Movies I Only Saw Because of School

There were quite a few different movies that I watched in school growing up, and I can't remember most of them.  A lot of them were movies I'd seen before (some of them many, many times), but there were also quite a few I'd probably never have seen if I'd never watched them in school.  When you have a class of students you're obviously going to have a group of people with a wide variety of tastes in movies, so I've watched quite a few movies I definitely did not want to watch.  (I wouldn't have seen half of the sports movies I have if it weren't for school.  I'd never seen Coach Carter before starting high school, but by the time I graduated, I'd seen it at least five times.)

There were two movies that I watched in high school that I never would have watched otherwise, but I ended up absolutely loving.  The first one was The Prestige.  We watched it in my sophomore chemistry class for some reason.  (I can't remember why she let us watch a movie...)  I thought I was going to absolutely hate it at first.  It didn't sound like something I would like at all, but I'd now consider it one of my favorite movies.  I loved it.

During my junior year we watched Schindler's List while studying the Holocaust and World War II in U.S. history.  (I remember everyone being excited about watching an R rated movie in school when we were taking the permission slips home.)  I wasn't as worried about liking this one as I had been The Prestige, but I didn't think I'd enjoy it as much as I did.  As much as I love history, I'm not a war movie person, and a movie about the Holocaust didn't seem like it would be much better.  That movie is amazing though.  I feel like it's a movie everyone should watch.  I'm pretty sure everyone in my class loved it.  My sister's taking AP U.S. history this year, and I really hope they get to watch it.  I took the AP class last year, and we didn't get to watch it because of lack of time, so who knows.  (My school only started offering AP U.S. history last year, so I hadn't had the opportunity to take it junior year.)

Book Review: Fearless Magic by Rachel Higginson

ASIN:  B005YPDUPI

Published: October 22nd, 2011

Publisher: self-published

Read from August 17th to 26th, 2012

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Eden Matthew's world is in shambles. Her grandfather viciously murdered, her twin brother held without magic, and her best friends imprisoned, all at the hands of the one man that was supposed to love her for eternity. She has been betrayed, and now she is being hunted by a king that wants her dead. Eden must pick up the pieces of her life and stand alone against the tyranny that threatens to destroy her world. Alone she must find a way to rebuild the Resistance, locate her missing parents, save her loved ones and take down the monarchy. Everything is against her, including forbidden feelings of a love that she thought was buried. She has declared war and now stands on the precipice of defeat. Losing is not an option however, and Eden must find a way to overcome her emotions, fight through her pain and restore the magic to her kingdom. Fearless Magic is the third installment of The Star-Crossed Series.

Review:

My reviews for Reckless Magic and Hopless Magic.

Time

It's weird to think that it was only four years ago that I started high school.  That was so scary and intimidating at the time, and now just a short time later I'm in college.  Five years ago I was still in my last year at St. Bernard, and ten years ago I was in third grade.  It's kind of weird to think like this, but fourth grade is currently about the halfway point of my life so far.  I don't even know where I'm going with any of this, but it's strange to think about.  In another ten years I'll have less than a year until I'm thirty.  That's scary.

I'm going to end this pointless rambling that makes absolutely no sense here.  I'm off to go be an awesome college student and sit in front of my computer and watch the Beauty and the Beast DVD special features (there are just some things time doesn't change).

A Lazy Labor Day

I have done basically nothing this entire weekend.  That's not really surprising considering that's usually how things are for me.  There's hardly been anyone on campus since it's Labor Day weekend, and it's been raining almost non-stop the entire weekend.  I've just been in my dorm most of the time.  And walking to the dining hall in the rain is not fun.  I'm not looking forward to that for the rest of the year.

I've spent a large part of my day watching the special features on the Beauty and the Beast DVD.  I still have some to get through, and then I'm going to try and work on some homework.  I got everything that's due in the next couple of days done, but I want to go ahead and get more done for whenever I get even more homework tomorrow.

It's weird thinking that tomorrow will be the start of the third week of classes (or is that today even though it's Labor Day?).  It doesn't feel like I've been here that long, but then again it kind of does.  I guess it's good that I feel that way since it probably means I'm adjusting to everything.

Book Review: Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis

ISBN: 0064471055
Published: 1994 (first published 1951)
Publisher: HarperCollins
Read from August 27th to 31st, 2012
Synopsis from Goodreads:

A prince fights for his crown. Narnia... where animals talk... where trees walk... here a battle is about to begin. A prince denied his rightful throne gathers an army in a desperate attempt to rid his land of a false king. But in the end, it is a battle of honor between two men alone that will decide the fate of an entire world.

Review:

This book seemed to go by so much faster than the other Narnia books.  I know I read it quicker than I did The Horse and His Boy, but even The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (which I read in one day) didn't feel as quick as Prince Caspian did to me.  I'm not trying to say it was bad though.  It just seemed as if everything moved really quickly.  Everything happened in a short period of time, and you can tell when you're reading the book.

When I read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe I was picturing the movie in my head the entire time, but even though I've seen the Prince Caspian movie I realized while reading the book that I couldn't remember anything about the movie other than the very beginning and the very end.  It's probably because I only saw the Prince Caspian movie once compared to the millions of times I've the other one, but I'm also wondering how faithful the Prince Caspian movie was to the book because I feel like the book should have brought some memories of the movie back and it didn't.

I really enjoyed the book though.  For some reason I just really love Aslan, and I'm not even sure why.  I just love him even more every single book.  I guess that's good and kind of the point since he's the godly figure.  It was interesting to see Narnia who knows how many years since the previous books.  I'm looking forward to getting around to reading Voyage of the Dawn Treader soon.

My other Chronicles of Narnia reviews:
The Magician's Nephew
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
The Horse and His Boy