Very Very Sorry

It's been ages since I updated last! I'm terribly sorry, and I don't have an excuse!

My first term at the University started in September, and I'm much in love with the whole business. People are great, courses are great, everything is great! There's lectures, parties, random other events... Christmas Party is coming up in a couple of weeks and then a table party with roleplaying theme. I'm going to be Karthani bondsmage from Locke Lamora, yay! :D

Mooovies. I'm trying to remember what I've seen... Toy Story 3 was superb, I laughed myself silly and squealed at the familiar toys. Seriously, it's the animation of the year! Despicable Me is also great, though I would've enjoyed it more if I had seen it before Toy Story. I'm going to see RED today, so about that later on. Hopefully.

Wicked came to Finland this fall, and I went to see it with a friend. I've read the book, and I do prefer it to the musical, but either or is fine, I guess. They spoiled Fiyero for me though, he was much better in the book, but the again the song Dancing Through Life is so delicious that I forgive them. And I knew Antti Lang would be the perfect Boq! I was delighted by his performance!

What else? I've been reading coupious amounts - two last Harry Potters, Dangerous Liaisons, Shadow's Son, Privilege of the Sword again, and last night finished House of Many Ways. I could say a few words about Shadow's Son:

It's Jon Sprunk's first novel, published this year. Quite frankly, it wasn't very good. It had potential, yes, but it was like Sprunk had just tried to make it look like a great, well-thought-out world without really doing the work. The place, it's history and the characters did little to convince me, and I was very quickly confused with all the names and titles and occupations. I started to enjoy myself around page 135, which happened to be about the middle of the book. That's okay though, I know it takes time to introduce the people and the setting to the reader, and he got me almost liking the main character Caim, but towards the end I was just extremely fed up with the guy and the female lead Josey. I'm not saying you shouldn't read it - by all means do that, particularly if you're younger than me. I think I would've loved it if I was still 15, but now it seemed a little childish. I don't know what Sprunk's target group is, as a YA book that probably works. It can also be that because it's a Gollanzc book, I expected something closer to Locke Lamora in quality and was disappointed because of that.

That turned out longer than I wanted, and I didn't even summarise the plot. O_O Oh well.

I'm not waiting to get my orders from the library, Deerskin by Robin McKinley and Sorcery and Cecilia by Patricia Wrede and Caroline Stevermer. The latter is fantasy of manners, and I'm very determined to find more books in that sub-genre. I'm on the hunt for such books as Through A Brazen Mirror, Tooth and Claw, the Serpent's Egg and so on. Also, Ellen Kushner told in her blog about Kathe Koja's latest book, Under the Poppy, and I'm simply dying to read it.

That's it for now, I think. I'm gonna head of to the movies to drool Karl Urban and then come home via the library. Hopefully my books arrive today, because I have nothing to read. (Except for school stuff, of course. I've got exams coming in a few weeks, and I haven't even opened A Student's Guide to English Grammar....)

With much love,
Wil

Dreams And Bunnies And Other Stuff

I've been meaning to update for a while now, but haven't for some reason. Oh well.

Because it's quite possibly the biggest thing in the cinematic world at the moment, I fell I should say a few words about Inception.

I went to see it after two friends had told me they liked it a lot. Well, I did too, sort of. The script was very good, and some of the details were intriguing, but I feel Christopher Nolan could've gotten more out of the idea. Leonardo DiCaprio did alright, I guess, though the character annoyed me to no end. And it was extremely interesting to see Joseph Gordon-Levitt in this kind of role - at least if you're used to the Third Rock From the Sun. The ending of the movie pleased me.
Yes, I am aware this is a bad review. It's been about three weeks since the movie, and the things I mention are the ones that have stuck with me. It wasn't sensational or a Best Motion Picture of the Year nominee, but it's entertaining. Take ear pluggs with you though, the effects are loud. Afterwards you may feel the need to have a big gun, just for the kicks. I know I wanted one.
Nolan should get a nomination for the script.
I like that poster, oh yes I do! It's so nifty! :D


A latter movie I saw - Miss Potter (2006).

As a Ewan McGregor fan I've been wanting to see this film, but never actually got to the cinema to see it. Now I'm glad I didn't - I cried my eyes out. Renée Zellweger was like she always is, this time a tone down from Bridget Jones and move like Barbara Novak. But oh, Ewan! He did such great work as Norman Warne! Even with the disturbing mustache. This is a short movie, only about an hour and a half, and it's very fresh and airy. I warmly recommend this. I found it to be of inspiration - Beatrix became an author despite what her family (well, her mother) thought of it, and was extremely successful, as we all know.
Here another sweet picture from the movie. I dare say it might be from my favourite scene:

You'll have to see it to know why I think it so sweet.



What else, what else? Books, maybe?
I read A Lion Among Men by Gregory Maguire, and came to the conclusion that yes, Wicked is the best one in the series. But this book gathered some loose ends from the two first ones, so I forgave almost all the politics.
After Maguire, I finally got my hands on the Fall of the Kings by Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman. With much regret I have to say I didn't enjoy this one as much as the other Riverside books, maybe because there was some magic in this one. Don't take my wrong, it's not a bad book - you can read it to just enjoy the language. But it wasn't as intricate as I had hoped, and I was slightly disappointed with the ending. I think the Privilege of the Sword remains my favourite (though I have to read it again to be sure), and chapter XXI from Swordspoint my favourite chapter. (A thought - Katharine Talbert reminds me of Elizabeth the First.)
Now I'm rereading Pratchett's Going Postal, which is rapidly taking the Hogfather's place as my favourite Discworld novel. The reason for this second reading is the movie, of which I saw trailers and am now a little suspicious about, because good books usually don't translate to film so well. But I'm hopeful - the actors seem decent.

So after I'm not with Mr von Lipwig, it's finally time to reread all the Harry Potters. I intend to do that in less than two weeks for two reasons:
1) Orientation week starts in two weeks and
2) There's a series of Oscar Wilde lectures, the first one about the Picture of Dorian Gray, and I intend to read that wonderful book again before the lecture so I'm sure to remember everything.
And then I probably have so much school stuff to read I have little time for fiction, but I'll go through the Secret History by Donna Tartt somehow. A friend just read it and was thrilled, so I promised to read it as well, seeing as we have it.

That about covers it, I think. Now I shall turn to fanfiction and then go to gym - we're dancing latin at last, after a long pause. I'm so looking forward to it, zumba is getting boring.

With love,
Wilzo

One Ring To Rule Them All

I think it's time to show my obsession with the Lord of the Rings. It all started in late 2001 or very early 2002 - I can't be sure because I've lost that ticket - when my friend insisted I come watch the Fellowship of the Ring with her. I went, I watched it and fell in love. I read the Hobbit and then, for my birthday, I got a LotR of my own. I was done with it before the Two Towers was out. It took me about four months to complete, if my memory serves.

From then on I've been a fan. Sometimes I don't even think about this magnificent book for a long while, but something always brings it back to my attention. At the moment I'm participating a LotR One Shot Contest in Quizilla, so some research is in place.

Anyway. The amount of money I've put into LotR merchandise is ridiculous, but we have to remember I was only 12-13 at the time, and I regret none of it. So here goes, with pictures.

There are the books I've got in Finnish. Unfortunately I haven't got the illustrated guide to the Fellowship of the Ring, but I saw that in a second-hand bookshop and am contemplating of buying it... It's in English, though. But maybe I could trade my Finnish books for the English versions? Anyway. There's also The Book itself. The back almost came off about a year ago, but I taped it back together. The three books at the bottom of the picture are:
- Brian Sibley: the Lord of the Rings Official Movie Guide
- Chris Smith: the Lord of the Rings: Weapons and Warfare
- Brian Sibley: the Lord of the Rings: Making of the Movie Trilogy
The middle one is quite possibly my favourite, with awesome pics of swords, armour, bows, spears... There's lots I didn't know, about the LotR-verse as well as the weapons themselves. Very enlightening, I can recommend it.

Oh, what is that the books are lying on? Why, it's my LotR sheets! :D My clever cousin gave me them for Christmas around 2002, and I've loved them ever since. And what's more, they go well with the other colours in my room - green, white, brown.

Sorry about that - stupid computer refuses to let me rotate the picture. But yeah. There's Frodo, Aragorn, Gandalf and Saruman on it, even though you can only see the first one here. And the Ring-pillow case. Pure love.

We were in New Zealand 2008 with a friend of mine, on a language course. As luck would have it, there was a trip to Hobbiton, and we signed as soon as we got the chance. The weather was merciful and it didn't rain, the guide was great and we had cameras - it was perfect. It was also my 18th birthday, and I got to spend it under the Party Tree!
So that means I have some random LotR merchandise as well. There are postcards, magnets, a T-shirt... I even brought my brother a cap. I didn't take pics of all this, though, because I'm a little lazy. ^^;

My mission in NZ was to buy LotR in English. I found these beauties - well, FotR and RotK, at least. The bookstore didn't have TTT with this cover, but I'm determined to find it somewhere, some day. I don't even know what it looks like, but it will be very easy to recognise if I stumble on it.

Of course I have all the music from the movies. I also have all the films on VHS, but only FotR and TTT on DVD - extended versions but no extras. I really want to buy that special deluxe extended edition (or whatever it is called) box, with all the extra material possible. This is the trilogy that got me into movies, after all.

Favourite character? Éomer. All my friends know this painfully well. I have posters, cards, quotes, and even a Karl Urban shirt my friends made for me. It's a little faded now, but I still use it from time to time.

Only slightly obsessed. ^^; I used to be into horses, which is probably part of the reason I first took to liking Éomer, but after reading TTT and RotK for countless times I'm certain that he's the best.
...Though I've lately taken a liking to Faramir as well. The ultimate quote from RotK has to be:
"Do not scorn pity that is the gift of a gentle heart, Éowyn!"
*sighs*
They should've cut Arwen from the films and replaced her with Glorfindel and some proper Faramir/Éowyn. Arwen is very unnecessary.

I think that's about it. Before I go, a picture of some random stuff:

There's the Éomer bookmark I got from a German pen pal (though we only ever exchanged two letters), playing cards (well used), the Evenstar necklace I bought from Greece, the bag to keep it in, the box it came in (currently filled with my collection of LotR trading cards) and a badge I bought from the Finnish Tolkien Society's table at Finncon. It says "Not all those who wander are lost". It's not attached to my bag, because I realised after buying that people will think I'm a fan of Lost the tv-series. I've never watched one episode. Oh well.

Elen síla lúmenn' omentielvo.

Lol, I can still do that. xD
Professor Tolkien was a genious. My prep course teacher saw me reading his biography and told me a friend of his studied under Tolkien. I looked like this: O.O
What can you say when someone tells you something awesome like that? Nothing.
Speechless.
What did Sheldon say about 'being rendered speechless'? There was some scientific ground for it.
I forget what that was.

I'll stop here.

Namárië.

~Wilzo

You'll Only End Up Like Rimbaud - Get Shot By Verlaine

I took a look at the pictures I took at the con - they're bad, so I won't post them here. The only decent ones were taken back at Helsinki, and are of the signed books. But, because Photoshop decided to hate me today, you won't see them, either. Maybe when my brother comes back I'll post them, PS likes him better.

But now I'll tell you about the little pile of second-hand books I bought when we went exploring all the little shops and flea markets with my friend. The thing about doing that is that it's very dangerous; there are so many interesting, beautiful, old, cheap books that you can't possibly buy all of them. My mission was to find a copy of Pride and Prejudice, which I did. It's so beautiful! <3 I also found the Professor by Charlotte Brontë, a book I had never heard of. Such beautiful cover, I fell in love instantly!

I'm looking forward to reading it. I also bought Dangerous Liaisons by de Laclos and the Wizard of Oz, though these two are in Finnish. (For some reason I don't have a pic of them, I think I remember the light being bad...)

My bookshelf is getting fuller and fuller. ^^; There's a gap at the moment, what with both my Lynches absent and the removal of - and I'm very smug about this, too - one of my entrance exam books. I didn't like that book. Too bad I can't burn it, it's a tad too valuable.

There are the Finnish books, also. And the CD I bought at Jyväskylä! The latest record by the Loved Ones, Distractions. Good punk, methinks. I'm exceedingly happy about how my Riverside-books look like now.

Under Privilege of the Sword there's the Tenant of Wildfell Hall, a copy from 1923 that my dad gave me. It's delightfully pretty, like most old books. Under that, there's the Albatross Book of Living Verse. I've never been big on poetry, but for some reason I find 1500-1800's English poetry interesting. In that book I found a poem of John Suckling's that reminds me of Twilight and thus makes me giggle:

Why so pale and wan, fond lover?

Prithee, why so pale?

Will, when looking well can't move her,

Looking ill prevail?

Prithee, why so pale?

Why so dull and mute, young sinner?

Prithee, why so mute?

Will, when speaking well can't win her,

Saying nothing do 't?

Prithee, why so mute?

Quit, quit for shame! This will not move;

This cannot take her.

If of herself she will not love,

Nothing can make her.

The devil take her!

So there's a few words of wisdom, Jacob Black. Think about that.

Oh well. I finished Austen's Emma a couple of days ago, and then devoured Maguire's Son of a Witch practically in a day. I think I started from page 74 yesterday and was finished with the 500 pages by 1:30am.  So now I've got only the Mammoth Book of Paranormal Romance to go before I can get my claws on the Fall of the Kings. After that I think I'm either going for Joe Abercrombie's the Blade Itself (something I've been meaning to read for almost a year...), Maguire's Lion Among Men or the re-reading of the entire Harry Potter series. We'll see.

But now I gotta go take a shower and then head to the bank to pay my University membership stuff. Ugh, I hate banks.

Anyway, I'll be back with movies, since we're having a movie night tonight and I watched the Omen yesterday. Oh, and I also saw the Disaster Movie and (FINALLY!) Star Wars episode III.

Bye!

~Wilzo

So Many Happy Feelings

Oh, so much to tell. Let's do this in some kind of order. (I'll add pics when I get them loaded up and if they're any good.)

Finncon was a definite success. We didn't get lost (much) on the road, I didn't wreck the car and we found free parking space in Jyväskylä. Yay for that! The con was so great, I felt at home. The first panel we participated was Introduction to Mannerpunk - I laughed so much! And I may have squealed just a little at Ellen Kushner's mentioning Scott Lynch as a male mannerpunk author. I missed the GoH speech of Ellen's, because I chose Adult Fantasy and later wished I hadn't. The Gate Theory of Young Adult Literature -panel was a disappointment so we left it early on, which gave me the opportunity to go get my Swordspoint signed. I swear, Ms Kushner was so nice and I made a total fool out of myself, speaking bad English due to my nerves and was going all fangirly. But I'm eternally thankful for the opportunity to buy the Fall of the Kings - if the authors ever stumble upon this somehow, you need to know it was equal to the best moment of my summer (of which I will tell about a little later). Thank you so much!

Sunday started much earlier than Saturday, at 10. I went to the Orwell's 1984 Here And Now -lecture and got slightly paranoid. After Big Brother it was time for the vampire panel, which I liked very much. I wish I was more confident, because I think the panelists would've been amused to hear that Stephenie Meyer is planning on writing about time-travelling mermaids next. (The discussion led to speculation of what might be the next big thing - one of the panelists expressed interest in Näkkis.) Then there was the Bimbo Panel, which made me roar with laughter. The theme was dirtying all the childhood favourites from Disney to My Little Pony to Star Trek. I think that affected both me and my friend quite a lot, for the next couple of days were spent pointing out everything twisted in stuff meant innocent.
Ellen Kushner's reading was just the perfect thing. She read from Swordspoint (having read Thomas the Rhymer at length the day before) and then the Man With the Knives. She had grown men in tears after that one, and I was so close to crying myself.
After the reading I met up with my friend again, and ran into my high school art teacher. We talked for a while, until it was time for me to go hear the vampire book tips. I got interested in a couple of books, so it wasn't all wasted time.
The last panel I participated was Dreaming of Reality with Cheryl Morgan, Ellen Kushner and Pat Cadigan. It was a riot and I swore to find Ms Cadigan's books somehwere, she was so funny! It also came up that Ms Kushner would like to see a film made out of Swordspoint, and that she felt Ben Wishaw (Keats from Bright Star) would be a good Richard. Now, I think Privilege of the Sword would make a better movie, and I'm not all too sure about Wishaw as Richard, but I would definitely go and see the movie.

Our arrival back our summer house about four hours after we left the con was grand - windows down, Elvis blaring. We had a great time, and discovered that Disney is good music for driving.

We came back to Helsinki on Monday night. On Tuesday happened what we'd been dreading - the results from the University arrived. But fortunately, this became the thing in my summer rivalled only by the delightful writers of the Fall of the Kings - I got in.
I'll start my studies on English Philology in September in the University of Helsinki. I'm so excited!

But this is turning into quite a long update. I probably forgot something, but I'll just tell about it in another post if it was important. The bottom line is that it was a great con and that my July has been awesome. I hope it stays that way.

<3: Wilzo

Fairies On Steroids

Okay, so I said I'd say a couple of words about the newest Twilight movie, Eclipse.

(I chose this picture 'cause there's no Edward, lol. xD)
Sooooo. Eclipse. It wasn't as bad as New Moon, but not as good as Twilight. The way the vampire backstories were cut pleased me. That was probably partly due to the rating, PG-13, because I think I remember there being more blood in the book. The three stars still can't act to save their lives, though now that I'm watching Robert Pattinson do this with the knowledge that he hates Edward and is playing him through that emotion I enjoy his performance a lot more. (Does that sentence make sense? o_O) About the werewolves I'm a bit torn - I'm not sure whether I like them or not. They are always together and with my poor facial memory it's hard to tell who is who, but I understand and accept that there's no time in two hours and ten minutes to get into each one of their characters too deeply.
My favourites are still Billy Black and Charlie Swan. The only moment Kristen Stewart gets some life in her eyes and acting is when Bella and Charlie have the awkward birds-and-bees conversation.
Oh, and I liked Jasper in this one. Maybe because he took charge and was all cool and stuff. I don't know what Jackson Rathbone did there, but I liked it.

All in all, a little too long a movie, pretty average. I still think they would've been better off if they had kept Catherine Hardwicke directing the whole saga - her style is so great for adolescent movies!





Then a few words about the Ghost Writer. I naturally liked Ewan McGregor, though he wasn't at his best, but Kim Cattrall really amazed me. Not a trace of Samantha to be seen! Polanski did alright work, as well as Brosnan, but not much else to say. It was an okay thriller, and didn't look like it was filmed for TV (like the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo...), and the ending still bugs me so I guess it was a good one. I'd maybe give the movie 3.5/5.

I'm off to town in a minute to meet up with a friend. Yay, leaving for Finncon the day after tomorrow. Can't wait, I'm so excited!

Love,
Wilzo

+30 degrees Celsius

It's so frickin' hot. Our balcony is like a sauna, and flowers were about to die when I arrived with the water. I hope they survive.

RUISROCK. It was so much fun. We arrived to Turku aroun 3pm, said buh-bye to my dad and brother and went off to find some food and the bus stop. We found both, but then realised we had no idea how often the busses would be going and decided that the weather was nice enough for a walk. Actually it was very warm (though not as warm as today) and the walk was several kilometers and we had too little water with us, but we survived. ^^

So we hung around the festival area looking at the stands and drinking free, ice cold Coke. We watched half of Negative's show (Jonne Aaron sure isn't as young as he was five years ago...), saw some of Tarot's (they were great) and Arch Enemy, and waded around in the water next to the beach stage. It was so cold and nice.

And then it was time for what I'd come for: Rise Against. It was a great show, they played a lot of songs I didn't think they would but always hoped, like Survive and Entertainment, and of course one of my ultimate faves, Give It All. The band seemed to be having fun, which made me happy. They seem to have taken a liking for circle pits, because last October in Helsinki Tim said they wanted to see "that Finnish circle thing" and now he announced in a speak that he wanted to see one again. (Damn, how can it be I don't remember which song that was? Something off Siren Song, I think. Or maybe Revolutions Per Minute.)

After RA we went to see NOFX, and found that we both like them. I got a shirt, and I've been humming Don't Call Me White since then. After that we just hung around, talking and joking around (playing with Finnish language a lot, yes, we were very tired) and then it was time for the last show - Ozzy Osbourne. Irene's a fan, and I was curious as to whether he would stay on his feet for the whole show. It was fun.

Around 1:30am it was all over and we tried to be cunning and take a shortcut to get ahead of the main crowd getting out. Our endeavour ended with me having my left hand shoe stuck in a ditch in mud. The whole shoe was muddy inside out, and was slightly uncomfortable to walk in. Anyway, we decided to walk back to town, since there was so much crowd trying to get into the busses. We were at the bus station a bit after 3am, about ten minutes after the bus we had intended to take had left. So we had to wait for an hour for the next one. Thank gods we had the sense to buy breakfast when we first arrived to Turku... Our bus left 4am, we were in Helsinki about 7am, and I got to bed at 7:45am.

So altogether a very good trip. :D My shoe still leaves my heel and ankle dirty, but I'm washing it once more before leaving to Jyväskylä and Finncon next weekend.

Ruisrock ends.

We'll be leaving again on Thursday, and at the moment plan on coming back to Helsinki on Tuesday - the day we both get to know whether we got into University or not. I'm a bit scared of that, because I really would like to get in but don't feel I did good enough in the exam. But I have my fingers crossed, and it won't be the end of the world if I don't get in this year, but... Yeah.

I think that's all there's to say. I have no pictures from Ruis, because I didn't have my camera, but I'll ask my friend if I could post some of her photos here.

I'm gonna go eat ice cream now and watch Breakfast Club. <3
Next update's probably coming when I get back from Finncon.

Lotsa love and ice cubes,
Wilzo