Ending Hunger One Word at a Time!

Today I'm going to tell you about a great site my mom got me on to a year ago. It's called Free Rice - http://www.freerice.com/. If you haven't been to it yet, you should definitely check it out. Free Rice is basically one big online word game. The site gives you a word and you have to pick the correct meaning of the word from the four meanings they give you. You have the option of difficulty levels - which is great if you're not especially good at word games, like me. But what makes this game different from others you might find out there? For every answer you get right, they'll donate ten grains of rice through the UN World Food Program to help end hunger!

I've been playing for a year or so, with my score being reset a while back. At the moment my new score is up to 3,000 grains of rice donated, and out of 60 levels, the highest I've gotten is level 20!! See if you can beat my score. Comment here with your scores. ^_^

xoxo,

Lizzy

For Whom the Bells Toll

For our second edition of Book Tuesdays, I'm going to be talking about ... idk. Um, I could talk about the dictionary .. no, too long and I only have two hours before this becomes Booky Wednesdays. Hmm. Ah, ha! -drumroll- THE ABHORSEN TRILOGY. That's by Garth Nix, for those of you who don't know.

Sabriel, the first in the series, was about a girl of about eighteen whose father was the Abhorsen, the famous necromancer who worked for the good guys, putting dead things back in Death. Sabriel was raised from a young age in an all-girls school in a country named Ancelstierre, which was located right below the Old Kingdom, where her father lived and worked. Ancelstierrans didn't believe in the things those from the Old Kingdom did though - like magic and dead things. But Sabriel's school was close to the Wall - a magical wall that separated the two countries and kept many dead things out of Ancelstierre. It also prevented magic from being used in Ancelstierre the farther it got from the Wall.

One night, a night when Sabriel's father was expected to astral-project into her room to discuss her future, he doesn't show up. In his place is a dead creature carrying the Book of the Dead and his bells - the seven bells of a necromancer. From this, Sabriel gathers that her father is in trouble and takes on the responsibilities of the Abhorsen, journeying into the Old Kingdom for the first time since she was a child, to find her father. But the Kingdom has not been right for centuries, ever since the royal family was killed.

And that's enough about that one, for people who haven't read it. At first, I was a little skeptical about the story. But was pleased to see that Nix had used a female lead character for such an adventurous and gruesome story. It is now one of my favorite books.

Lirael, the sequel, centers on a Clayr girl. Clayr are the seers of the Old Kingdom. We'd come across twin Clayr in Sabriel, but Lirael takes us into the glacier where they live. And it tells us of their customs and why there are so few male Clayr. And, of course, it tells the story of Lirael herself. A motherless young teen as she grows up without receiving the Sight, but instead buries herself in the Clayr Library where she works, discovering the secrets of the Old Kingdom. Soon Lirael's curiosity leads her far from the Glacier and out into the Kingdom proper to try and stop the old evil that's threatening to break free of its bonds.

Of course, the story also follows Sameth. But I can't really talk about him without revealing secrets that are talked about in Sabriel. For the same reason, I can't talk about Abhorsen, the third book in the series. I will, however, say that Nix is an amazing author and if you like adventure novels, you should definitely check out this series. Especially since Garth is writing a fourth book, planned to be out sometime in the next two years! Oh, and don't forget about The Creature in the Case. It's a short story taking place after Abhorsen. You can find it in Across the Wall, a collection of Nix's short stories.

That's all for now, loves. I'm expected to do some role-playing before I get offline in about fifteen minutes.

xoxo,

Lizzy <3

Monday the 13th

Mood: energetic

Currently Listening to: "Dream Police" by Cheap Trick *turns radio up*

As promised earlier, I'm back to talk about the dumbest horror/drama movie I've ever seen. Children of the Corn is a close second, by the way.

1408 is the name of a movie featuring John Cusack and practically no one else. John plays a character who travels all over the states, staying at hotels to see if they're haunted like they advertise they are. When the movie starts he has yet to find a truly haunted house, and doesn't believe in such a thing anyway. And as we find out later, his young daughter died a year or two ago and he has yet to speak to his wife since he left their home in New York.

Then one day he gets a postcard from a hotel in New York, the Dolphin. It says "Don't go into room 1408." So he decides to go check it out. First off, he finds out that there have been about ten deaths in the room. Then he speaks to the hotel manager who tells him that there have been dozens more. The manager even gives him a file filled with information about each death in hopes of preventing him from staying the night in the room. But it doesn't matter. John still thinks the whole thing is a hoax, so he goes in anyway.

Immediately things start happening. Things I can't really talk about otherwise I'll become more creeped out than I already am. Amazingly I didn't have nightmares from this movie, even though I went to bed right after I watched this. It was really stupid. I mean, I still don't know how it all started, or if it ended. But I can blame my mom for suggesting we watch it right before bed. So ... at least it wasn't my fault. ^_^

xoxo,

Lizzy

Getting to Know Me

Mood: cold, groggy
Currently Listening to: radio commercials

Okay, so I was just reading my friend's blog on (sucky) LiveJournal and I saw that she had taken this random quiz and I thought I'd post it here - with my own answers, of course.

Do you have any pets?: yes, three cats;; Smokey, Oliver, and Mickey
What color shirt are you wearing?: red
Name three things that are physically close to you: aside from the obvious chair, keyboard, desk and monitor;; radio, juice bottle, and a heater
What is the last book you read?: Twilight
Are you or were you a good student?: I was average
What's your favorite sport?: Hockey, I guess
Do you enjoy sleeping late?: I did today. lol. but I actually hate it because it gets me off schedule
What's the weather like right now?: cold, it snowed all of last night
Who tells the best jokes?: in my family: um, both my parents are pretty funny;; not in my family: Ryan Stiles and Colin Mochrie
What was the last thing you dreamed about?: I dreamed about Smallville today. gave me a great idea for a fanfic too. ^_^
Do you drive? If so, have you ever crashed?: I don't drive. :(
Do you believe in karma?: idk
Do you believe in luck?: um... kinda
Do you like your eggs scrambled or sunny side up?: scrambled!!
Do you collect anything? If so, what?: postcards from all over. I also want to collect spoons like my grandma used to.
Are you proud of yourself?: not at the moment
Are you reliable?: most of the time
Have you ever given money to a bum?: never had the chance
What's your favorite food?: my mom's homemade mac 'n' cheese
Have you ever had a secret admirer?: no :(
Do you like the smell of gasoline?: no
Do like to draw?: yeah, but I suck
What's your favorite invention?: everything
Is your room messy?: yeah
What do you like better: oranges or apples?: apples, but I only eat yellow ones
Do you give in easily?: sometimes
Are you a good guesser?: depends
Can you read other people's expressions?: depends on who it is
Are you a bully?: nope
Do you have a job?: no
What time did you wake up this morning?: 1:00 pm
What did you eat for breakfast this morning?: juice
When was the last time you showered?: yesterday
What do you plan on doing tomorrow?: updating my blog, of course! Booky Tuesdays!!
What's your favorite day of the week and why?: erm, Saturday because I get to spend the most time with my family, but Sunday because I get to spend the most time on the computer.
Do you have any nicknames?: Lizzy (thanks to Tippy), Lizzytcka (thanks to Iris), and Junior (thanks to the stupidity of my father)
Have you ever been scuba diving?: nope
What's your least favorite color?: orange, bleh
Is there someone you have been constantly thinking about? If yes, who?: i guess my mom, or rather, my future little brother or sister. :D
Would you ever go skydiving?: nooooo!!! dude, I'm waaay too afraid of heights to do that.
What toothpaste do you use?: Colgate
Do you enjoy challenges?: physically, no;; mentally, yeah
What's the worst injury you have had?: a swollen middle finger on my right hand because I fell down two steps of the stairs in my house. my hand was squished between my chest and the railing. it was a pain to use the computer mouse for the next two weeks, and typing was impossible. :(
What's the last movie you saw?: 1408
What do you want to know about the future?: my life (career, family), and will I always stay in contact with the friends I have now - cuz they're so amazing. ^_^
What does your last text message say?: idk, I was doing it for mom.
Who was the last person you spoke over the phone to?: mom
What's your favorite school subject?: English
What's your least favorite school subject?: math
Would you rather have money or love?: love
What is your dream vacation?: Ireland
What is your favorite animal?: cat
Do you miss anyone right now?: yeah, my grandpa
What's the last sporting event you watched?: hockey
Do you need to do laundry?: doing it right now
Do you listen to the radio?: all the time, like right now
Where were you when 9/11 happened?: in my living room, watching with my mom and grandpa
What do you do when vending machines steal your money?: never happened to me
Have you ever caught a butterfly?: nope
What color are your bed sheets?: lilac
What's your ringtone?: Higher, by Creed
Who was the last person to make you laugh?: my mom
Do you have any obsessions right now?: Twilight. oh, and preparing to be a sister.
Do you like things that glow in the dark?: no
What's your favorite fruity scent?: green apple
Do you watch cartoons?: sometimes
Have you ever sat on a roof?: no, heights again
Have you ever been to a different country?: nope
Name three things in the world you dislike: onions, dead sites, and ice (as in tripping on it.)
Name three people in the world you dislike: I'll keep the personal ones private. celebrity: Scarlet Johanson, Jennifer Aniston, Chris Columbus (the director)
Has a rumor even been spread about you?: no
Do you like sushi?: never had it
Do you believe in magic?: no
Do you hold grudges?: yeah

Thanks go to the Lovely Iris for that quiz.

I'll be back later with my Movie Mondays rant on 1408.

xoxoxo,
Lizzy

Daily Addiction

Mood: tired, excited, proud

Currently Listening to: "Make Believe" by Thornley

Ok, technically Thursdays are the designated night for website rants, but I got so busy working on websites that I'm doing the rant today. So, you're probably wondering which site I'm advertising today. Is it one of my own? One of the many I work on? No! I'll leave the latest rpg news for Thursday and talk about a universal favorite instead. Facebook!!!

First there was LiveJournal (which never worked for me), then there was MySpace (which I was too busy to keep up with) and now there's Facebook. At first I was a little skeptical to join. My mom's friends were signing up like crazy and finally she got an account too. This was a little disturbing. My mom using Facebook when she can't even use an instant messenger without my help. Hell, she can't even copy and paste! But still I resisted the mighty pull of Facebook, sticking to my guns and repeatedly explaining that MySpace was better, even if I didn't go on it anymore.

Finally she got to me. I joined with only three friends, two of them being my parents (yeah, my dad signed up too), and the other being the son of my mom's friend. Someone I'd hardly call a friend of mine. But my dad and I had a good time, competing against each other in games. Although I was a bit disappointed that there weren't any blog-making applications. Anyway, fast-forward a year or so, and I was still a little unsure of Facebook. There are many things about the site that still baffle me. But then I got an email from one of my favorite p.c. gaming sites, telling me that Facebook had launched a new game called Pet Society in which you create a pet and take care of him/her while building and decorating their house, visiting friends, and more.

As it turns out, Pet Society had been out for a few months already, but it was still good nevertheless. I signed up right away, creating a tan kitty whom I named Alice, after Alice Cullen. Alice's house only started out with one room, but the more things you do, like cleaning/brushing/feeding yours and your friends' pets, the more points you get, and the faster you move on to the next level and receive better tools - and a bigger house. I started playing last month and Alice is now at level twenty-seven, nearly twenty-eight. Plus I created another Facebook account for the sole purpose of being able to create another pet. This one, looking a lot like Alice, I named Rosalie. ^_^

Anyway, for the last month, Pet Society has been my addiction. Every night at seven o'clock when my parents are at work I log on and compete in the ten daily races, earning thirty coins for each one I win. Then I visit all my friends' pets and take care of them too. And since my mom joined a couple of weeks ago, I've been doing triple duty with her pet, a tan puppy named Cobalt.

PlayFish, the game's developer, has a forum where I hang out for the majority of the day, finding more PS friends, or swapping pictures of our pets and houses. Or, the best part of all, trading items. You see, in PS there are shops where you can go to buy furniture or clothes or food. But some of these things, especially the things in the luxury shop, is very expensive. Quite a few things only remain in the shops for a week, and then they disappear. And then there are the box items. The things that only appear in Mystery Boxes. So, when we buy or receive something we don't want, we have the option of selling it back to the store, for a lower price than we originally paid, or trading it for something else.

The trick is knowing what everything is worth, and knowing how popular it is. For instance, Halloween items are hot. I'm forever seeing trades happen for the black cat stuffed animal, or the monster couch. Christmas things are also big, but mostly the food. Thanksgiving food is the same. I was playing through the Chinese New Year and Valentine's Day, so I was able to buy the specialty items and sell for big money when the week was up.

Contests and giveaways are frequently hosted on the forums as well. Rich players who have furnished their house and have reached the final level of game play are buy jukeboxes and lip couches (the two highest-priced items) and giving them away free! I actually won two jukes a few weeks ago. Of course, selling the jukes and lips back to the store for money will only get you 6666 coins as opposed to the 20,000 it takes to buy one, but it's still a good amount of money.

At the moment and in the middle of re-designing Alice's living room because I didn't like the old design anymore. She's only got five rooms out of the maximum six, but I'm already buying up furniture to put in it. I'm also dying to hold a contest of my own, because I'm having so much fun giving to less-fortunate pets. But my mom and I agreed that we'd help a whole bunch of people just as soon as our own houses are fixed up. And we're nearly there!! ^_^

Enough talk for today, must go and check on my trades. Here are some pics of Alice in her house.

xoxo

Lizzy

P.S. if you wanna add me on Facebook, go right ahead. here's the link to my page:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/profile.php?id=680737570&ref=name

The Perks of Having Pen-Pals

Well, since my blog is clearly awesome, you must be awesome for reading it. So, I'd like to give all you awesome people a gift this fine morning by letting you in on a secret. I'm friends with a celebrity!! Yep, it's true. Oh, I'll bet money on the fact that you're not thinking of the right one. But still, one of my best friends is a celebrity.

Miss Tiffany Marie Saxe, known to all us commoners as Tippy, recently recieved some good news. Her book was published! 'Tis true, I've seen the proof with my own two eyes - and so shall you! The perks of having pen-pals is that before they get rich and famous, they have to advertise. So, for Tippy, the perk to having me as a friend (aside from many of my amazing qualities) is that I have this lovely blog that I can advertise on for her. The perk to having Tippy for a friend, aside from her great sites and random humor, is that she wrote a book that sounds wonderful. If only I had the money to order it .....

But wait! Maybe you do! Well, even if you don't want to send me a free copy, you can order your own on Amazon.com - http://www.amazon.com/Etched-Stone-Book-Skyla-Chronicles/dp/1606933736/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233432600&sr=1-1 Or on Barnes & Noble - http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Etched-In-Stone-Book-One-The-Skyla-Chronicles/Tiffany-Marie-Saxe/e/9781606933732/?itm=1.

I believe both sites have summaries of Etched in Stone, so there you go. ^_^

xoxoxo

Lizzy

Blind & Dangerous

Oh, my gosh. I can't believe it's been four whole days since I posted last. Wow. So, technically I need to make up for not posting on Monday, 'cause I had something special planned for last night. But then I forgot it was Family Day here in Canada (happy family day to all of you) so my parents wanted to spend the day together. Very unproductive. Anyway, I completely forgot that I needed to make this post until it was too late.



We were all watching the Bachelor from 11-1:00 a.m. And then, during the Rose Ceremony, it dawns on me and I'm like "Oh, no!" and my parents are like "what?" and I said "I forgot to post a blog entry. And tonight I was going to talk about the movies we saw on the weekend." And then we started talking about the movies we saw on the weekend until the tv caught our eye again and my mom and I were like "Yes! Jason didn't give Jillian a rose!" and "Melissa is so going to win this. There's no way he'll pick Molly." So, yeah ..... I didn't give my entry another thought until now. So sorry!!!

I've decided to combine my Monday and Tuesday rituals for today. So, we rented a bunch of movies over the weekend, only two I which I watched. The first was Blindness with Julianne Moore. For those of you who don't know, Blindness is about a city (I think it was New York) where all the inhabitants start going blind. First it was a guy driving his car in the middle of traffic, then it was the doctor his wife took him to see. Slowly but surely, everyone the man came in contact with after going blind, began to go blind as well. Even the guy that drove him home and then stole his car! But then, when the government throws them all into this abandoned building for quarantine, more people keep coming in. Julianne Moore, the wife of the eye doctor, pretends to be blind so she can go with him. But for some reason, she never becomes blind herself.

Spoilers! I didn't appreciate the nudity, violence, and overall stupidity of the movie. I don't think there was a need for most of it. And I think this could have been a much better movie without it. It also would have been better if they'd come up with a reason why everyone was going blind, except Julianne. If you've seen the movie then you must know what I'm talking about. I mean, they never even came up with a guess of why people were blind. It was just happening, and then a few months later everyone's getting better. So what was the point? And why the hell didn't Julianne's character have a name if she was the lead character? That's just stupid.

Moving on, I'm a big Nicolas Cage fan. I loved him in The Rock, Con Air, the National Treasure series, The Ant Bully, and Ghost Rider. But I was a little skeptical when it came time to watch Bangkok Dangerous. And for good reason - I'm not into action movies. So, as my parents watched the movie, I sat on the other couch doing some work for the character I play for my friend's site, not paying attention to the movie. But I must say, I was pleasantly surprised when I put away my papers for most of the film. The action scenes were fantastic. There was humor throughout the whole thing. Even his scenes with the unnamed deaf girl were great. The sucky part though - the scene that ruined the whole movie - was the ending. Now why did that have to happen?? -sigh-

Two movies, both terrible. I'm afraid for the films of the future. Be back in a little bit with Tuesday's post.

xoxo

Lizzy

Aliens and Demons

Current Mood: Tired, stressed.
Currently Listening To: random rock music




'Ello loves. Sorry I couldn't get on earlier - er, last night. Whatever. But I'm here now and I come with good news - More new features! Since the four things I talk about the most are movies, books, websites, and tv, I figured I'd designate a different day for each subject. For instance, today begins-

Why Fridays? Because my two favorite shows are on Thursday. And since I have to tape them at 8 and 9 p.m., sometimes I don't watch them until Friday.

So, let's get started by talking about Supernatural. Putting aside the fact that Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki are hot, the show is really good. For those of you who don't know, Supernatural is about two brothers who hunt things like ghosts, demons, vampires, and werewolves. Through the three seasons (it's in its fourth now), the boys have had to deal with the disappearance of their father (a 'hunter' like them), the mysterious past of their mother and the reasons behind her death, the possibility that Sam (Jared) is turning evil and is meant to become a leader of demons, a demonic war, and poor Dean (Jensen) trying to avoid going to Hell.

If you think it sounds far-fetched, you're wrong. The first season is filled with hilarious banter between the brothers as they try to work together to find their father after being apart for four years while Sam was at college - a move both Dean and their father disapproved of. But as they continue to search, hunting down any creature they come across on the way, the boys make shocking discoveries about their mother's death twenty-two years before. I refuse to say anything about the second, third, and fourth season in this paragraph in case you haven't seen the show yet. If you have been watching it on a weekly basis as I have, please continue on.

For the rest of February, all episodes of Supernatural are going to be repeats of earlier in the season. I don't know why. Probably has something to do with Valentine's Day, but I'm not complaining. I missed four epps and now I can catch up. The one they aired last night was really funny. Not too interesting - having watched ahead I already know what happened in Hell - but seeing Dean paranoid was just hilarious. I couldn't stop laughing. That scream was the funniest thing. I think that was the first time we'd heard him scream, come to think of it. I was talking to my mom (who's also a big fan) about the epp, and we were laughing about how Sam had to kind of take the lead and deal with Dean's fear. I said if the roles were reversed and Sam was the paranoid one, Dean probably would have told him to suck it up. lol. I love how throughout the whole thing Dean kept trying to justify his fear though. ^_^

Anyway, I've got tons of work to do .... well, not really, but it feels like it to me ... so I better get a move on.

xoxo

Lizzy

Because I Can

Good morning dearies. Or, should I say goodnight? Well, while it is technically 11:44 a.m. here in Milton, I'll be going to bed after finishing this post. Why? Because I'm addicted to Facebook. If you play a little game called Pet Society on there, you'll know why. My lovely Alice is about to reach level 26! Uh, I'm getting off topic. I'll be posting again tonight, sometime between 7 and 11, when I have the computer all to myself - and I've had enough sleep so that I can type a decent sentence without having to rewrite it five times.

Anyway, I thought for now I'd introduce some new features to Shades of Lizzy that I'll put into affect later. Basically, the following few things are going to be put at the top of every post. Why? Because I always enjoyed the features on MySpace, and I want to use them here. In short, because I can.

Current Moon: tired
Currently Listening To: "Highway to Hell" by AC/DC on radio.

I may add more stuff as I think of it. But that's it for now.

Later I'll be discussing websites. One's I play on, ones I work on, ones I'm working and playing on. This is especially important because one of my bestest friends will be opening a new site in a few days, a sister site to an already existing one.

xoxo
Lizzy

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Lizzy

Taking a little break from the book reviews and decided to talk some more about myself. And no, I'm not as conceited as I might seem right now. I'm just tired, in a weird mood due to being tired, and I can't think of which book to review next. :P

Anyway, I'm going to post a few obscure things about myself that hardly anyone knows about. I'll try to aim for fifteen things.

1) I'm super-shy. I know, shocking. It takes a little while for me to warm up to people and open up to them. So blogging isn't one of my specialties, but I'm trying.
2) I'm - how can I say this? .... plump? yeah, we'll go with that. I've been trying to lose weight since I was a kid, but nothing has ever come of it. This year I'm starting a new routine, so keep your fingers crossed.
3) A description of my appearance, aside from the weight, as thought up by my mother and myself: I have porcelain skin, which I apparently inherited from my grandmother, but I hate it. I have long, dark brown hair. And I mean long. Brown eyes. My height - I don't know. My mom is like five feet, and I'm a bit taller than her. I prefer to wear jeans and a t-shirt. I love bright colors for clothing. My favorite outfit (which I happen to be wearing right now) is my pinkish-fuscha short-sleeved shirt with my light blue jeans and a white bandana.
4) My favorite color is blue, second is purple. Don't mind pink, white, black, silver, brown. Hate gold and orange. Don't mind certain shades of red and yellow. I have mixed feelings about green.
5) My parents are trying to have a baby right now. We're praying for a boy. I believe Kevin is the name of the week, though I'm not so sure. Kevin Sabourin? bleh.
6) On the note of names, I have two middle names. Anne and Rejeanne. So, say it with me, Elizabeth Anne Rejeanne Sabourin. Notice the highlighted letters? Yep, my initials spell EARS. Lovely. For anyone who cares to know, Anne was my .... great-grandmother's name, as well as my mother middle name. Rejeanne is my paternal grandmother. Elizabeth is apparently one of only a handful of names my parents could agree on. If I was a boy, I would have been called Matthew.
7) I still have a great-grandmother left. Though she's waaaaay up there and I haven't seen her since I was like three. I also only have one grandparent left (Rejeanne).
8) I'm of Ukrainian and French-Canadian decent. My dad's side is totally French, though they've all lost the accent since they moved from Ottawa years ago. I've also got some British in there from my mom's side.
9) I secretly act out scenes of the books I'm reading and writing - by myself. It helps me get into the characters.
10) I'm a Christian. Don't think I mentioned that in my first post, but very important.
11) My favorite meal is my mom's homemade macaroni and cheese.
12) I crochet, do plastic canvas, scrap-booking, painting, and many other crafts.
13) I'm addicted to gum. Currently Bubblemint from Extra, but I also steal my mom's Trident Freshmint.
14) Speaking of gum, I can't chew or even smell berry-flavored gum anymore. A couple of years ago when I had the a bad cold, I would chew berry-flavored gum to get the taste of medicine out of my mouth. Now I associate it with that medicine. :(
15) I enjoy watching the Food Network, HGTV (home and garden television), and Life chanell.

Okay, I made it to fifteen, and now I must leave. Besides, I'm pretty sure I just scared off a couple of people, so I'm going to go and ponder whether or not I should delete this post.

xoxo
Lizzy

Twilight After Midnight

It's nearing one in the morning here in Milton and I'm bored. So, what's a girl to do when she's avoiding responsibility? Blog, of course!

Today ... er, tonight, we're talking about Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. I received the book as a gift over Christmas and read it before the week was up. It's so romantic and mysterious and amazing! Now I can't decide which is better - Twilight or Harry Potter. Before I get into my real review of the story, I'll just say that I have yet to see the movie and the other three books in the series, so please don't spoil them for me. Spoilers ahead!

For starters, let's talk about Bella. If you really want to know me in a way that you can't through a computer, read Twilight and picture me as Bella. Clumsy? Yes. Not exactly like everyone else? Yes. Strange relationship with father? Yes. Little to none experience with dating? Absolutely. Hell, even the description of her fits me... kinda. I now believe Stephenie somehow bugged my house and wrote Miss Swan entirely off of me (I wish).

Edward. The name sends images of all my latest hotties fluttering into my head, though none of them are Robert Pattinson. I'll admit, I didn't understand why women always said they were in love with fictional characters. Of course, I'd liked many characters from books, tv, and movies. I've wanted them to be real, so I could be friends with them. But I've never wanted a guy for dating purposes. I mean, I think after the third or fourth Death Eater attack, I would have told Harry to hit the road. Edward though, he got to me. He's just .... perfect!

Reading the book during all the movie hype (and with my two best friends being huge fans) it was kind of impossible to not know about certain things. Like how Edward and his family were all vampires. So when Bella meets Edward in biology class and he seems distant or to be a complete jerk, I didn't get quite as paranoid about it as she did. In fact, I was a little mystified as to why he acted so strangely toward her at first. I mean, clearly they'd gotten past the whole human-eating thing, otherwise they wouldn't step foot inside a public school. When their eating habits and Bella's scent were finally explained, I was very pleased to find that Stephenie had quite an imagination.

I'd heard, though never read, about other teen vampire romance novels, so presumed she was just following suit. But to hear that she'd actually re-written the traditional vampire rules, I was ecstatic! For example, they can eat human food; they don't sleep; and, most shocking of all, they sparkle! It takes a brilliant imagination to come up with a monster that sparkles in the daylight. ^_^

Concerning the other characters, I love Alice and really wish she was real too. I mean she's so ... cool. Rosalie, although a little cruel, I want to know more about. She wouldn't be the first "bad" character I've liked. Jasper's all right, but I get a little worried about his inexperience (the first chapter of New Moon doesn't help that fear). Emmett's fine, I guess. Esme I love, and Carlisle too, come to think of it. As for Jacob ..... well, I don't really have much to go on yet, do I? I know I don't want him with Bella. I mean, he acts his age, and she's so advanced for hers. It just seems weird. I know there are a lot of people who will disagree with this, but they've all read past Twilight. I must say though, I'm quite confidant that I'll always be a Bella/Edward shipper. I really don't care if he leaves in the next book or not.

So, that's my review of Twilight characters. Overall, the best way to describe it would be to say that it kept me laughing all the way through. Even when Bella was just doing her homework I was caught up in it all. And when they were running for their lives, it still kept my attention - which is normally very hard because I don't enjoy fight/action scenes unless they have a lot of dialogue. That's it. My review is complete. Must go retrieve laundry now. Bye-bye!

~Lizzy

Death of Chaos

I'm a bit depressed, so I figured I'd talk about it here. About an hour ago I closed down my last standing Harry Potter rpg (role-playing game). I say last-standing because I've owned many sites. Lost and Founding, Levintara Academy, Throughout the Years, Worlds Collide, these are titles of HP rpgs I've owned over the years - and have closed down due to the inactivity of its members, sometimes including myself. Chaos is more special though. Why, you ask? Because it was the first rpg I opened. And although it's plot has changed once, we went through about three activity checks/member deletions, and I had to leave twice due to computer problems, I still remember discussing the possibilities of the plot with my mom two or three years ago.


I'll admit, Chaos has had some tough times, as shown above with the mention of the activity checks. But still, it's always been there. When my other sites died, or my friends didn't have any that needed my help, I knew I aways had Chaos. Hopefully I'll reopen later this year. Right now I've got my friend's site I'm a part of, and there are two other rpgs I play on too. That's enough right now. And I've got a brilliant rpg in the making. But more on all those later. I just had to vent tonight.


~Lizzy

Harry Potter in a Minute

Okay, I figured that since books are basically my life, I'd start with the first.

So ... you already know I like the amazing Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. I'll give you a little history here, to show how absolutely stupid I was to listen to my mom all the time when I was a kid. I was eight when Philosopher's Stone came out. My mom saw J.K. on the Rosie O'Donnell show (am I the only person my age who remembers watching that?) and bought the book for me. We began reading like two chapters a day, sometimes one if she was having problems pronouncing words. For example, she called Crabbe, Crabby - and it wasn't a joke! So then we suddenly stopped reading it. I can't remember why. We watched the movie when it came out two or three years later, and I loved it. I said I wanted to continue reading the books, to get ahead of the movies. You know what she told me? "There might be words in the book you won't understand because they're British translations." Ha!

Finally, a year later, when we began seeing previews for Chamber of Secrets, I (again) told her I wanted to read the books, and this time I didn't listen to her warnings. I got two chapters in on my first night of CoS when she asked how it was going and I told her all about Dobby. She thought he was funny (especially since we'd been seeing him on the previews) and she said she wanted to read it with me. So I started all over again. After that night, she never picked up the book again, and I was left waiting for her to continue with it. Needless to say I was a bit miffed when I saw the movie before finishing the book. Then another year or two passes and we decide to try Prisoner of Azkaban. This time we did good, we got a quarter of the way through the book when we stopped. Grrrr.

About a year before the third movie came out I was sick for a while and had nothing to read. And yet, there were the Harry Potter books, sitting on my end table collecting dust. I picked up the first one and read it all the way through, by myself. After I finished a few weeks later, I looked for CoS but discovered it was still packed away in a box in our basement (we'd moved while I was reading PS/SS). So I skipped ahead to PoA. I didn't bother reading from the beginning, I figured I still remembered enough to help me out. Something about a mysterious new D.A.D.A. teacher who liked Harry, and Hermione was keeping a secret. I did finish the book months before the movie came out. I think I finish Goblet of Fire before the third movie came out too. Anyway, that's enough rambling about my stupidity. In order of my favorites, PoA, PS/SS, GoF, HBP, CoS, OotP, DH; or, 3,1,4,6,2,5,7. But I really don't give the last three enough credit. I'm just a little mad about my two favorite characters dying in 5 and 7. (coughsiriuscoughremuscough)

Moving on ... oh, I don't have time to move on. I forgot how much I can ramble on about HP. So, next edition will continue my discussion about books. Twilight is next up. ^_^

Love y'all,

Lizzy

Post #1, Yay!!!

Well, I suppose I ought to start off my new blog with some info about myself.

My name is Elizabeth Sabourin. I live in Ontario, Canada with my parents and three cats, Smokey (male, adult, black, mix, wasn't named by us), Oliver (male, almost three years old, brown tabby, my mom named him after the Artful Dodger, I named him after Oliver Wood), and Mickey (male, kitten, grey tabby, named after Minerva McGonagall). I'm currently taking a year or two off before I go to college so that I can finish a writing course from the Institute of Children's Literature and finish writing a novel. My first love is writing, but I'd also like to become a teacher. And if neither of those things work out for me, I wouldn't mind owning a party-planning company.

As you could probably guess from the names of my cats, I love Harry Potter. In fact, I like a lot of books. While Harry Potter is always going to be a favorite of mine, I recently read Twilight and fell in love, and I'm a fan of Garth Nix, Jenny Nimmo, Louisa May Alcott, Mary Higgins Clark, Eoin Colfer, Georgia Byng, Lemony Snicket, and more. Aside from writing and reading, my other interests include making websites, role-playing, talking, watching tv and movies, listening to music, singing and acting for fun, helping people, cooking, baking, playing all sorts of games, hanging out with my friends and family, and sleeping. For my favorites you'll have to read on. ^_^

The reason I started this blog is because ...... I actually don't know. I used to have a blog a couple of years ago, but when I wasn't totally confused by the controls (LiveJournal) I was too busy to update and confused by the controls (MySpace). Now I've found blogspot and I'm quite happy with the layout, although I'm still insanely busy. So, updates may be few and far between, but I'll try to post at least once a week. Why am I busy, you ask? Well, aside from owning my own Harry Potter rpg, I work on my friend's a lot, then there's two more I just play on. Plus I'm a Facebook addict so I'm on there for at least an hour a day (sometimes three!). Then I have chores (dishes, laundry, feeding/cleaning cats), and I still enjoy having some time with my family. Oh, and did I mention I'm a procrastinator? Yeah, I hate it, but I still put things off.

Well, that's me. I'm strange, sometimes random, I ramble a lot, and I basically need somewhere to vent about life. And, ya know.... this might be a good way to do a little advertising for the sites of on. ;-)

Will be back later tonight or maybe tomorrow to begin my next rant. Not sure about what yet, but I guess I'll figure that out later. Byes!

~Lizzy