Book Review: The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict

If you’ve never picked up any book of The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart, then you have to, absolutely have to. If you haven’t ever read the first book, don’t even bother to read the rest of this post and click here to reserve it at your nearest Wake County Public Library.

Just kidding. You can read this fourth book of the series without worrying about reading the first three, because this one flashes back to Mr. Benedict, the benefactor of the four children in books, and how he grew up.

Oh and did I mention that these books have the most beautiful illlustrations?

Nicholas Benedict is only nine-years old but probably has a vocabulary bank that far surpasses the average adult. Not only that, but he has amazingly adept reasoning skills and logic. But having a genius mind has its disadvantages. For Nicholas Benedict is an orphan, and moving from orphanage to orphanage, he has to deal with bullies and adults who are terrified of him. Worst of all, he has a condition called narcolepsy, so when he is emotionally agitated, he just falls asleep.

Nicholas was hoping to get a new start at Rothschild’s End and get along with all the other orphans, but within the first few hours he is already being targeted by the Spiders, a gang of notorious and scary bullies who automatically victimize him after he outsmarts them the first day. All the other orphans are afraid of him, except for John. The only comfort to him is the enormous, beautiful library with shelves and shelves of books, and if any of the children ever watched him read they would think he was only skimming the book because him reading is literally just him flipping the pages as fast as he can. But that’s what a photographic memory and incredibly fast reading skills does to a person.

And just when things seem like they were going to be like every other orphanage, Nicholas hears about the treasure. And suddenly he’s swept into a treasure hunt where he’s going to need all his brain power to find this treasure, and hey, maybe even discover himself along the way.

Click here to reserve it at your local library.

TV Shows: Sherlock

I have been obsessed with the BBC series Sherlock.

On Netflix, there’s a total of two seasons with three episodes each, but BBC is expected to start producing another season in March 2013. None of the episodes have disappointed me yet. Complete with everything you’d expect a modern Sherlock Holmes to have, there’s romance (well, slightly:  Sherlock isn’t really the dating type), explosions, blood, science, logical explanations, not-so-logical endings (if I elaborated on this I would be giving everything away), and a few too many crazy people.

Christmas Looks

It’s the holiday season! To celebrate Christmas and New Year’s cheer, I’ve put together a selection of makeup how-to’s from YouTube gurus. Enjoy!

Winter Wonderland by MakeupGeekTV

The makeup is a combo of blue and white. I really like the dramatic effect of the blending into the eye. This is more of a night-time look, so you can wear it to parties and such. Watch the video here.

Diwali

Last week was Diwali (or Dipawali), which is India’s most important holiday. It is also known as the Festival of Light, and even the name “Diwali” comes from the avali, or clay lamps (in the image above), that Indians light that represents the light inside us that keeps the darkness away. Interestingly enough, because it started out as a harvest festival, it actually now marks the beginning of a new financial year in India. There’s the Five Days of Diwali with specific activities such as cleaning and visiting family.

Future in Voter Representation

Despite the fact that I still had loads of homework to do, I found myself sitting in front of the TV, notepad in hand, earnestly scribbling down observations on Tuesday night’s first presidential debate. Being not old enough to vote yet, I found myself listening to the candidates’ arguments about issues, but I also was interested in the rhetoric of the debate.

Jim Lehrer was the debate moderator.  Although I am not a supporter of either candidate, it was interesting from an outsider’s perspective to see how the debate played out.  I was thoroughly impressed with the way Romney seemed to take control of the debate. While Obama was speaking, Romney either looked directly at the camera, at Jim, or at Obama with that unerasable smile on his face. Obama, on the other hand, seemed to take a more passive approach. He often looked down and wasn’t as forceful in his speech. Only towards the end did he start acting more aggressive.

Movie Review: Ponyo

I’ve recently really been interested in sci-fi and action (or a combination of both) like the Matrix, so I kind of put off watching the animations that I said I would. So when we rented Ponyo from Blockbuster, I was kind of ambivalent.

Ten minutes into the movie, I wondered why I had not watched this movie when it first came out.

Lookbook Blogs: Mellow Mayoness

While browsing Lookbook, I found Mellow Mayoness, a blogger on Fashion Salade.

Her style is more of a cute, pastel-like sense of fashion, but she also does occasionally do more edgy outfits. But no matter what she wears, she always manages to pull everything together nicely. You would think it would clash, but it actually comes together rather harmoniously.

I am especially in love with her obsession with socks, like these knee high black ones in this post or her lipstick ones in this one. She also has a fondness for collars, and recently I made a faux lace and pearl one to wear for the first day of school:)

One outfit I particularly love is this one. The hearts on the leggings really add another type of flair to the outfit as a whole, and the bright yellow heels adds a definite pop.

After each outfit post, she lists out where she got each of her items. It really helps in case you want to buy whatever she’s wearing that day. She also has giveaways.

I haven’t checked out the other fashion blogs on the website, but I think I’ll take a day off and browse through their feeds. In the meantime, you check out Mellow Mayoness and tell me what you think!

-hils

Handmade Blog: Poppytalk

I’ve recently really been into DIY and handmade stuff (I just cut up an old oversized sweatshirt from a school I don’t even go to anymore and am hoping to turn it into a cute fleece sweater with a pig on the front), and so I’ve been on the search for a good blog with ideas and projects for me to try out.

I found…Poppytalk!

Really, you can find just about any type of DIY/handmade project for any level of DIYer. There’s also a whole bunch of links to other DIY blogs and so I can literally spend hours on this blog, getting distracted by other blogs that they mention. A lot of different bloggers contribute to this blog, so it’s an amalgram of so many creative ideas together. If I feel bored, all I need to do is read through a few entries and my next project comes to mind.

DIY: Mussel Shell Earrings

I made a promise to myself that I wouldn’t buy any more earrings…but that doesn’t mean I can’t make them. The other day we had mussels for dinner and my dad was about to throw away the shells when I grabbed the whole bowl of them and ran away. “There has to be some sort of use for them…” I thought to myself.

So I attempted to make them into mussel shell earrings. It was slightly more difficult because I didn’t have a super small drill to drill a hole into the top, but I tried to make do.

DIY Mussel Shell Earrings (No Drilling Required)

Materials

-a mussel shell: take the two parts apart and wash them thoroughly. If you wish to get rid of the fishy smell you are welcome to, but I really don’t suggest spraying perfume on them since it mixes rather badly with the fish smell.
-silver nail polish. I used Sinful Color Professional silver nail polish. It’s kind of sparkly with a silver sheen.
-earring hooks
-beads: in the end I chose this silver shiny bead:)
-earring wire: it has this sort of head at the top so you can put the bead on and it stays without falling off.
-thin silver wire
-jewelry wire pliers and wire cutters

District 12 Has Awesome Hairstyles.

So…

I watched the Hunger Games!

I waited a week after the movie came out to watch it, and then I went and watched it twice. Though a bit too artsy for my liking, it didn’t disappoint. It was nothing like how I felt after Percy Jackson (ugh), and I’m looking forward to Catching Fire.

But this isn’t a movie review.

What I primarily noticed was the hairstyles, particularly the braids from District 12. So I had to come home…and try them on my sister (I have really layered hair so it never works on me D:).

Spring Hair Tutorial: Braids and Sidebun

It’s practically spring, and here’s a fun hairstyle with braids and a side bun that you can wear anywhere!

Best for: Long straight hair with no layers. But I have medium length layered hair and I could pull it off–it’s just that there were some loose strands in places.

How to Wear It: Some outfit ideas.
-Wear it with: mint green skinny jeans, white/cream lace top, thick gray scarf, big sunglasses, nude pumps
-Wear it with: pretty floral dress, gladiator sandals
-Wear it with: big artsy (band) t-shirt, black skinny jeans, big statement necklace, nerd glasses, Toms
-Wear it with: white/cream flow-y top tucked into a ruffly skirt (floral or plain all work, best if darker color), thick brown belt around waist, cowboy boots

And of course these are just ideas. The possibilities are endless!

Team West Regional!

West Regional teens recently made a video for the CSLP 2012 Teen Video Challenge. They can win $275 and $150 for West Regional Library! Please support by watching and liking their video :] It’s a black and white silent film, and the theme was “Own the Night”.

Watch it here on Youtube. Good luck!

Some background information on why they made the video the way it was (to read after you’ve watched the video):
-The black and white silent film was inspired by Charlie Chaplin.
-The hardest scene to do was the setting up of the tea party. The Mad Hatter and the March Hare were both very tired by the end of filming the scene.
-The Mad Hatter accidently threw the dormouse (which is what she tosses) straight at the camera, which is actually her camera.
-The clipboard were all puns off of the characters that the actors/actresses played. The main character’s (the girl in the rocking chair) email was ownthenight@westregionallibrary which I thought was very clever.
-This took about 2.5 hours to film.
-While filming one of the scenes, Dracula (not pictured in the camera) flips his cape and the whole thing flies away, causing the Mad Hatter to burst into laughter and for the whole scene to be refilmed again.
-In a blooper, the main character is watching the March Hare spazz out and is laughing, but doesn’t realize that she is actually in the film.
-In a blooper, the March Hare hops to Dracula, who is sitting in the corner, but his ears come off.
-The actual planning of the video also took about 2.5 hours to plan.

-hils

Movie Review: The Muppets

When I saw that this movie was coming out, I was so very excited.

Soon after, I dragged my sister to the movie theater, and we watched it together. Surprisingly, we didn’t finish off the popcorn in the first few minutes. We were both so engrossed in the movie that we didn’t even have time to eat our popcorn.

Walter, his brother Gary (Jason Segal), and Gary’s girlfriend Mary (Amy Adams) find out that an evil oil baron, Tex Richman, wants to drill for oil under the Muppets theater. Hoping to save the Muppets theater, the threesome go and try to bring together the Muppets gang again. Kermit is lonely in his mansion, reminiscing about Miss Piggy; Gonzo is the head of his toilet company, Gonzo’s Royal Flush; Fozzie performs with a rough band called the Moopets; Animal is at an anger management rehab clinic; and Miss Piggy is the plus-size fashion editor at Vogue Paris.

Movie Review–Green Lantern: The Emerald Knights

I actually thought this was the Green Lantern with Ryan Reynolds in it, but sadly I was mistaken. This is actually a series of stories about the Green Lanterns…in cartoon.

It was still okay. I haven’t watched the Green Lantern yet and therefore have not yet formed any sort of attachment to the characters, so I guess if you liked the Green Lantern and its characters then you might like this. Basically, the more senior Green Lanterns tell Arisa, the new recruit, stories about themselves.

Tis the Season to Eat FOOD.

I’ve brought it upon myself to cook dinner every night during winter break if we’re not eating out (and also to learn how to whistle, become a Chinese yoyo master, and a juggling prodigy, but first things first). I just thought I’d share some of my favorite recipes for this holiday season. Enjoy!

Last night I decided to make eggplant soup, which I found a recipe for on AllRecipes, since we had a bit of eggplant left. It turned out delicious, but it wasn’t such a good idea after I realized that I didn’t have a blender. But I’ll share it here, in case any of you do, or want to be like me and have to mash everything up in batches with a wooden roller. Here is my slightly modified version, depending on what I had at hand.
EGGPLANT SOUP (serves two people and one very hungry sister)
Ingredients
-1 eggplant, cut in half lengthwise
-1 tomato, cut in half
-1/2 large onion, cut in half
-3 pieces of garlic
-Salt
-Pepper
-Goat cheese
-Vegetable oil
-1 chicken bouillon cube
Directions
1) Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
2) Place your tomato, eggplant, garlic, and onion onto baking sheet. Drizzle and spread vegetable oil over the tops and bake in the oven for about half an hour, or until they have some brown spots on them.
3) Take four cups of water and put on high on the stove. Add a chicken bouillon cube. Peel the skin off of the eggplant and place the eggplant, tomato, garlic, and onion into the pot. Stir around for a while (and mash a bit with your spoon) until soft. Once the water starts bubbling (when it’s boiling), you can turn it down to medium heat.

The Occupy Movement

On July 13th, 2011, Adbusters, a Canadian group, called for a peaceful occupation of Wall Street. On September 17, 2011, it began. At first, a little over a thousand people showed up, but the numbers quickly grew. People camped out in Zuccotti Park protesting, as Adbusters calls it, “CORPORATOCRACY”.

Just after less than a month, the occupy movement had already spread to more than 95 cities in 84 countries. You may have heard of their slogan, “We are the 99%”, which refers to the wealth inequality between us, the 99%, and the top wealthiest 1%.

Yes, there are occupy movements currently in North Carolina.

What’s “In” Now

FEATHER HAIR EXTENSIONS

Here we have Selena Gomez showing off the latest trend — feather hair extensions. What you do is you take these hair extensions and attach them with a bobby pin. These just hit my school recently, and now I see them on everybody’s hair. If you like to go with the flow, these are totally in. If you don’t, maybe wait until these die down until you try wearing them, because I have to admit, they’re pretty cute.

You can buy them here on Amazon. Here’s a great Youtube video as well about buying, attaching, and rocking the feather hair extensions.

To see more trends, click here:

Audio/Book Review: The Throne of Fire…and a Cow.

The Throne of Fire is Rick Riordan’s second book in the Kane series. I did a review on The Red Pyramid, which is the first book.

Carter and Sadie, the siblings who are descended from the Egyptian pharaohs Rameses the Great and Narmer, continue their adventures from The Red Pyramid, but this time with a group of trainees that answered their call. Now they are at Brooklyn House with these promising young magicians. The House of Life is convinced that the Kanes are bad news, but their worst enemy yet, the chaos snake Apophis, is rising in just a few days.

Series Review: The Books of Bayern by Shannon Hale

I love Shannon Hale’s books. They have just the right touch of romance for girls, and the right touch of action for guys. I’ve always enjoyed reading books with magic, fairy tales, or any of that sort, mostly in part because, well, you don’t really see that much around here.

I remember reading these maybe four years ago. I still read them over and over again today. It’s amazing how they never get old. Just recently, I listened to all three of the audiobooks, thanks to the convinent Overdrive Media Console that Wake County Libraries offers They’re recorded by Full-Cast Audio, which has to be the  most amazing audiobook company ever. They have different voices for each character and music and sound effect and everything.

Book Review: Decision Points by George W. Bush

So I decided to read George W. Bush’s 481 page autobiography, Decision Points. I’ve never really been into politics myself, (except for when we had to analyze the 2008 election, but then again, I had never really understood the workings of all of it) but I did think it would be nice to see everything from another point of view, other than the constant “Bush ruined our country” perspective.

This autobiography is organized into sections based on major “decision points”, as the title suggestions.