Just Sayin'

So, I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but I blog a lot. Recently one of my friends told me that she was going to start writing weekly book reviews, so, because I'm such a blog-osaurus, I was like "oh, I have to do that too!". Anyway, long story short, I decided that I wanted to put my book reviews on a seperate page from the rest of my blog. However, because blogger can't make anything simple and they had to make the whole 'add pages' thing complicated, I decided to create a new blog.  Introducing   Just Readin' , a blog in which I review books and geek out over other literary things. Speaking of all things literary, I also contribute to a blog about writing called In Your Write Mind (it's a pun!). So, I now have a series of independent blogs, all twisted together in a blob of gooey, blog-y goodness, linked together by a complicated web of stringy blog-ness and the clever use of hyper links (or not so clever because, if I was reall

So, I just got back from vacation in Boston. When my mom and I were planning this trip, she asked me where I wanted to go and I said Boston, firstly because of the history and stuff, and, secondly, because there are a lot of souvenir penny machines in Boston. I considered other cities, but the only other city with as many penny machines, within driving distance that is, was Washington D.C. Luckily, I've already planned a Washington penny mission. Besides, one of the Boston penny machines had JFK's face as one of the designs, and, since I'm starting a 'famous American politicians' penny collection (it's a sub-collection of my original collection), I had to go get it. As you can probably guess, I have a slight souvenir penny obsession. It all started two years ago. I was at Busch Gardens in Virginia Beach, on a school trip, when I stumbled upon a souvenir penny machine. After I begged quarters off of all my friends, I ended up with like four souvenir pennies.

So, a little while ago I heard that the unicorn is the national animal of Scotland. Now, I don't mean to be nitpicky, but doesn't that seem a bit outlandish? I mean, I've been to Scotland and there aren't many herds of wild unicorns running around. Actually, I didn't see a single unicorn! How is that allowed? If there are no unicorns in Scotland, how can it be the national animal? There may have been unicorns at one time, but Voldemort probably ate them all. If there is a unicorn in Scotland, it's probably sitting in a zoo somewhere, wiping it's hooves on the doormat before going into the unicorn enclousure. What kind of life is that for a unicorn? Let the unicorns run free! Now, I understand their dilemma, because if they limited themselves to animals that actually live in Scotland, their national animal would probably end up being a sheep - or a hare. And that would be a problem because hares are terrifying! I don't know if you've ever seen a

So, a few weeks ago, I read  this  blog post by Jenna Marbles, and, I have to say, it made me pretty angry. This is yet another example of how 'traditional' media just fails to understand how Youtube culture, and the internet in general, works. Come on Good Morning America, Jenna Marbles is "the most famous person you've never heard of"? I've got news for you, if I asked fifty Penn State students randomly if they knew who Jenna Marbles was, I'm sure more of them would say yes than if I asked them if they knew who Cecilia Vega was. I mean where do they get off saying that no one's ever heard of her? Clearly the fact that her videos get millions of views means absolutely nothing. Actually, I know quite a few people who don't even watch TV. If there's a particular show you want to see, you can usually watch it online and, anyway, Jenna Marbles' videos are way better than like 90% of the things on TV. Which is why when I read this  this  ar

So, if you're anything like me, you're really excited about the new, peanut butter and chocolate peanut butter Pop-Tarts that came out earlier this week. I mean, as far as I'm concerned, this is the best thing to happen to food since they double stuffed the Oreo. But the invention of the peanut butter Pop-Tarts is hardly an isolated incident. Whoever invented the Pop-Tart was a freakin' genius! Besides being totally delicious, the Pop-Tart is, apparently, a good source of seven vitamins and minerals. I mean, you've got your Thiamin, your Riboflavin, your Niacin, and your Folic Acid. I'm not sure what that is, but Folic Acid is certainly better than non-Folic Acid, right? Actually, when I was in 11th grade, my chemistry lab partner and I spent both semesters trying to sample all the flavors of Pop-Tarts currently on the market. We would each bring in a different flavor of Pop-Tarts and eat them during class. We had a list of flavors and everything. Ah, the

Recently, I read TIME's new article about the millennial generation and I have to say I was really offended. My first instinct was to write an angry rant about this article, but I realize that that doesn't really solve anything. Stein does make some valid points and, towards the end of the article, he does give millennials the credit they deserve, but, what I think he and a lot of other people fail to realize is that the millennial generation is a product of their time. 'Millenials' aren't 'millenials' because they are fundamentally different from other people, they are 'millenials' because of the greater forces that impact their lives. I mean, maybe if Thomas Edison had been born in the 80s he would have invented Facebook instead of Mark Zuckerburg. It's the nature versus nurture debate all over again and, in this case, I've got to say, it's nurture that makes the 'millenial' generation so 'millenial'. Don't get

So, the other day I was at the annual AAUW used book sale in my town and let me tell you something, people will commit murder for a one dollar copy of A Game of Thrones . Of course, I've been to this particualr used book sale before, and I've been to other used book sales in the past, but I don't think I've ever gone to the first day of the sale before. Don't get me wrong; I'm an English major, I love to read; I love books, but this isn't just a few boxes of books at the local library. This book sale is held at the Ag Arena, which is this great big building where they have cow shows and stuff. I mean, people start lining up outside at six o'clock in the morning with big, cardboard boxes and shopping carts! Anyway, I ended up getting some really great books, like normal, but I practically got trampled trying to find a copy of The Lord of the Rings . I think the big problem was that there were just too many people. I swear there must have been like six o

So, about a week ago, I saw the new Iron Man movie, Iron Man 3 , and, even though I have a long standing allegiance to Spider-Man, I have to say, it made Iron Man one of my favorite superheroes. And you all know how I feel about Spider-Man. I think that Iron Man is such a likeable character because he's not perfect. He doesn't even actually have super powers; he's human. Like, if you see Iron Man in the supermarket, you can be all "hey Tony - double stuffed Oreos? Good choice - so much better than regular stuffed", but, if you saw Superman in the supermarket, it would be really weird and awkward and he would be all like "excuse me, do you know if this cereal contains kryptonite?" and I would be like O_o. But, that sort of thing doesn't happen with Iron Man because Iron Man understands people. I mean, he's not really a people person, but he is a person who understands people. The problem with Superman is that he's so super, he doesn't

The Buffalo-Star Wars Look So, as you know, I'm a big Game of Thrones fan but, I have to say, one thing I don't understand about the show is the hair. I mean, I understand that it's a fantasy TV show; I understand that the producers are trying to create a certain Game of Thrones 'style', but some of the hairstyles on the show are ridiculous! Look at this picture of Cersei (right). No one in the world has that much hair! I know that the actress wears a wig because I've seen her natural hair color in interviews, but still, that must be at least three pounds of hair! That's not natural. I don't even know what to say about this picture, it's just so, so, so much hair. Also, I'm not sure whose idea it was to give her the Princess Leia look. She looks a little like one of those African buffalo with the curved horns. Then, she's got the strands hanging down on the sides, why? Clearly someone went through a lot of trouble to coil her hair

So, this is a thing I've noticed. I've seen quite a few vampire shows/movies and what not, and what bothers me the most is the fangs. Like, I'm a fan of True Blood , but when Bill's fangs first pop out in the first episode, I like died laughing. It just looks so fake! It's like ridiculously over done. It's not even scary! It looks like they're wearing Halloween, costume teeth. It's almost comical. Also, the fangs should be in the place of the canines. In True Blood , they're next to the front teeth. You can't bite with those teeth! That's what the canines are for. The most important teeth are the ones in the back of the mouth, for chewing and such. I know vampires don't chew, but the fangs still look very unnatural. I call this the Fang Phenomenon. The phenomenon in which every producer, director, and costume designer who works on any vampire movie anywhere loses their mind and decides to make the fangs look like someone stuck ch

So, I recently saw Spider-Man 2 (from the original series) on television and, I've got to say, compared to the Amazing Spider-Man , it was kind of disappointing. And I'm not saying that just because Tobey Maguire is short and says things like 'gee' (although, don't get me wrong, that is a problem). Actually, I was really bothered by Mary Jane's portrayal in the movie, and, actually, in all of the other original Spider-Man movies. Just waiting to be saved It's not just that her hair is obviously dyed and she has horrible taste in blouses, she's just such a flat character. I mean, really, a howler monkey could play her part. All she does is stand around and scream and wait to be rescued. Not to mention that, in Spider-Man 2 , she gets engaged essentially just to spite Peter Parker and ends up leaving her fiancee at the altar. Obviously, she's not a terribly encouraging character from a feminist perspective. Take the third movie, it's been a w

So, a genre of music that I don't think gets enough attention is Wrock. For those of you who don't know, Wrock is Wizard Rock - music based off of Harry Potter. And, despite what you might think, it is a serious genre of music. It's sort of within the vein of all those songs Led Zeppelin wrote about Lord of the Rings . Anyway, a lot of these bands stopped releasing music after the last book came out, but it's still great music to listen to if you like Harry Potter. There's a ton of really talented artists who write music about Harry Potter and they deserve some respect. So, because I think Wrock is so great, I decided to make a list of my favorite Wrock songs. Here it is: 1) The Boy who Lived by Oliver Boyd and the Remembralls  2) House Song by The Ministry of Magic 3) It's Not Half Bad by The Parselmouths  4) Don't Leave by The Ministry of Magic 5) Transparent by The Moaning Myrtles 6) I Believe in Nargles by The Whomping Willows  7) The

So, as you probably know I am about to finish my first year at college and I have discovered that there is no way to succede with campus meal points. You either run out two weeks before the end of the semester and starve or end up with three hundred dollars worth of meal points to spend in three days before they expire. Unfortuantely, or perhaps fortunately, I ended up with the later. About two weeks ago, I realized that I had to spend about three hundred dollars before I moved out of my dorm. Now, ordinarily, spending three hundred dollars on short notice isn't a problem for me, but there are only so many bottles of Diet Pepsi one can buy before one wants to barf. I really tried my best to spend it. I bought meals for my roommate who was out of meal points, I bought grande frappachinos at Starbucks, I treated my friends to iced coffee, and I bought myself a life supply of easy mac and applesauce cups (of course, since I bought easy mac I also had to buy ketchup because, let

So, I'm one of those people who usually remembers their dreams, so I can tell you that, about three nights ago, I had this really weird dream about the A Song of Ice and Fire  series in which Daenerys Targaryen had returned to Westeros and was chilling with Aegon, kickin' it on the iron throne, and having little Targaryen babies. Anyway, I woke up and I was all, 'oh yeah, the Targaryen restoration, of course!', as if it was some real, historical event. I can just imagine the history books all the little Westerosi will be reading in five thousand years, "____ years after Aegon's landing, Daenerys Stormborn ascended to the throne after defeating King Tommen and King Stannis at the battle of ____ in what came to be known as the Targaryen Restoration". The Targaryen Restoration - I coined that. I think I may be watching too much HBO. But anyway, I'm already totally convinced that that is what's going to happen in the series. I've worked it