!  For today's Halloween post, I wanted to give a list of the classic Universal Horror films.  I love these films very much, but since there are so many of them, it can be hard to keep track of them all.  So, I'll be listing them below :)  I'm only focusing on the werewolf (Laurence Talbot), Frankenstein, and Dracula sagas, so please don't be offended if I fail to mention, say, The Mummy's Hand, and that happens to be your favorite monster movie ever.  Also, I know there are other werewolf movies produced by Universal studios, but they are both stand-alone films, and I'm only focusing on the Larry Talbot (Lon Chaney, Jr.) films, so I won't be mentioning the other ones.  Maybe I'll do a post about those later?

I'll group each series in chronological order.  Anything that is marked with an asterisk (*) spans into at least one of the other sagas.  If you have any questions, please feel free to leave them in the comments!

Frankenstein

-Frankenstein (1931)

-Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

-Son of Frankenstein (1939)

-Ghost of Frankenstein (1942)

-Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943)*

-House of Frankenstein (1944)*

-House of Dracula (1945)*

-Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)*

Dracula

-Dracula (1931)
      -"Spanish" Dracula (1931)

-Dracula's Daughter (1936)

-Son of Dracula (1943)

-House of Frankenstein (1944)*

-House of Dracula (1945)*

-Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)*

The Wolf Man

-The Wolf Man (1941)

-Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943)*

-House of Frankenstein (1944)*

-House of Dracula (1945)*

-Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)*

Personally, I'm a huge fan of the Wolf Man movies :)  These are some of my favorite films ever!  But, I hope you totally enjoy all of these movies!  The only thing I'd like to comment on is Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein, because while it comes out AFTER House of Dracula, the plot seems to come from earlier in the Wolf Man saga, like possibly between House of Frankenstein and House of Dracula.

One final note: "Spanish" Dracula is basically the same film as the 1931 Dracula, filmed on the same sets by the same studio.  However, there is a completely different cast, and--you guessed it--all the dialogue is in Spanish!  As much as I love the classic, English version, the Spanish production is a must-see, and considered by some to be the better of the two!

Word of the Day!

While this is totally not the word of the day in the Writing Center, I thought it was an awesome sounding word after I found it in a Paul Muldoon poem that I was reading.

Falderal (Fal-duh-ral) (n.)

1. Mere nonsense; foolish talk or ideas

2. A trifle; gimcrack; gew-gaw

WTH Wednesday

Hey, guys, and welcome to the second installment of WTH Wednesday!  My good friend Sarah introduced me to Dara O'Briain with this video, and I thought while perhaps not a total wth (or wtf?) it was still really funny.  If you'd prefer something a bit more wtf, then please feel free to complain about this outrage in the comments, and I'll remedy the issue for next week :)

Halloween 2 (2011)

Happy October 3rd, everyone!  Halloween is now exactly four weeks away!  For today's post, I thought I'd combine a bit of creepy with something useful.  And today's theme is centered around my favorite cannibalistic psychiatrist: Dr. Hannibal Lecter :)

Besides this stunning picture at the top of the page (lol), I'm also going to include a quick clip from The Silence of the Lambs (1991), and a fun makeup tutorial for painting Lecter's infamous "bite-mask" on your face.  I also had a parody that I wanted to post as well, but it was taken down by YouTube, and I've yet to find it again.  Perhaps, if I do, there could be another Halloween Lecter post, but I'm really not sure.

Happy October!

Hello, everyone!  And happy October :)

As I'm sure y'all already know, Halloween is fast approaching!  So, for something fun, I'm going to post Halloween-related things on my blog during the course of the month; I hope you guys enjoy!  I'm not sure how often I'm going to be able to update, but I'll try my best.  These items can include (but are not limited to) videos, movie and book recommendations, pictures, stories, folklore, etc.  Just some cool stuff and all in good fun (even the scary bits!)

I'd like to kick off the month with a little video that I always think about at Halloween now.  The Rocky Horror Picture Show was introduced to me by a now estranged friend, and has become somewhat of a staple for me around Halloween.  The original video I was shown had two songs on it, but sadly, it's been taken down by YouTube because of copyright.  So, I've included both songs on here, but separately.  If this is your first time listening to anything from Rocky Horror, then this might be a good time to check it out; it's a very fun movie :)