Happy Sunday!

So . . . I have a confession to make.

I had literally every intention to participate in Catholic Liturgy Week this week, but I am EXHAUSTED right now and barely have the time to even write this post, so I guess I'll have to show my Catholic pride another time. ;)

In the meantime, I'm actually doing a relevant tag???? What is this??? Is someone else writing this post???

THE RULES:

1. Provide the link to the creator's original award post. (this is very important: see why in step five) seems ominous but okay

2. Answer the questions provided. Incoming!

3. Create seven unique questions. Oh, shoot, I'm so bad at this. XD

4. Nominate ten bloggers. Ensure that they are aware of their nomination. Neither the award's creator nor the blogger that nominated you can be nominated. Ribbon Ash nominated me, so she won’t be tagged.

5. At the end of 2020, every blog that ping-backs the creator's original post will be entered to win the 2020 Outstanding Blogger Award! Okay, this is a legitimately cool aspect of this tag. :)

Colton Beckwith originally created this tag, and here's the original post!

All right, let's get to the questions!

THE QUESTIONS

What sort of protagonist would you be? The fighter, the outcast, the anti-hero, the arrogant then turned humble, the one who makes a lot of bad decisions, the compassionate one? (feel free to add your own if none of these fit.)

I LOVE THIS QUESTION SO MUCH.

I think I'd be the quiet, compassionate one who hears my squad's bad decisions but doesn't really do anything about it until the said bad decisions blow up in our faces. I'd also empathize with the bad guys too much and overthink every decision I ever make.

I don't think I'd be a good protagonist. XD

What is one creative strength of yours?

Hmmmm. I . . . don't know. To be honest, I'm much better at pointing out my flaws.

But I suppose if I had to pick a creative strength, it'd be writing dialogue. I LOVE writing dialogue. I sadly write too much of it, but I love seeing how characters interact with each other!

Sunshine or rain for a superpower?

FANTASTIC. QUESTIONS.

I'd have to pick sunshine, because I could just make random rays of sunshine in the middle of a thunderstorm. It would be glorious. XD

Favourite number and why?

Five. If you've read Artemis Fowl, you'll know why. ;)

one two three four five wear the suit and stay alive

What is your favourite type of fictional character?

*deep breath*

REDEMPTION ARC CHARACTERS.

None of you are surprised by this, I'm sure. :D But it's true: lots of my favorite characters are the Zuko type. They start out majorly flawed, but they redeem themselves by the end. And it makes me want to scream with happiness.

I also really love characters who have been mentally manipulated and now have major trust issues. That's a huge thing of mine. should you be concerned? probably.

What is your least favorite genre of a book/movie?

Hmm. Probably romance. I just . . . don't really see the appeal? I'm not saying I dislike all romance books, but I can't stand 95% of them. Pride and Prejudice, for instance, is . . . overrated, in my opinion. *every P&P lover pulls out pitchforks*

What is your opinion of fairies?

well I'm writing a book about some so I think pretty highly of them XD

Fairies are EPIC! I love reading books about them, whether they're the tiny, nice type or the bloodthirsty, murderous type. If anyone has any good book recommendations about fairies, SEND THEM TO ME. :D

THE TAGGED + THE QUESTIONS

And now I have to figure out which ten people I should tag. Excellent. *rubs hands together*
Emily @ The Ones That Really Matter
Faith @ R.F. Gammon, Author
Savannah @ Bookshire
Skye @ Ink Calamities
Julian @ Saver of Memories
Sarah @ Pen of a Ready Writer
Bethany @ Scribbled Fiction
Merie @ Imperial Scribis (so she doesn't have to steal it this time ;) )
Ash @ Starlight Strands
Megan @ The Pen and the Cross

All right, and here are the questions, straight out of my sleep-deprived brain! XD
1. What's an achievement that you're proud of?
2. Favorite part of 2020 so far?
3. What's your favorite character type to write?
4. Thoughts on the MBTI personality quiz? (And bonus: what's your type?)
5. Favorite type of chocolate?
6. Describe yourself in three characters, explaining why you chose each one.
7. What's one thing you hope people take away from your blog?

Anyways, I hope you're having a fantastic Sunday and that you enjoyed this tag! I'll hopefully have some exciting news to share with you in the next few posts, so stay tuned. ;)

-Nicole <3

Happy Sunday!

So, as many of you know, I am a hardcore procrastinator. It's really hard for me to find the motivation to get tasks done.

Lately, I've been trying to discover ways that I can make myself feel productive with minimal effort. The idea is that if I feel productive, I will want to keep doing more things and therefore keep feeling productive. If that makes any sense. XD basically I'm just lazy

That’s what we’re discussing today: ways to trick your brain into thinking you’re productive, when in reality you’re just putting in the smallest amount of work possible.

None of this will be in any particular order, so . . . let’s just do this.

Make your bed.

Confession time: I never make my bed. *cue gasps* I just . . . don’t see the point? I rarely ever look at my bed during the day, and I’m going to sleep in it the next night and mess it all up again anyways.

But if I’m feeling really unproductive, I’ll straighten my blanket and maybe hide my pajamas under the covers so they’re out of sight. That way I can look at my bed and say, “See, I can make that look nice. I can do something else on my to-do list.”

BONUS POINTS if you go ahead and wash all your sheets for the sheer purpose of procrastinating on the other things you should be doing. XD

Clear off your desk/workspace.

I don’t know about you, but my desk is typically an absolute disaster: markers and pens everywhere, papers taking up half the workspace, sixteen different notebooks opened, et cetera. This mess makes it very hard for me to concentrate, especially if I’m trying to procrastinate. Because look, here are all these distractions!

So take my word for it: clean that mess up. Not only will it help you feel productive, but it will also give you a workspace that is actually usable, which is always a plus!

Listen to lofi music.

LOFI MUSIC IS THE BEST, OKAY. It’s meant to be in the background, which makes it perfect for studying or writing blog posts or . . . pretty much anything. When I listen to my playlist of current favorite songs, I always get distracted singing along. on a completely unrelated note, guess whose music is distracting them right now

Lofi is just a nice, calm thing to have playing while you get work done. It literally screams productivity to me. Plus, it makes you feel like you’re in one of those aesthetic productivity YouTube videos.

Speaking of which . . .

Watch an aesthetic YouTube video.

No, this technically isn’t being productive. However, seeing someone on YouTube be productive is somehow very motivating, especially if the YouTuber is your age! I particularly like “study with me” or “write with me” livestreams, because those are both fun and inspirational.

(Writing livestreams are literally saving my life right now.)

Something to keep in mind, however, is that if you’re going to head on YouTube, resolve to only watch one video. This way you won’t lose the motivation you get from the video, and you won’t get lost in YouTube’s Recommended feed. XD

Write your to-do list.

If you don’t write out your to-do lists the night before, I’d highly recommend doing so. That way, you can wake up with a set plan for the day.

But if you don’t want to do it, or you can’t, a great way to feel motivated is to actually sit down and write what you want to do. just make sure you don’t write so much that it stresses you out

If it helps, put “write to-do list” on your to-do list. That way, when you finish, you can cross something off immediately. And your brain will see that and go, “Well, look at that, with little effort we already did something. Let’s do some more!”

To-do list hacks for the WIN! ;)

Draw out your next week.

(This one only applies to bullet journal users.)

If it’s Thursday or Friday and you need a calm start to your day, go ahead and draw out your spread for the next week! It’s a relaxing way of being productive, and you can listen to fun music while you do it.

Don’t feel pressured to start writing to-do lists for that week: just draw the boxes and write the headers, and just leave it empty. Because THEN on Saturday or Sunday or whenever you do your planning for the week, you can see your nice empty spread, which might just motivate you to plan even MORE!

*sigh* I think I like journaling too much.


Don’t feel limited by these options: do whatever works for you! As long as it helps you feel more productive and leads you to get more things done, any little hack will work. Maybe sharpening pencils will do the trick for you, or washing a few dishes, or folding a blanket. Experiment!

I hope this post helped you find a way to Get Things Done - even if that means watching a YouTube video to do so. XD

-Nicole <3

Happy Sunday!

This is a post that I have been waiting to do for, I kid you not, YEARS. Ever since the Artemis Fowl movie trailer was released, I've been anxious to watch it - not because I thought it would be good, but because I knew it would be bad.

See, I have an obsession with bad book-to-movie adaptations. I love seeing how directors somehow mess up fascinating stories, and I love making fun of the finished product XD. I kid you not, I have an entire rant prepared on how Murtagh has 0 significance in the Eragon movie, but that's for another time.

This Thursday, I finally watched the Artemis Fowl movie, and I Have Thoughts. Not all of them are bad, but not all of them are good, either. So this'll be a movie . . . review . . . thing? Who knows?


Let me just say this now:

This movie was a combination of books one, two, and parts of three. I'm not summarizing all of these for those of you who haven't read the books. I'll try to fill you in as you go along.

Basically, Artemis Fowl is about this genius boy who discovers that there is a world of fairies and other mythical creatures living just beneath our feet. During the course of the books and movie, he kidnaps a fairy, teams up with said fairy to save his father's life, and ends up saving the world.

I'm keeping it vague because those are the only similarities the books and movie have. XD

And if combining all these books sounds like a lot for a movie to handle: don't worry, they watered it down to the basics. -_-

I figured I should start off this post with the things I LIKED about this movie. Because I did like things about this movie!

For instance, the counselor scene at the beginning was wonderfully done! It was pretty much verbatim from the book, and I appreciated seeing Artemis's smart, quiet, snarky side come out during this conversation. It was one of my favorite scenes from the second book, and I think it was done justice here.

I also thought the CGI was pretty decent. It was mostly believable, despite some loopy scenes that made 0 visual sense. XD

The soundtrack to Artemis Fowl was VERY enjoyable for me! Patrick Doyle always does a good job with his music, and the music, with its Irish nods, really brought the movie to life. I particularly like "Father and Son" and any song with an epic beat.

My biggest love of this movie was MULCH. In the books, Mulch is a dwarf with a sense of humor as large as his appetite for rocks and dirt, and he's such a funny, interesting character. And the movie got 97% of this character DOWN. Besides my quibble about him being the tallest dwarf ever (literally - it's a side plot), his personality and even his appearance were practically perfect. He definitely stole the movie.

Not that it was hard to steal it. Because there were Definite Issues That I Cannot Get Past.


I'm going to separate this negative section into the three biggest problems I had with this movie.

THE WORLDBUILDING

Remember how I said the CGI was good? Well, that's still true: I think the world of the fairies was excellently shown, at least from a visual standpoint. From a storytelling standpoint, however, I found it lacking in several respects.

My main issue was that none of the rules of this world were ever explained. Ever.

Now, in some stories, you can get away with this. For instance, in Lord of the Rings, Gandalf's magic never has an explicit set of rules.

However, Artemis Fowl's world has a very specific set of rules regarding how fairies interact with humans. Very specific guidelines have to be met for a fairy to go inside a human's house, for instance. And while I think this movie kept these rules, they were NEVER explained.

This makes things very confusing, like when Artemis, out of the blue, tells Root (a fairy commander wishing to negotiate with him), "I invite you into my house." It seems totally unnecessary, unless you know that an invitation must be extended to the fairy before they can enter. The movie never tells us this, however.

It's kind of important for viewers to know this crucial piece of information, since it explains why the attacking fairy army can't go into Artemis's house.

Even if the movie did tell us this information (in which case, I missed it), they didn't place great enough significance upon it, which is a bad decision.

And several other things aren't really explained or are just downright wrong when compared to the book. For instance, Root tells Artemis, "Fairies don't pay ransom," but Artemis's goal for the entire first book was to obtain fairy gold through capturing a fairy and offering her up for ransom. And it works. And they pay a ransom. #irritation

But okay, just because a movie didn't EXACTLY follow a book doesn't mean that it's horrible. Right?

THE CHARACTERS

I'm going to be honest: the characters really disappointed me in this movie. Besides Mulch, who was done almost perfectly and deserves an Academy Award. anyone who got that reference, thank you

Let's start with the minor characters, shall we?

Foaly, our resident genius centaur, who delivered 78% of the snark in the books, had exactly one funny line. All right, he's not really a major part of the movie and there wasn't a lot of time for him, so I'll forgive that.

What I cannot forgive is what they did to Commander Root's character. In the book, Root is a younger man. In the movie, Root is an old woman.

#YIKES

And this brings me to one of my biggest complaints of the movie.

Holly, the main fairy character, and Root are both part of the LEPrecon, or the fairy's police force/army. In the books, Holly is the first and only female officer of the LEP, and Root is her hard but lovable commander. This lack of females in the LEP gives very high expectations for Holly, and it gives her motivation for everything she does: she has to prove herself constantly. It's why she's reckless, it's why she is punished harshly at times, and it's why her capture by Artemis is hard on her. It shows she's weak.

But in the movie, there are practically BATTALIONS of women officers in the LEPrecon. Root himself (or herself?) is a woman. And to me, that just ruins everything Holly stands for in the books.

And what did the movie writers replace this book subplot with?

Oh, you know, the typical "My father was a traitor, I'm pretty sure he was good, and I've got to avenge my family name" subplot.

*GIANT SIGH*

And you would think that the book subplot, which is HIGHLY feminist and women-empowering, would make it into the movie, but nooooooooo.


Now, let's talk about the villains, shall we? Or, should I say, very disappointing villains.

Briar Cudgeon has the least convincing villain character arc I've ever seen on a screen. In case you watched the movie and don't know who that is:

- he's the LEPrecon officer guy who hates Root and was recruited by the Main Baddie to stop the good guys . . . for some reason???
- since you don't remember his name, that's a pretty good indicator of how impactful he was.

Seriously, Cudgeon was a SEVERE letdown. But the Main Baddie, Opal Koboi, was the biggest of all.

See, both Cudgeon and Opal were taken from the books. But whereas Cudgeon can be delegated to a one-dimensional villain, to do so to Opal is a mistake.

Opal is one of the scariest villains I've ever read about. She attacks Artemis in at least four different books and nearly outsmarts him every single time. She's got really interesting, if  twisted, motivations, and she goes on a negative, vengeful arc in the books that ends with her trying to kill literally everyone.

But in the movie, she . . . wears a creepy cloak that covers her face. And she kidnaps Artemis's dad. And she has this weird raspy voice?? And she's got one monologue talking about her reasoning for . . . honestly, I completely forgot what her reasoning was. XD She just wants to Kill Everyone. She doesn't have any depth, and she doesn't even feel threatening to me at all.

The saying goes that your story is only as strong as your villains. Well, if that's the case, this story is pretty weak.

But you want to know the weakest point of all?

ARTEMIS AND HIS CHARACTER ARC

Allow me to go on a bit of a tangent here, because this genuinely makes me mad.

In the books, it’s made very clear that Artemis Fowl is NOT a good person. He’s selfish, cold, and is willing to sacrifice others in order to get what he wants. He kidnaps a fairy for the SOLE purpose of getting rich off of fairy gold, and he poisons another fairy to get her secret fairy book. And we hear that he’s kept his father’s criminal empire running.

Let me repeat this: ARTEMIS FOWL IS NOT SHOWN AS A GOOD PERSON.

He has some good qualities, though, such as taking care of his very ill and grief-stricken mother. These scenes in the book, though few and far between, were quite powerful. They showed that Artemis is not irredeemable. They showed that he does have a soul, even though he buries it under cruel intellect.

As the series progresses and Artemis grows, those scenes become more common. We see Artemis begin to open up to others and trust them, and he starts making friends. It takes time - LOTS of time - for him to change, because he’s not used to being a good person.

But this redemption arc is masterfully done because of that, and it yields powerful results. At the end of book 8, we see this boy, who used to be selfish, manipulative, and withdrawn from others, selflessly sacrifice himself for his friends. It’s one of the most amazing endings I’ve ever read.

Now, let’s go back to the movie, shall we?

NONE OF THIS IS SHOWN. ABSOLUTELY NONE OF IT.

Because here’s the thing. Disney chose to portray Artemis as a GOOD person who makes some . . . questionable decisions? But even when he does make those questionable decisions, he makes them out of a selfless desire to save his father.

Yeah, he’s a little antisocial, and he makes some sassy remarks to the counselor, but he never ONCE strikes me as a criminal mastermind, as a bad person. We are TOLD he's a bad person, and we're never SHOWN that he is.

And his character arc is . . . um, kind of a negative one? He learns to not kidnap fairies, and he accepts his legacy as the son of a criminal. This isn’t NEARLY as powerful as the redemption story of the books.

As for the powerful scenes with his mother, the ones that showed his humanity? Yeah, well, they didn’t happen, because DISNEY KILLED HER OFF. She’s not even in the movie! Those scenes could have been so beautiful. I genuinely would have shed a tear.

Instead, I just didn’t care.

Artemis’s arc felt so rushed and shallow, to the point where I couldn’t tell you, in explicit ways, how and where his character changed. Actually, most of the arcs in this movie are rushed, the most frustrating one being the relationship between Artemis and Holly, the fairy he kidnapped.

It took three books for Holly to completely trust Artemis, and with good reason. And it took that same amount of time for Artemis to feel a spark of friendship towards her.

But ten minutes after Artemis kidnaps her in the movie, he RELEASES HER. ?????? It takes HOURS in the book until this point is reached. *distant screaming* And yes, there is worldbuilding in the book that prevents her from killing him, but this isn’t mentioned in the movie at ALL.

Twenty minutes after THAT, they’re declaring each other as “forever friends.” Yes, that is actually a line from the movie. Yes, it’s Artemis who says that. Yes, that is the last thing Artemis would ever say. *throws up*

I came for a redemption arc. All I got was a semi-negative arc that at least ended with him in a suit and tie. Because he didn't even wear that in the beginning.

But I just can't see the point of his character arc in the movie. I can't come up with a coherent theme the movie could possibly be teaching us. It honestly just feels . . . empty.


There are tons more things I could rant about, such as the narration or the Aculos or Trouble Kelp or the fact that Artemis is actually athletic for some reason OR why literally everything in this movie is told and not shown, but I figured I better cut it short. This post is getting long as it is. XD

So would I recommend Artemis Fowl?

*sigh*

If you haven't read the books, I'd recommend it as a good starting point. And if you like the movie, then READ THE BOOKS.

If you have read the books, you have two options:
- Don't watch it and spare yourself the trouble and pain.
- Do what I did and watch it so you can have the pleasure of screaming at a TV for 90 minutes.

Anyways, it's not the worst book-to-movie adaptation I've ever seen. Percy Jackson and The Last Airbender are both much worse. The acting isn't bad, honestly! I just wish it had been better written.

The real question is, are they going to make a sequel or not? XD because they actually did leave it open and that irritates me

-Nicole <3

Happy Sunday!

I think you’ve seen this around, but HAMILTON IS NOW ON DISNEY+.

AAAAHHHHHHHHHH.

For those of you who don’t know, Hamilton is my all-time favorite musical. I got into it almost two years, and I . . . never really stopped listening to it. XD except for the last few months because anime openings exist

But if you’ve considered watching this fantastic musical, but haven’t yet, here are some reasons why you should spend almost three hours watching people sing on stage.  XD



When I started listening to Hamilton for the first time, way back in November of 2018, I would get songs stuck in my head for DAYS. (You have no idea how long My Shot was in my head. It was insane.)

The story is all told through song and rap. I will admit, when my history teacher first told us that tidbit of info (she was the one who started me on it - she constantly nagged our class to listen to it), I was extremely doubtful. After all, rap? Every single rap song I’d ever heard just annoyed me.

I don’t know why Hamilton is different. Maybe it’s because its songs aren’t as . . . crude . . . as the more mainstream rap songs. Maybe it’s because these songs tell a story in a really creative way. Either way, this is the ONLY sort of rap I will listen to.

I find it really funny how fast this GIF goes

When you listen to Hamilton, it’s clear that the writer put a lot of thought into the character growth. Alexander grows from a rash teenager, to one of America’s Founding Fathers, to a man whose life has crashed down around him. Burr grows more impatient throughout the musical. Washington just gets more and more irritated (XD just kidding). Eliza changes from a lovestruck young woman to a heartbroken wife unsure of how to keep going.

The only major character who doesn’t really change is Jefferson. And that’s just fine.

This has nothing to do with this point. I just find it great.

Hamilton doesn’t shy away from showing the consequences of bad actions. Alexander does really, really stupid things throughout his life. He gets involved in multiple duels, one of which ends up killing his son. He cheats on his wife and tries to cover it up through any means necessary. And he openly admits to cheating on his wife by writing a HUGE PAMPHLET ABOUT IT AND RELEASING IT TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC. (I facepalm so hard during the Reynolds Pamphlet because GOSH HE’S AN IDIOT.)

But the musical SHOWS that these things had horrible consequences for Alexander’s life and the lives of those around him. It shows us that these things were wrong to do. And, leading in to the next point, it teaches some very important things in the process.

Excuse me while I yell at a historical figure now

Hamilton shows us that we need to think things through before we do them. So many of the problems Alexander goes through could have been solved if he didn’t just jump into them headfirst. I mean, come on. You really thought sending your son into a duel was a good idea? *sigh*

It also leads us to question what we’re doing in our lives. So many times we put off doing things and procrastinate. But Hamilton reminds us that we don’t know when we’re going to die, and we don’t know when others are going to die. We need to show love for others now. We need to actively start pursuing God now. And we can’t just say we’re going to change the world. We have to actually do it.

So we can’t throw away our shot.

It hurts me to put this GIF here. PHILIP :_(

I find stories are always more powerful if they’re true, and the same goes for musicals. Sure, Anastasia is moving in its own way, but it’s most definitely fiction. Wicked (which I don’t entirely agree with) has a powerful, inspiring friendship, but it’s fiction. Hamilton shows the consequences of actions and courage in war - and it does so by telling a true story.

Now, I’m not denoting that fiction is powerful. The stories that have changed my life the most are fiction. But it’s a different experience to look at such an incredible life story, like Hamilton’s, and think, “All this was actually true.” It’s crazy.

“The Room Where It Happens” is a particularly good song

I’m seriously not kidding. The last two tests of my U.S. History class were about Hamilton’s time - the first test basically covered Act I and the second one covered Act II. In fact, the second test’s material basically stopped after Hamilton’s death.

Did I really study for the tests?

No.

But did I listen to the musical while “studying”?

HECK YES I DID.

(It must be said here that I was also reading Ron Chernow’s biography of Hamilton at the time, and some of that material did correspond with the test material. That biography also helped me pass. But Hamilton did cover most of it.)

Also, if you tell your History teacher that you listen to Hamilton, you’ll either get extra points in her book - or she’ll think that you’re one of THOSE people. *shrugs*

My history teacher when she learned I now listen to Hamilton

LAFAYETTE IS THE BEST EVER.

Seriously. His song “Guns and Ships” is one of the most fun-to-sing songs on the entire soundtrack. (Don’t believe me? I rapped to it here.)

In addition, he’s one of the most interesting people of the Revolutionary War era. I read his biography, Lafayette, and found it really good. Highly recommended!

Immigrants. WE GET THE JOB DONE.

Content Warning: admittedly, there is quite a bit. I recommend listening to the clean version, as it censors most (but not all) profanity. Some reoccurring words were d***, f***, w****, s***, and h***. God’s name is taken in vain several times (but I really like how Alexander ends up turning back to God towards the end). A major part of the plot is that Alexander cheats on his wife. Drinking is mentioned in several scenes, and sex is mentioned in one or two songs. There’s also a few bad messages, but I think the good outweighs the bad in this case.

If you want a complete list of the content in each song, ask me down in the comments, and I’ll draft something up for you!

I also have a playlist on my Spotify that does not include the heart-wrenching songs or (some of) the most vulgar songs. (“A Winter’s Ball,” for instance, literally makes my blood curdle.) Here it is, if you’re interested.


Again, I really hope you at least try Hamilton. It’s definitely not for everyone, but as someone who doesn’t like rap music or bad language, I LOVE it.

Hope you guys have a great day!

-Nicole <3


*all GIFs from GIPHY