the world, the obscure

I've just been having way too much fun with pictures lately.

These photos were taken with my new iPhone that I got for my birthday. Oddly enough I've been having a lot of fun with using different apps to create effects on my photos. It's been getting me interested in using actual fancy cameras and film cameras. Alas, I don't have the money, but it would be nice to have one...  Oh well. I think these will do. 

  I'm going to invest in some kind of tripod so I can take more even, level shots. Hopefully I can find a nice cheap one online somewhere. I've been wanting to take nice non-myspace pictures of myself wearing my knits, so I think a tri-pod would be a great way to do so!

To a different subject, I'm a little sad that I'm not participating in BEDA (Blog Every Day in April) because I think it would give me a great excuse to blog more. I was thinking about doing BEDA, only in May. So it would be... MEDA? That sounds weird. xD Oh, well. It works! If anyone has suggestions of what I should write about, I'd love to hear them!

Another thing that I wanted to try to do is wither write a song a day for two weeks, or write a song a week for the rest of the year. Think I can do it? I just wrote my first (actually good) song last night at 1:00 in the morning. It's about two characters in a book I wrote for NaNoWriMo. I have lots of song ideas, so that's something that I want to partake in as well. What do you guys think, write a song a day for two weeks or write a song a week for the rest of the year?

I'm jumping around topics here, and my next blog post will most likely have more structure and will hopefully be a lot better, but I'm excited to really getting into this blogging thing. :D

Oh, and during the Summer I'm going to be doing vlogs. I'm going to start my own "Thoughts from Places" series. If you guys are interested, go to youtube.com/neondreamscollide. I already have a couple of videos up there, so if acoustic covers strike your fancy... Yeah. Shameless self promotion. xD

I will write those book reviews next week! I promise!

Ellie

***In Omnia Paratus 

they purr

So sorry I haven't been posting. 

I really have no excuses...

But here's something that might entertain you.

Are you a fan of cats?

I will be writing some new books reviews this coming week including:

Anna and the French Kiss

Accidental Billionaires

An Abundance of Katherines

***in omnia paratus

honest.

***in omnia paratus

Book Review: L.A. Candy

 Book Summery [from Goodreads]:

Los Angeles is all about the sweet life: hot clubs, cute guys, designer ... everything. Nineteen-year-old Jane Roberts can't wait to start living it up. She may be in L.A. for an internship, but Jane plans to play as hard as she works, and has enlisted her BFF Scarlett to join in the fun.

  When Jane and Scarlett are approached by a producer who wants them to be on his new series, a "reality version of Sex and the City," they can hardly believe their luck. Their own show? Yes, please!

  Soon Jane is TV's hottest star. Fame brings more than she ever imagined possible for a girl from Santa Barbara—free designer clothes, the choicest tables at the most exclusive clubs, invites to Hollywood premieres—and she's lapping up the VIP treatment with her eclectic entourage of new pals. But those same friends who are always up for a wild night are also out for a piece of Jane's spotlight.

  In a city filled with people chasing after their dreams, it's not long before Jane wakes up to the reality that everyone wants something from her, and nothing is what it seems to be.

Review:

*** (three stars)

Why was I interested in this book in the first place? Curiosity. I've seen so many celebrities write books who have gone onto the New York Times best seller list, and I wanted to know if it was any good. 

  I think it was an interesting story (though not the most original) and while Lauren Conrad isn't a terrible writer, she's not the most amazing. I thought that the writing was very juvenile. I wouldn't say that this book is anything special, but I think that if you see the book in the library, go ahead and pick it up if you have a little time on your hands. It's a very, very easy read and it has a strong "chick lit" vibe, so if you like that sort of thing, then this is the book for you. 

  This book is written in 3rd person and in the beginning, the story starts out slow. Very slow. During the middle of the book it starts to pick up speed, and a couple of times I actually found myself interested in what was going to happen next. It left you with a pretty good cliffhanger, but I'm not sure I care enough about the characters to go back. I liked the two main characters, Jane and Scarlett, but I didn't like how their friendship was explained. It seemed a little forced to me and I didn't like the way that the men/love interests were introduced. I didn't care about them at all. Maybe that's how Lauren wanted the reader to feel, but it wasn't very clear.

  I'm not entirely sure why I kept on reading this book until the end. I think it was because I was hoping that the ending was going to amazing and I would want to go back for more. I wanted it to get better.

  So this book all in all was a bit of a disappointment... but I still say that if you have time in the summer to pick this book up at the library (only at the library, this book isn't a re-read) and give it a try. You might like it, you might not.

***in omnia paratus

Other books finished this week:
Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone

kindles: they don't suck

I was starting the new year with the mind set that I was going to try to read one book at a time, as to finish the books more efficiently, but to hell with that. I'm ready about 5 books right now, and starting more by the day.

  I think that's one of the problems I have... i tend to start things way more then I finished them. That includes starting knitting projects or extra credit work or anything that involves a finish line. Ugg. It's quite annoying... I'm hoping to finish three of the 5 books that I'm reading (An Abundance of Katherines, Harry Potter 1, and LA Candy) and write reviews on them.

  I'm reading An Abundance of Katherines on my father's Kindle (don't judge me...) and I like using the Kindle far more than I thought... Just last week I was set against them. You can't smell them, you can't turn the page, you can't go to the store and look through the shelves to pick out the best book... etc, etc. Though there are so many pros! You can get free classic books, you can listen to the book using text-to-speech, you don't have to worry about the book flopping, it's light, and the text is adjustable. So actually, it's quite a joy. I'm hoping to read lots of classics on it like Tolstoy, Jane Austen, Phantom... There are just so many choices!

  Okay, so now that I've finished my rant on how amazing Kindles are, I think I'll go and use it. Almost half way through Kathtines and almost finished with HP (reading the series for the third-or-fourth-or-fifth-er-i-can't-remember time). Keep calm and read on!

**in omnia paratus

starting this day like any other.

Oh, hey there.

I have been interested in starting a blog for a while now. I have had a love for writing for as long as I can remember, and I thought that I would start off  the new year by starting one. I might not always have something extremely witty to say, but hey, that's life

  Along with regular blogs about how my day is and what's bugging me at the moment, I'm also going to post book reviews. My goal this year is to read as many books as possible, and I thought that writing a review on the book would be a pretty good idea. I'll try to write as critically as I can, but I'll probably end up ranting on about how much I hate the book or about how much I loved it. We'll see! If you have any book suggestions I'd love to hear them. I have a good about of books lined up for 2011, but I'm not sure if they'll be enough. If you really loved a book, I might love it as well. ^.^ 

  So I might be the only one reading this, and maybe no one will care about what I have to say or what my life is like, but let's just wait and see how this goes!

***in omnia paratus