Return of the King-- Things Unseen

Okay, rant time.
Don't get me wrong, I loved the movie (extended edition, people-- totally worth four hours). I have two main issues.
First of all: no scouring of the Shire? What's up with THAT? The scouring of the Shire esteems Sam, Merry and Pippin in the hobbit-folk's eyes. Also, it gives you that little shock: hey, Sauron's dead, but that doesn't mean everything's going to be perfect now. Personally, I think that's important. Also, the rebellion of the hobbits against Sharkey gives the Shire a reason for prosperity. After all, what did these people know of the battles in the south? They knew there was trouble, but they weren't directly involved... or so we thought. The scouring gives us the sense that the hobbits aren't as detached from the rest of Middle-Earth as we might think.
Also: no gulls crying on the shore, awakening the Sea-longing in the heart of our favourite Elf. I waited for that moment literally all movie. You can imagine the shock when it never came. The Sea-longing gives Legolas a little more complexity of character. After all, in the movies he just seems to be a badass fighter who's friends with a Dwarf and can see really far. But throw the Sea-longing in there, and suddenly you have longing, loyalty, vulnerability... the list is endless. Sure, the books don't need that: they already have Legolas' ego, his age, his wisdom and his lightheartedness. But by making Legolas have something that he truly needed, Tolkein made his already finely-woven character just a little more interesting. And he left us guessing. I know this isn't the biggest plot point ever, but it also would have taken about thirty seconds of screen time (*gulls cry, Legolas looks up, turns to Gimli* Gimli: What? Legolas: The gulls... I can feel it, Gimli. The Sea calls to me. Gimli: The Sea? Legolas: Yes, it is a longing hidden deep inside all Sindarin Elves, waiting to be awoken.) Presto, I just wrote in the gulls. Read that outloud. See if it takes all of thirty seconds.
Other than these two little tiny issues, I loved the movie. Loved it. With all my heart. I would watch it again in a heartbeat. I would rewind and pause at my favourite parts. I would share it with all my friends. If I had a boyfriend, I'd make him read the books and watch it.
Yet, at the same time, I'm desperately sad. Not only because the ending nearly made me cry (though it did), but because the magic is basically over. My first time reading the trilogy and watching it is finished. And there's no time life the first time.

Classical Literature

I just finished the Lord of the Rings. Totally worth the two months of reading, the struggling through the withers, thithers, hithers, nighs, thences, whences, and the like. I loved the story. All of it. And it was only after finishing the series that I came to fully appreciate it.

Never Grow Up

I wish I was five years old. Right now, that's really one of the things on my Top Ten list. Because when you were five, words like heartbreak and disloyalty didn't exist. People didn't try and make everything sexual and you could be yourself and not be judged. You weren't afraid of being judged. Everything was simple. The only "feelings" we had were happy, sad, mad.  Three easy ones to choose from, no horomonal mixtures of three or four, and definitely none by the names of in love, broken, betrayed, excited, anxious, annoyed, or royally P-O-ed. Frienship was a matter of who gave you more animal crackers, and boys were a concept that hardly existed.
I wanna go back and live in that world.
Because when you're a teenager, people expect you to be happy. They say "being young was so great" when in reality, between the schoolwork, and the extracurriculars, and the stress of school, you have friends who stab your back, boys who fall in love with them, teachers who drive you crazy, days you feel useless and unwanted, and times when you feel like nobody is listening, you just want to SCREAM!
Making matters worse is the fact that most people stopped using diaries at age nine or ten.
So why do adults remember their teen years with fondness? Could it be that they've simply surpressed the hormones, the puberty, the acne, the feeling fat, the mood swings, the heartbreak, the moving on and growing up and remember only the dances, the weekends, and the days you just let go? Somehow, I doubt it. Although it is unlikely that they are lying (after all, not all of being a teen is bad), perhaps life was just less complicated in their day. After all, how would our generation know? We weren't even alive.
I guess it's making that point that I wrote this blog for. Being a teenager kind of sucks. You're stuck between the blissful realm of childhood and the longed-for realm of adulthood in a sort of painful purgatory. Nobody really pays much attention to what you say and when you do scream loud enough, it's rare. It's hard to balance feelings and logic at this age. Why doesn't someone write a book about this stuff that actually helps us? Something that tells us how to ignore the girl flirting with your crush, and the stabbing pain in your stomach as you struggle through a test on your monthly?
Sometimes I wish I had never grown up. And though I know one day I'll come back, read this, and laugh at my naivety, right now it seems like these issues are the most important. Writing things down is like a scream pillow for me. It calms me down and gets me back in my right mind, so thanks for bearing with me as I reflect upon the unfairness of the teenage world.

Beautiful

I'm in a sort of support the world's suicidal today, soo... let's talk about beautiful people. I'm beautiful. You're beautiful. The girl crying is beautiful. The one sweating on the volleyball court is beautiful. The one playing the violin is beautiful. The one reading is beautiful. The one with the bruises on her face is beautiful. The stick-thin one who used to weigh 100 pounds is beautiful. The tough girl, the girly girl, the musician, the reader, the teacher, the artist, the animal lover, the sport girl, the smart girl, they're all beautiful. Every boy is beautiful, too. Fat is beautiful, thin is beautiful. Blonde is beautiful. Brunette is beautiful. Black is beautiful, Asian is beautiful, Hispanic is beautiful, caucasian is beautiful.
And I guess I'm getting a bit preachy but I just feel like nobody believes that anymore. We set standards for ourselves that are impossible to live up to. People get hurt and they lose faith in themselves. It takes a very confident teenager to believe she is beautiful all the time. People judge. It's just the way the world is. They never tell you what is good about you, they tell you what you need to change about yourself. And sometimes it takes a serious kick in the face to see your value. I don't believe I'm beautiful on the outside, not at all. But I do believe that I'm beautiful inside. I think, I feel, I create, I do, and I am. I am human. I admit that without pride, because we all are human. We all have flaws. It just takes a special select set of people to see past your flaws, outer and inner, and see everything good about you. Nobody bothers to do that anymore, and that's why girls don't feel beautiful. Boys go for the skinny, made up, fake girls because they're easier. They're pretty. But you don't need to be like that to be beautiful. Honestly, being beautiful is being real. So now that you feel confident, go outside, look at life, and realize how beautiful you are."Oh, I fake it oh so well, that nobody can tell what I mean and why my words are less than parallel with my feet." Don't fake it. Be real.

Song of the Week: Daydreams, Breanne Duren

Now, all the other songs I've heard by this Owl City-esque singer, I've found only "meh". But this one was really good-- cute, lighthearted, and happy, the sort of song you would dream to. It's basically about a girl falling in love with a guy, and how he's in her daydreams, hence the title. I really like it, just because it's kind of a Hakuna-Matata song-- no worries, no heartbreak, like in a lot of songs. It's just really great to listen to.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dH-seJiDRRU

Pretending

Sometimes I wonder why this world is so FAKE. Everybody's caking on makeup, wearing clothes they can't afford, to impress people they don't like. And nowadays it's so hard to discern a real friend from a for-now friend or even a while-I-need-you friend. It seems like everybody's got three personalities now: the one they use with their family, the one the use with the rest of the world, and the one they are. I'd like to think I'm totally real, but even I have aspects of my personality that I don't like, aspects I don't show anybody but my best friend. And even then, I'm worried about her judging me. Why can't we live in a society where nobody judges you? In a perfect world that would be the case, but our world is far from it. I wish that some days I could just stand up and scream, "THIS IS WHO I AM" without worrying about what other people would think. Everybody is so insecure, so we hide behind our designer-clothing shells, because they make us feel pretty. We're too proud to admit our flaws to the world. I wish it was different, I wish that everybody could just be honest about themselves and maybe decide on ONE personality, to show everybody.

Song of the Week: Hometown Glory, Adele

Hometown Glory is a song from Adele's first album, 19, and it is a melancholy, wistful song. The piano is intense, and Adele's voice is, as always, beautiful. In the Rhythm and Blues genre of music, this and other songs by Adele speak to more than the R&B universe-- people who normally listen to rock, heavy metal, hip hop, pop, classical... almost everybody cannot deny that Adele's voice combined with her prestigious songwriting skill give everybody a thrilling, goose-bumpy experience when they listen to her. Because she is British, she has only recently come to be known here in Canada, but now you can find Adele in most music stores in North America.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCziT0ZWBDQ
The song of the week will appear EVERY FRIDAY UNTIL I FORGET ABOUT IT! Or I get bored of it. Or I get trampled by a herd of giant emu.

Reading, Reading, Reading!

Just began reading the Lord of the Rings series after being encouraged by parents and teachers alike since sixth grade. It's really good so far, even though I haven't even finished chapter one yet! I'm loving it. I also just finished Savvy and Scumble by Ingrid Law. I recommend them if you like things that are a little bit weird, but still relatable.