Sucker Punch

Yea, so the critics hate it. So what? I LOVED it!

First off, the biggest down fall is that just like the use of words, the use of awesome action can loose a little bit of its power if it is overused. So yea, the action scenes slowly got less awesome but STILL awesome, nonetheless.

I loved how there were actually three different realities going on and how they coincided with each other. Yes, sure that made for a scapegoat to put all that awesome action into the film but I don't care! I loved it for the creativity and how even though it was dramatic and sometimes odd, the imagination can help with difficult things life throws at you. As a writer I loved this aspect.

If you go see it, forget what the critics and even what I had to say (except for this one part :P) and see it with an open mind. Let it take you over and feel the story as it goes along.

Top 10 favorite literature romances

I actually stole this idea from a blog that I follow: Anna Reads. It's cute and a good site but her list was just awful so I had to make one of my own. :P

#1

Ron and Hermione (Harry Potter)




Because it's SO much harder to tell your stubborn red-headed best friend that you like him more than Harry Potter than it is to tell Mr. Darcy with his HUGE tracks of land!

#2

Jez and Morgead (The Nightworld Series)



Because they are just SO good at what they do.

#3

Arwen and Aragorn (The Lord of the Rings)




Who do you know that would give up immortality for a sweaty woodsman?


#4

Elend and Vin (The Mistborn Trilogy)



Because love is difficult when the fate of the world depends on you.

#5

Mercy and Adam (Mercy Thompson Series)



Loving a werewolf can get "ruff" (hehehee... yes, I made up the corny!)

#6

Vivian and Aiden (Blood and Chocolate)




Because in-laws can be "ruff"! (Yea, I know...but it fit so well!)

#7

Bella and Edward (The Twilight Saga)



Yea... They're on here but even though their love is unnaturally obsessive, it's also very powerful.


#8

Rose and Dimitri (The Vampire Academy)



Could you stake your soul mate?

#9

Gus and Clara (Lonesome Dove)



The wild west was scary and Clara was amazing.

#10

Julian and Kelly (Nightmares and Butterflies)






Yes, I stole the pictures because as of yet, this couple doesn't exist in the media world.

And they are here because it's quite difficult to be in love with someone you're supposed to kill.

Whoo! That took longer than I thought it would. XD

Pocket Frogs

One of the managers at work showed me this game and I commandeered the hubs's ipod since I don't have an iphone and started playing. It's called Pocket Frogs and it's free and it's so cute and awesome!!

Basically you have a BILLION different types of frogs and colors and you get to breed them into how you want or into requests that the computer sends you or weekly sets or for gifts or cause you just wanna! The cool thing about this game is there is only so much you can do in one sitting and while some people might not like it, I do since it means I'm not spending HOURS just sitting there wasting away on a silly game. I do still probably spend too much time on it but it's just so cute.

I totally recommend this game to anyone with access to the apple apps. And here's to hoping they'll make it available on FB!

Barnyard BBQ

Today's special blog post brought to you after a nap much interrupted by my puppy who either wanted to sit on my head or chew on my husband's favorite tie (he succeeded in doing both). I posted a few pics of him with this blog. The second one was while he was trying to chew on me and I was trying to get a picture. The first is I finally got him to sit still for a second but he was leaning to try and sniff at me. And yes, my bedroom floor is a bit messy. :P

Last night my husband took our family to Barnyard BBQ. It's a local restaurant right by his new work place that offers lots of different food and yet some of the same good ol' stuff.

The building is small, almost as if it were a trailer transformed into a restaurant. The decor is all country stuff with wagon wheels and pictures of farm and country life.

I want to give it a great review because my hubs really liked it but I'm struggling to do so and to tell the truth. Amory got hot dogs with mac and cheese. The hot dogs were definitely over cooked and looked like red leather. The mac and cheese was good which is the side dish I also chose.

My main dish was the french dip sandwich. To be honest, it wasn't very good. I couldn't finish it off and I'm not known for being a big food waster. The au jus sauce was definitely bland and there was just something about the consistency of the meat that made me think of other things that may have actually come from a barnyard.

Michael, the hubs, got beef brisket with potato salad and onion rings. His was definitely the best of all the food. The potato salad was classic without being over-done and the onion rings were the basics. The brisket had BBQ sauce which flavored it up nicely and it pulled apart smoothly.

Another con to our experience was the portion versus cost of the meal. As Americans, we're used to big portions and I was honestly surprised with how small the entrees were for the price. We got two sodas, an appetizer (good old standby cheese sticks) and three dishes (one of which was a kid's meal). This cost us nearly $40. That's not a ton of money but I'm thinking we could have gone to another place and eaten more for less (and maybe even liked it).

So perhaps Barnyard BBQ is good when it comes to the brisket but for all else, just go somewhere else.

Two Cool New Writing Sites

I was browsing the interwebz looking for a group of writers that could somehow get me motivation and guidance with writing my books and came across writing.com. Haven't spent a ton of time on there yet but it looks really promising.

Then on FB today, someone posted this blog called Anna Reads and I got super excited about it. She LOVES YA Lit and takes review requests. I'm going to stalk her site a little more before I'll see if she'll read my book where the words resemble mashed potatoes more than actual plot lines and see what she thinks. We'll see where this goes. :)

Photo stolen off of a creative writing website. XD

DCUO

DC Universe Online is a VERY new MMORPG. I stopped playing WOW a bit to give it a whirl. Obviously, an MMORPG is a difficult thing to really critique in one post but I'm going to highlight what I think are important aspects of the game and hopefully not spend too long on this. >.<

Character creation: 4 out of 5 coins

Better than WoW but worse than City of Heroes. Of course, it could be said that COH has TOO many options and that it just gets chaotic trying to pick everything that you like for your character. DCUO has a careful balance where it doesn't take you forty-five minutes to pick out an outfit and yet it's kinda hard to get the same character as anyone else. There are two sets of power combinations- a physical and a "magical" (so to speak). You can mix and match them all instead of having one set "class" for your character. This really enhances the uniqueness of your char.

Graphics: 3 out of 5 coins

The graphics are good as far as the world is concerned but I gave it one less number because I personally believe they should have gone with just a touch more cartoony. It'd be awesome to play in a world that looked just a little bit more like comics than it does real life. This is compared especially when you get a cut-scene and it's done all in comic book artistry and it's all pretty and stuff and then you pop back into the game and it's all real life and junk.

Game play: 4 out of 5 coins

Game play is unlike any MMORPG that I've ever played before. You use your mouse a TON which is why I gave it 4 coins instead of 5. I was worried that I'd break my mouse or something by wearing it out. >.< This aspect of the game is also influenced by the fact that it is available for the console so they'd have to make it accessible for a controller- which I've actually heard is the preferred method of playing even for PC users.

The actual skills and spells that your character has aren't based on a "cool down" but more of a build up of certain elements like mana or rage. This leaves the actual fighting less turned-based and more active. It has a completely different feeling compared to WoW that does take some time to get used to.

Gear system: 4 out of 5 coins

The gear system is pretty cool. You can lock the "looks" of your character so it'll keep the same style you picked at the beginning or you can change it up with new gear you find as you go along on your missions that aren't available in the beginning selections so you can at least see visually how far others have progressed in the game (if they've unlocked their gear). This also means you're not stuck with a style you first picked out and then decide you hate two hours later. This category didn't get all 5 coins though because the system is not casual-player friendly. By level 23, I still wasn't sure what kind of stats I needed for my character and her certain power sets.

Storyline: 5 out of 5 coins

My background isn't necessarily the most comic book savvy but I do know the basics and this game really sticks to them. I LOVED running into all kinds of classic characters and interacting with them. You can pick Batman (and lots of awesome others) as your mentor and then run around doing missions for him. I was like "YEA! BATMAN said I did a good job! WOOT!"

It was also cool to play the mission plots and run into favorites. "Hi Robin!"

Main concerns about the game:

Chat system is AWFUL. Obviously console players don't chat a whole bunch textually but PC gamers, I like to think, chat it up a bit more. Basically, it's difficult to chat and play at the same time. You're so busy using the mouse while fighting that it's impossible to talk like you might be able to during a WoW battle. Essentially, it's one player game in a world that just happens to have other players in it. Luckily, you've got Batman to keep you company.

Level cap is 30 and is easily attained in a 10 day trial period. That is messed up.

You can use your main transportation ability from the very start. This is comparable to having an elite mount in WoW at level 1. Traveling is crazy easy and yet since you need to travel a lot to get to different missions, I'm not entirely sure that's a bad thing.

The game does feel too easy and I wonder how long I would last playing it. On one hand, you can create TONS of characters and never get the feeling of repetition (except for the missions, of course) but on the other hand, you hit 30 in three weeks and there is just only so much raiding and pvping you can do. This last reason is why I haven't felt comfortable shelling out some cash yet because I'm not sure it would have the longevity that WoW certainly does. Players complain that you can't ever totally "beat" an MMORPG but if you can, it'd be SUPER boring and people just wouldn't stay with it.

As of right now, I'm in limbo and I guess that probably means I shouldn't buy it. It's an awesome game but I'm just not sure I'd stick with it long enough to warrant spending much money on it.

Update on BP and upcoming review for DCUO!

Writing is going SUPER slow. I'd like to say it's because I'm super busy selling my other books and being awesomely rich but it's not that at all. I'm just freezing in my house and my fingers don't want to type. Oh and also, I'm just super lazy.

BP: 12 pages.

On another note, I played a trial for 10 days of DCUO (DC Universe Online). Be ready to see a review on the game soon (maybe even today if I get too un-lazy) and see why I'm still not sure if I want to buy it or not.

P.S. Batman rocks!!