+My Jovian Dreams+

I've just finished reading the last book in the Black Magician Trilogy by Trudi Canavan, and I feel like I need to write some sort of review to express my feelings on the subject.  I found the book to be similar to most of the magic-oriented books I've read.  It had some elements from stories like Harry Potter and the Books of Pellinor: a school for people with magic abilities, young magical protagonist who came from nothing but is suddenly vastly important in the saving of the world, and at least one morally ambiguous character that seems like an antagonist but could prove to be useful by the end.   The plot of the Black Magician Trilogy was intriguing, and I really found myself getting emotionally involved with the characters. 

The story centers around an impoverished young girl named Sonea who has grown up in the slums of Imardin with her aunt, uncle, and a thieving gang of friends.  During the Purge (the yearly event when the King has the magicians run all of the slum-dwellers or "dwells" out of the city in the hopes of cutting down on crime), Sonea and her friends join in the protest, throwing rocks at the magicians trying to drive them from their homes.  Sonea's anger unleashes a hidden magic potential that sends her stone through the magicians' shield and shocks magicians and slum-dwellers alike.  As rogue magicians are not tolerated in Imardin, Sonea must be hunted down...and so begins the Black Magician's Trilogy.

Like most other books of this genre, there was plenty of new terminology to memorize and lots of names that are nearly impossible to pronounce.  One problem I noticed in Trudi's writing is that she tends to use names that look and sound similar for different characters.  For example, there is Farand--a young Elyne magician, and then there is Faren--a Lonmar thief.  Also Sarrin--an elderly magician, and Serin--a man who teaches Sonea how to read.  And let's not forget Larkin, Lorlen, and Lorkin (spoiler warning).   It's also hard to keep track of the random animal names she has created (ceryni is easy to remember but zill, limek, and yeel are too far in left field to remember much about). 

I also have a problem with the ending of the final book.  This part will obviously contain spoilers so I'm going to hide it behind the cut for people who may have stumbled across this post unwittingly.

( WARNING: This cut contains copious amounts of SPOILERS...Click at your own risk. )
The last portion of my review/rant does not need to be hidden behind the cut as it contains no real spoilers for the series.
The American versions of the book covers crack me up.  They have very little to do with anything that's going on in the series.  The first one looks more like it should be the third book cover to me...especially since those characters look older and are wearing outfits that would fit much better with the third books plot.


The second book cover is AWESOME for the simple fact that there was NO WINGED HORSES in the series at all.  I have to wonder if these illustrations were made for a different series and just pasted on these books by mistake.


The last book cover is okay, but who is that old guy?  While there was a lot of fighting in the last book, I fail to recall a scene that looked anything like this.


Anyway, you've finally reached the conclusion of my review for the Black Magician's Trilogy.  I'm sorry it was so long and incoherent, but I appreciate you sticking it out until the end.  :)  Overall, I would definitely recommend the series to readers who enjoy fantasy novels.  If you liked the Harry Potter or Books of Pellinor series, chances are you will enjoy this as well.  Just be prepared for your fair share of ups and downs throught the series.

Yes, it's that time again.  It's been quite a while since I posted last as I've been busy with things like trying to graduate and doing my internship at the hospital.  Since I've been one I've picked up quite a few new obsessions along the way.  One of my most recent "people" obsessions would be Hrithik Roshan, the emperor of Bollywood.  I've recently watched a good portion of his movies (all in Hindi, of course) and I've fallen in love with his most quirky, awkward character, Rohit.  Rohit is the star of Koi... Mil Gaya and Krrish and also has a little role in a few commercials. 



He is so adorable that I just want to take him home and keep him! XD This is easily my FAVORITE character Hrithik plays, although I really enjoyed his performance in Dhoom 2.  He had some pretty sweet moves in that movie. ;P  He has so many good movies that it is hard to choose a favorite character, which is why I love this video from a show in India.  It has Hrithik dancing as 3 of his characters from various movies...and who is that in the middle?  Why I think it's Rohit! ;)  *squee*  The first part of the video seems a little long and boring but it gets to the fun stuff later. :)

Now on to the second half of my new obsessions.  The thing I have lately become extremely obsessed with (to the point of being late to class because I couldn't pull myself away from the computer) has to be the new Let's Play phenomenon that has blossomed on YouTube and other video sites like Viddler.  I actually came across my first Let's Play video a day or two after I watched the Silent Hill movie.  I had heard of the game before, but knowing how dark and scary it was (and knowing how close I came to wetting my pants during Resident Evil games), I figured I would never play it.  The movie sparked my interest, however, and I looked it up on YouTube.  And somehow, I stumbled across L0rd Vega's Let's Play Silent Hill 2.  I started on a video somewhere in the middle of the game and liked it so much I went back and watched the Vega's first Silent Hill LP all the way through and then finished watching the Silent Hill 2 LP a few days later.  He is now working on Silent Hill 3, which all of the moronic "viewers" in the LP community seem to be freaking out about.  Dont' get me wrong, I'm ecstatic that this final installment has finally begun, but it seems that many people on YouTube have little respect the player or the other viewers who would prefer Vega to actually play it blind.  It seems Vega's methods of video upload are keeping spoilers to a minimum, keeping him a few steps ahead of the "OmG LOL @^$@#$!#% this is totally gonna 2 happen nxt so use teh shotgun" crowd who may be inclined to ruin things for the rest of us.PaleVoyager
GrayFawks

Anyway, this concludes another journal entry.  Hopefully I'll begin posting more regularly again soon.  I might start up again in May once I've graduated and moved home.  And I may start up again earlier than that if I can manage to find some time (and interesting things to talk about).  Maybe one day I'll even be good enough at video games to LP and then I can post updates about them here!!!  Or not...you know, whatever.  A girl can dream. 

Thanks for reading!

Okay, so I finished reading Breaking Dawn, fourth and final in the Twilight series and I'm not entirely sure it was all that I wanted from the final novel.  It had all the good things in it that I wanted for Bella and Edward, but it seemed...I don't know...almost too much like fan fiction in the "okay, this is what you wanted to happen? Here you go!"  Almost too easy.  And also, I found myself thinking through the middle of the book, "That's was a great ending!  Wait...it's not over?  I still have half the book left to read?  What else could she have to say?"  But it was a good book overall, and I'm sad the series is over (if indeed, it is over).  I found myself coming back to my dorm room at school thinking, "Let's check up on Bella and Edward," only to realize I was at the end of their series.  No more books for me.  :(  I guess I can always re-read them.  And also the movie is coming out, so yay!
For those of you who don't know much about the series, you're obviously behind the rest of world (or at least the "middle school-high schoo-college student-bored housewives" portion of the world).  You've probably heard the crazed fans screaming about their devotion to Edward Cullen or Jacob Black and how they either love/hate Bella and wish they were her.  Despite the crazed teenage fans, the books are actually really good.  Not because of some particularly amazing plot or anything, but because everybody knows teen romance angst + sparkly vampires and witty werewolves = FREAKING AWESOME.  Don't get me wrong, this is not in the same literary category as Jane Austen's novels, or even up there with Harry Potter (in terms of being good, plot-driven storylines).  No...Twilight is just more...I don't know...  It's like if I wrote a vampire story about myself in high school, this is what I'd want it to be!  I think everyone who reads it is like, "OMG, I totally wish this was me!"  It's just full of sparkly goodness.  I think the person who describes the story best would be this ridiculously witty girl, cleolinda, who very insightfully relates Twilight to a Twinkie. The following is a quotation directly from her lj.

A lot of people are really passionate about these books. Some of them love and defend them passionately; others... well. I'm not going to defend them any more than I'm going to defend Twinkies--you go and get yourself a Twinkie when you have a very specific kind of craving SUGARRRRR!. If you want gourmet pastry, or even a homemade cake, you know where to get that. If you're eating a Twinkie, you clearly know what you want and why you're eating it, and you know that it's not good to eat very many of them, but... you know... sometimes you just want one. And then when you're done you read it all over again. Apparently there are people who think that Twinkies count as fine dining, but... well, live and let live, I guess. "

She has taken notes on the book as she reads it and her comments are "lolarious."  I got hours (and I do mean hours of enjoyment) out of her recap of Breaking Dawn as well as the rest of the Twilight series.  Here is a link to her many annotations to the Twilight books.
 Also,  shinga, whose Headtrip comics I have read and loved for almost a year now, wrote a chapter-by-chapter summary of Twilight, which can be found here.  If you haven't read Twilight, these make the book sound absolutely horrible which, IMHO, are not horrible at all.  They are actually really good, and everyone I know who has picked up the book (INCLUDING MY OWN MOTHER) has not been able to put it down again because it's THAT awesome. If you haven't read it yet, I would really recommend it.  Plus these hilarious sites will be a lot less funny if you haven't already read and fallen in love with the "Special Snowflake" that is Bella Swan and her super-sparkly vampire boyfriend (and the new focus/obsession of  American teenagers women in general) Edward Cullen.  I feel so bad for Robert Pattinson for all the attention he's getting from his role as Edward in the upcoming Twilight movie (the opening of which has been moved up to November! Yay!!!!).  He's clearly uncomfortable with it, but he's trying to be a good sport, even when he has middle aged women proposing to him and teenage girls outraged about the fact that he isn't as perfect as Edward, the fictional sparkly vamp.  Bless him.  Here is a picture of Rob and Kristen Stewart in their roles as the quirky couple.  (By the way, the ones under the cut are stills from the actual filming so if you see a wire or two, they won't really be there in the movie :P )

This time with my brooding hunk, Sebastian Beaumont.  Beaumont doesn't usually get much camera time, and he makes up about 1\120th of my deviantART gallery.  And that just made me sad.  So I took him out for some much needed pictures!







Mmmm...I think he's just drool-worthy.  :D  Thanks, everyone, for tolerating my spam!

Some William spam...because he makes me smile! :D







I love this boy!  I had been thinking about changing his name, but until I can find something better, he'll remain William.

Anyone who knows me knows I'm easily obsessed with certain shows/people/things.  And because I'm so obsessed with these obsessions, here they are in one post!!! :D  My biggest obsession at the moment is probably Doctor Who.  The first time I met the Doctor I was in Inverness, Scotland sitting in a hotel room eating a chicken sandwich.  I turned on the tv and there, in all it's BBC glory, was the Doctor...saving the world from something or other.  Actually it was the episode "42" where David Tennet's Tenth Doctor and his companion Martha are on a ship harvesting energy from the sun.  Anyway, it was a little cheesy, but it got me interested.  When I got home I started watching it on Sci-fi and BBC America.  I completely fell in love with Christopher Eccleston's Ninth Doctor.  I've seen almost every episode up until the finale of Series 4 (I live in the US, but totally cheated and watched it on YouTube XD ).  I won't go in to it here (spoilers, you know), but I cried...and it was amazing.  Second on my list of things I'm obsessed with goes hand-in-hand with Doctor Who thanks to a community here on LJ called   ihasatardis .  LOLcats have officially taken over my life and now I spend the vast majority of my day looking them up and enjoying the lulz.  A few of my favorites are behind the cut.

I'm also obsessed with BJDs which you've probably noticed from my previous posts.  I love my dollies, and photo shoots, wardrobe changes, and posting pictures also takes up a good bit of my week.  I'm also pretty obsessed with vampires.  I pretty much get bored with most books lacking a vampire as a character.  Most of my favorite tv shows center around vampires or some other weird, immortal, sci-fi person/creature *coughWHOcough*.  Video games also occupy much of my time/thoughts, especially RPGs.  My favorites are Final Fantasy 8-12 (10 & 12 are my favorites), Chrono Cross, Radiata Stories, and Romancing Saga.  I've now wasted a good amount of time writing about stuff no one cares about...but it's nice to post something every once in a while...ridiculous and off-topic or no.   Oh and another announcement!  Robert Tonner (of Tonner dolls) is coming out with a Doctor Who line of dolls!  Dolls+Doctor = <3    And if you have time and love the Docktah as much as I do, check out the ihasatardis community for some lulz.  Watch out for spoilers though!  They're everywhere...

In my last post, I showed a couple of new dolls, but I never got around to posting actual pictures of them.  So here are a couple of photoshoot pictures!

Here is my new Narae, Darcy! :D  I LOVE her!  She's so sassy!



Here is handsome Liam, my Soom Spinel!




And last but not least is mom's Souldoll Apple, Scout!




This girl is just took cute!!! :)  Short post this time!  Hope everyone is having a great summer!  Pics of the rest of the doll family to come later! :D

My Narae and Soom Spinel came the SAME DAY, and almost at the exact same time!!!  Unfortunately, I'm stuck at school preparing for exams and I won't be able to see them until the end of next week!  I've been living off of the pictures my mom sends me.  It's kind of sad.  I just sit here and drool over them, knowing they're just hanging out at my house, 2 hours away...  But I'm still having fun photoshopping them.  I'm "virtually" changing their eyes and stuff, and I'm trying to figure out what to name them.  Here is a picture of my new Narae.


Sorry it's a little grainy.  I tried to sharpen it and blur other parts to make her stick out more from the background.  Anyway, I've colored her eyes brown because that's the color I had chosen for her before she even arrived.  I hope I still like it when I actually put them in.  I've been thinking about naming her Darcy, but I'll have to see her in person before I decide.

Here is a picture of my new Soom Spinel!!!


I've colored his purple eyes blue because, frankly, this guy rocks my socks as a blue-eyed boy.  I couldn't see him any other way.  I have two names picked out for him and I can't decide which I like better: Edward or William?

Hopefully I'll have more fun pictures after I finish with all my final exams and head home!  Stay tuned! :)

Since I'm looking for ways to put off working on my Shakespeare homework, I thought I'd post here with some of my latest doll pictures. It's funny to think that only last semester, I was completely uninterested in Narindoll Narae. I was surprised by how much I liked her when my mom bought hers (Ailish), but I was pretty sure that I did not want one for myself. We ended up buying Pippa from Dollfair International after no one had bought her at the BJD Convention in Austin, TX. Catrina from Dollfair posted her picture (along with many other unwanted and unloved girls) on Zone of Zen and the kids were quickly dubbed the "Austin Orphans." As the girls were both beautiful and already in the United States, many people took advantage of the deal and gave the little orphans good homes. My mother was one of these people, and though I thought it was kind of a silly purchase at the time, I couldn't be more grateful to her now. When I first saw Pippa's picture online, I thought she was pretty, but I wasn't exactly sold on her.  Here is the picture from the convention.
I was pleasantly surprised when she turned out to be quite beautiful in person, and after a new wig and some vintage clothes, the little orphan stole my heart and rose quickly through the ranks to become my absolute favorite out of all the dolls in my collection. Here are some of the pictures I took of my girl for Easter. She and her bunny made wonderful models as they frolicked through the garden.

    It's been an AMAZING week, but I find it hard to remember a time when I felt so tired.  Maybe it's because it's raining today, or maybe it's because I've had about 6 hours collectively to sit and think this week.  I just started my new job as a lab assistant for a human bio class I took and got an A in last semester.  I'm working two labs a week and each lab is three hours long.  The funny thing?  I LIVE for those 6 hours of human bio lab!  I really enjoyed it when I took the class last semester, and now I just get to run around and answer people's questions (which is what I always enjoyed doing in that class anyway).  I also feel like I'm actually being helpful which is a huge plus--I'm answering questions, passing out papers, grading quizzes, filling up water bottles.   It doesn't sound fulfilling, but strangely, it is!
    I also have a job as a tutor and a "lyceum ambassador" (weird title, I know), but in both of those, I sort of feel like I'm just wasting time.  I don't enjoy myself at all.  And maybe that's what jobs are all about, but I'm glad that at least for a semester or two, I can honestly enjoy what I'm getting paid to do.  Anyway, working in lab two days a week has left me pretty tired, and I also have a lab for my anatomy class that I'm enrolled in now.  So that's 9 hours a week that I'm in lab.  :\  And I'm not a Bio major.  Is something wrong here?  Thankfully, no.  I actually enjoy these classes more than I ever enjoyed any of my psychology or sociology class, and I've decided that I want to do something science-related for grad school.
    Another reason I haven't had a lot of time is because I'm the literary editor of Counterpoint (our college's literary and art magazine) and the deadline for the magazine was Monday.  I spent the better part of Thursday and Friday night going over poetry submissions and trying to pick a winner of the Literary Editor's Choice Award (which is what I won last year and how I got the job this year).  Things have calmed down a bit since Monday, though.
    On a lighter note, my mom got her Souldoll Apple yesterday!  Here's a picture!  She's yet to be named.  Hopefully I'll have some more pictures of her when I go home next month!!! :)

Okay.  Adobe Photoshop is officially AWESOME in my book.  Like most things in life (such as clothing trends or good tv shows), I'm a little late in jumping on the photoshop bandwagon.  I spent the better part of the week neglecting my collegiate studies to experiment with this marvelous program, and I'm simply squee-ing with delight at the amazing results.  I've always enjoyed doctoring my doll pictures, but photoshop has taken it to the next level of "squeee."   Here is a picture of my Elfdoll Lydia, Lizzy.  I had a ridiculous amount of fun editing it. XD



I try to keep the pictures simple, like the following picture of Pippa.  I did very little editing, but I was very pleased with the result.  The brightness and contrast were changed and I used the "diffused light" effect.  I have to admit thought that Pippa would probably still look beautiful if I took her picture by sticking her head in the photocopier.  I probably won't try it though.  That wig was too expensive.



Unfortunately, they do not all turn out so "clean" looking.  Here is a royal mess made with too many brushes and special effects...fortunately, I'm quite used to clutter so I still love the way it turned out. :)  Ailish makes a charming fairy, no?



I've been trying to develop a "style" for my doll collection--that is, something that makes my dolls' world stand out from the other dolly families.  I'm finally into the next stage of developing atmosphere of Ivy Hollow.  I've always pictured it as a dark, woodsy place, and with the help of photoshop, my visions are more easily realized.  The look I'm going for lands somewhere between The Secret Garden, The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland, and Pan's Labyrinth (minus the violence and gore), with archetypal characters from variety of novels. 
My Elfdoll Lydia's "governess"-type character is Elizabeth Craven (actually named after the main character of a completely unrelated story I've been writing).  Lizzy is based loosely on both Jane Eyre and Liz of the romance novel At the Midnight Hour.
Sebastian Beaumont (Unidoll Jace) is a mixture of Mr. Rochester from Jane Eyre, Archibald Craven from the Secret Garden, and Cain from the manga Godchild.  Sebastian's young sister Annabel (AngelRegion Ren) plays the part of his ward (think Adele from Jane Eyre/ Mary Lennox from Secret Garden/ Mary Weather of Godchild), although since it is set partially in modern times the word "ward" won't always apply. 


This is Cain Hargreaves and Mary Weather from Godchild, for those unfortunate enough to be unfamiliar with the series. Just a disclaimer: I definitely do not own this picture or the characters in it...I found it on a Cain Saga fansite. :)  The series is by Kaori Yuki.  But I digress...

The inspiration for much of my doll photography and the "looks" I go for with my dolls comes from many of my fellow doll collectors.  One woman's doll pictures I have always admired is Jay Searle.  The "old-fashion" style to her dolls and pictures is simply gorgeous.  Another inspiring doll photographer is Milkeye, whose photography was recently featured in Haute Doll Magazine.  The avatar is a link to her site.

So, it's been almost a year since my first post.  I'm pretty bad at this journaling thing... At any rate, here is a report of the goings-on of Ivy Hollow since last I posted:
Two new Elfdolls have come to live with me, Lizzy and Bells.  These lovely ladies will be formally introduced at a later date.  For now and in the interest of space, I'll just post a picture of the Elfdoll gang together with Duncan (the Wu formerly known as Prince Zane).

From left to right: ED Emma (Bells), ED Wu (Duncan), ED Lydia (Lizzy)

Here is another picture of the group plus Sebastian (my Unidoll Jace).  This is my entire SD-sized collection at the present.


In terms of MSDs, there are quite a few new faces lurking around the Hollow.  I have two new Naraes (what is the plural of Narae...Narai?) and another is one the way.  A DZ Mo and a Goodreau Rumor have also come to live with me!  The first Narae is an open-eyed tanning named Ailish.  She's technically my mother's, but as she's part of the household, I'll include her here.  The second Narae is Pippa Rose, an open-eyed pinky-white.  Both have the Basicline faceups. The two look remarkably different to have the same head sculpt.  It might just be me, but Pippa reminds me a little of a Limhwa Half-Elf.  Here is an early picture of the two.  Their looks have changed since then and continue to change on a weekly basis (although I think I've gotten Pippa's style narrowed down nowadays).

Ailish on the left, Pips on the right.

The DZ Mo is the Hollow's resident vampire.  Here's a picture...the name's Bram, by the way. ;)


The Goodreau Rumor is my most recent addition, having arrived only a few weeks ago!  Her name is Razzly.


I'm not entirely sure where every single doll comes into my Ivy Hollow storyline, but they're slowly and surely giving me hints about their personality and characters.  I also have two kiddos on the way.  I have a classic-face tanning Narae being made right now and my mom has ordered a Souldoll Apple.  Both will hopefully be here by May! :) It's pretty exciting.  I did picture all my babies today.  I left out little Harper and my AR Ren Annabel, but those two haven't changed much since I bought them.  They'll have their time to shine, though.  Just you wait and see...

Okay, so it's been a while since my very first post.  During most of this time I've been writing papers for school, working on a portfolio for my poetry class.  Even now, I'm doing this instead of writing a reading journal for my Scotland class (a class we have to take for the school to sponsor my trip to Scotland this summer...pretty 'citing!!!).  I went home a few days ago for Easter break and was pleasantly surprise--more like ecstatic--to find that my Unidoll Jace had made his way to my house while I was away.  Before I got him, I didn't really have a storyline for my dolls. I knew I wanted their world to be set in the 19th century, mostly because I love the clothing and the furniture.  I didn't even know Unidoll Jace existed until I came upon a post about him on Zone of Zen, one of the BJD discussion boards.  I actually thought he was incredibly ugly at first.  But the more pictures individual owners posted of him, the more I saw his potential.  I'm actually writing a book (or trying to) set in the Victorian period about a fiction writer who takes in an orphaned girl from a neighboring estate that has been burnt down.  Long story short, he teaches her that her imagination is not limited to a pen on the page and that there are many other outlets for creativity...I'm not sure how it'll end but that's not important.  The important thing is that I knew Jace was going to be my big, brooding lord of the manor, and his sister was going to be my sweet little Annabel Lee.  (He just needs a sister to soften his character and help make sense of why she and Zane would be living with him).  I also needed a name for his manor house, something that would reflect the scenery in the pictures I took of him.  So I decided Ivy Hollow, mostly because my house is way down in the woods and away from the other houses and because half of the trees and hillside in my backyard are covered in ivy.  Anywho, sorry for rambling.  Point is, there's a new man in town, and his name is Sebastian Beaumont.  After finally getting over my initial disgust at his creepy factory wig, my mom ordered a new wig for him from DDE.  Now that he has his glorious black wig, I'm completely in love with him!!!  Zane is a little jealous, but Annabel things he's the coolest big brother ever.  Anywho, I'd like to present my new little family starting with the hunky Sebastian Beaumont, master of Ivy Hollow.


I'll be presenting the others in later posts...so stay tuned!

Alright, so here's the deal.  I'm new to all of this blogging stuff, and I'm really not even here to write "journal" entries per sae.  I'm mostly here because I've noticed a lot of the ladies from doll boards are on here, posting pictures of their dolls and photo stories and making announcements about new purchases and new arrivals.  I'm glad to be finally getting on here, as it will be the home of my dolly pictures until I can find time to get my website up and running.  I hope to find some of my friends from the doll boards on here, and I'm also hoping to get a good layout, since none of the ones I've tried have worked out like I wanted them to.  I might just have to make my own. :) That wouldn't be so bad...
Here's a picture of my babies so far.  The first is Annabel, the second is Zane, and the third is Harper.  I also have a Unidoll Jace on the way!!!

Note to self: make sure these pictures are smaller *before* posting them again...