One more week...

Listening to: When I Can't Sing - Se7en
Feeling: Tired

Like the title says, there's only one more week until my classes for the semester end. I don't know whether that is a good or bad thing. Good because no more school for a little while and I finally get a taste of summer (so far, it doesn't feel like it because I'm at school 5 days a week and I spend about 4-6 hours a week studying with friends). Bad because finals are coming up. I have my biology lab final next week and while I should be more worried, the panic hasn't hit me yet. Thankfully, I'm pretty good at working while I suffer from stress.

I drew some stuff and made a few handcrafts. I also visited a ceramic painting workshop in a place a few cities over with a major crafty friend, which I'll hopefully have done by sometime next week and have it fire in the oven.

Wanted to post up some pictures of a raccoon that I often see in the courtyard that's adjacent to my study area. I've nicknamed it to be Dimka (yes, the Russian nickname for Dimitri, even if I don't know whether the raccoon is male or female). I'm not sure if it's always the same raccoon, but I'm going to say it is.

In the upper pictures, Dimka jumped onto this branch and was playing with a twig when it fell into the water, so as you can see, he had to reach down to get it. So cute!
 

Book Review: Before I Wake - Rachel Vincent

Published June 26 2012 by Harlequin Teen

Goodreads Description: 

I died on a Thursday-killed by a monster intent on stealing my soul. The good news? He didn't get it. The bad news? Turns out not even death will get you out of high school...  Covering up her own murder was one thing, but faking life is much harder than Kaylee Cavanaugh expected. After weeks spent "recovering," she's back in school, fighting to stay visible to the human world, struggling to fit in with her friends and planning time alone with her new reaper boyfriend. But to earn her keep in the human world, Kaylee must reclaim stolen souls, and when her first assignment brings her face-to-face with an old foe, she knows the game has changed. Her immortal status won't keep her safe. And this time Kaylee isn't just gambling with her own life....

As the 6th book in the Soul Screamers series, I have been waiting not-so-patiently for its release since If I Die (Soul Screamers #5) came out last year. And the wait was definitely worth every second of this book. It was so filled with action and other goodness that I had to read it twice to absorb everything to the fullest extent.

For those who haven't read the previous book, it's a pretty big spoiler that our protagonist, Kaylee Cavanaugh, died but was brought back as an extractor, someone who had a similar skill set to that of reapers, but had a different job, which was to extract souls away from those who don't belong with them. But despite that, her actual status is that she is dead because her life ended at the hands of a succubus who was determined on stealing her soul. So anyway, Before I Wake tells the story of Kaylee's afterlife and the consequences that follow.

As mentioned in the description, pretending to be "alive" is a challenge that Kaylee is constantly at war with. Her heart no longer beats if she doesn't concentrate, as well as her breathing. Heck, just the will to be visible and audible to others is a chore. If Kaylee briefly slipped up, her visibility will fade from the physical plane and that would be a huge problem if she suddenly disappeared in the middle of class. But most of all, the nothingness that Kaylee feels when she is alone with her thoughts are unbearable. Because she is undead, she is facing eternity of the same routine over and over, with the exception of when she has to work as her role as an extractor. Everything that had an appeal in life was no longer relevant in Kaylee's afterlife. She couldn't sleep and she didn't even have to eat or drink. With being only a month dead, forever seemed like a long time. The monotony of it is overwhelming.

Luckily, she has an undead reaper boyfriend who had once been through and felt everything that Kaylee is going through. Tod is Kaylee's saviour in so many ways, though she has saved him countless of times as well. While nothing seems to matter to Kaylee anymore, the only time where she feels her heart beating is when she is with Tod. In a way, they're both anchors to each other because they enable the other to keep their humanity and the will to remain "living" as ironic as that is. Throughout the book, when everything seemed to be in black and white, Tod was the only one who was in colour. He loved her more than his afterlife, as proven in the last book, where he refused to reap her soul and thus lost his life (which Kaylee then bargained back when she was requested to be an extractor).


But anyway, moving onto the rest of the plot. Shortly after Kaylee decides to return to school, there was talk about a serial soul thief who was going around taking unauthorized souls and it was up to her to reclaim them. The first time around, it turned out to be a rogue reaper, one that she hoped she would never see again, but like her, he had managed to escape death again. And from there, things just got worse when the identity of the actual soul thief was revealed and the horrors that came with it.

I enjoyed reading about the healing that took place in this book. Mainly the forgiveness between Nash and Kaylee. Now recovering from his recent relapse of Frost addiction, Nash is starting to piece his life together again and growing as a character. I admired the way that instead of living his life in ignorance and bliss, he went to Kaylee to talk about the pain that he felt and from there, they reached a tentative agreement to remain as friends despite everything that had happened between them. However, that didn't mean that Nash forgave his undead brother that easily. Although it was a little frustrating at times to see the Hudson brothers at ends with each other, it was quite amusing in some instances as well (ex. the shirt scene at Nash's house). And when they settled their differences long enough to work towards a common goal, it was evident that they are a powerful team.

I also really liked the development of Kaylee's relationship with her dad. Knowing that he lost his daughter and couldn't save her, it had a huge impact on Aiden Cavanaugh. It hurt him every time Kaylee succumbed to depression over her state of not-being there. She had no will to live because nothing was relevant to her anymore. But as her father, he did all he could for her, even if it meant accepting her reaper boyfriend, who he initially disliked. That path wasn't the quickest, it was definitely heart warming for both Kaylee and the reader to see that he honestly did believe that they belonged together and that they could help each other withstand eternity.

This book's conflict was initially a little confusing because it involved so many characters and breached many of the original rules regarding the real world and the Netherworld, but after a second read, it made more sense. So far, this book definitely had the most death and each of them had their impact on Kaylee. However, one in particular made me tear up for a good 15 or so minutes, because I would have never expected this particular sweet character to not make it to the end of the series. And the emotions that Kaylee felt regarding this character's death hurt all the more because of the way that they died.

But even with this unexpected turn of events, I really love Tod for being there for her. I couldn't imagine a more solid anchor of support who was always present by her side. And his love for Kaylee strengthened her enough to carry on, swearing to turn her pain into a weapon that could be used against her enemies.

The ending of Before I Wake will leave readers gasping for more as another unexpected situation turns up, hardening Kaylee's resolve to strike back against those who have hurt everyone she had cared for. With only one more novel in the series, I am very excited and anxious to see how things will end up for Kaylee and her friends.

Some quotes that I liked:
-"Forever used to feel like a curse. Now it feels like a promise." (p. 65)

-"I signed on for the role of 'boyfriend', not 'conscience'." (p. 66)

-"Of course. 'A reaper is Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful, Friendly, Courteous...'" He shrugged. "It gets boring after that. But this situation is clearly covered under the 'helpful' category." (p. 116)

-"Whenever you want. Death itself would wait for you..."(p. 164) 

-"You're not lost, (name omitted). You can't ever be lost, because I'll always know where you are. And if I'm not there with you, I'm on my way, and nothing standing between us will be standing for very long." (p. 269)

Source: Owned
My rating: 5 Coffee cups (Loved it and couldn't put it down)

Martial Arts nostalgia

Listening to: Mama - Exo
Feeling: Like I want to do some kind of martial arts
Like the title says, I've been wanting to do some kind of martial arts since it's been about a year since I stopped after my black belt ceremony back in June 2011. While I don't mind going back and teach a few karate drills to my juniors, I've wanted to learn other types of martial arts, like Kung Fu, aikido or judo. I'm not very skilled, but I do have the enthusiasm to learn it and go through the exercises. Especially kicking and sparring drills. I don't mind if I get my butt kicked, as long as it gets rid of my restlessness.

I thought of taking a class this semester at my university, but the timing wasn't ideal and I had tutoring sessions on one of those days, so I decided not to take lessons. But now I regret it, haha. I'd love to learn weapons, but that will definitely be for the higher ups and I'll be considered a novice again, so it'll be a while before I get to do anything cool. But I'm okay with that. I'll see if I can take lessons again in the fall, regardless of the inconvenient timing.

Image credit: Google (this is the symbol for Shotokan Karate, the type that I did)

Hot...!

Listening to: Monster - Big Bang
Feeling: Dying of heat

For the past few days, it's been way too hot for my liking. Yeah yeah, I know it's summer. But I really hate the heat. I'm definitely more of a Fall/Winter person where you can stack on layers of clothing instead of peeling them off to the point where you can't. Summer also makes me non-productive, which I hate. Everyone else is off of school whereas I still have to study and do homework. I keep trying to remind myself that it's like summer school in high school (which I did pretty much every year of my high school except for the first and last), though summer school didn't really require that much effort. Ugh. I keep having to peel myself off the leather chair and feeling my skin stick to it. Blegh. I feel like joining this polar bear:

Photo credit: Google

 I got a haircut recently and I missed having short hair again (well, short for my standards). It's too hot to have long hair. So what have I been up to? Outside of classes and tri-weekly 2 hour study sessions with friends, I've mainly been lounging around the house not feeling like doing school work. I've done my basketball sketch, though I really don't like how his right arm turned out. If anyone asks, I'm going to say that it's the angle which is why his arm looks out of porportion. I drew this because I didn't feel like working on my fanfic (though I should because I keep breaking my promises) but still wanted something to do with it. So yes, Derek the basketball player. Can't decide whether to erase the grid/pre-drawn lines and actually colour it in.

 I'm quite pleased with his left arm and the rest of him though. I can finally draw something in porportion! Yay. At first he looked a little too tall length wise, but then I checked the Loomis and saw that the ideal male height should be like this, so I kept it.

I've also been busy reading the korean webtoon, Orange Marmalade, which is actually really good! When I first read the summary about a vampire girl trying to blend into society where people scorn and hate vampires, I thought it reminded me of a certain series >_>, but after giving it a shot, it was much much better than I thought. Reading stuff like Orange Marmalade and Vampire Academy gives me hope for the vampire literary world after it was destroyed by the overrated, insanely-popular series. It totally helps that the art is super nice and each page is colored. :D

 

So tired... X_X

Listening to: Hallelujah - Big Bang
Feeling: Tired which equals grumpy
Ah, the long weekend was nice, but after school, I just wanted to crawl into bed and sleep it all away. Unfortunately, I can't because I have school work to do and even though it's not actually homework, I have to keep up with my biology readings and attend study groups with friends bi-weekly to get caught up. And I killed about an hour and a half at the gym today after a long period of doing nothing but sitting on my butt. Everything is going to hurt tomorrow... and my leg hurts now. 

I am super envious of pretty much everyone in my circle of high school friends because I am the sole person who is taking summer courses and sometimes, I just feel like I want to take a vacation too. I look forward to my physics classes since I have a really cool prof who does really awesome demos. As for biology, not so much. For everyone who does not need to take bio 101 as a required course, I DO NOT recommend taking it. There's so much fricking material to cover. But thank goodness we're out of plants and into animals now. At least there's something there that's similar to people.

Did a drawing of a certain basketball player and I'm quite pleased with the result. It seems that drawing club has certainly helped with drawing anatomy and porportions. I can't decide whether to leave it as a sketch or to fineline it and colour it in. I'll post up a picture later. Speaking of finelining, I need more pens. Off to Michaels when I'm not busy. (There's so much I want to buy there. Including DIY necklaces, paints, pens etc.)

Long weekend.. yes!!

Listening to: Take Off - 2PM
Feeling: Content

Ah, the long weekend. Finally. Waking up every school day at 6:30am was starting to take its toll on me. But thankfully, the weekend is here so I can catch up on sleep. Last night, I went to the night market with some friends and watched a cosplay fashion show. Some of the cosplays were really awesome. I really liked one who did cosplay of a character from Pandora Hearts and wielded this really cool red scythe. Another that I loved was Snow Villiers from FFXIII. There were some singing performances that I didn't like as much, but it was kinda cool that I could name some of the songs that they sang. There was a trivia thing going on where you could win tickets and I was tempted to go up, but I was worried that I wouldn't know the answers, so I didn't bother. Unfortunately, the questions were generally pretty easy such as, "What is the color of Charizard?" and "Who is the main character from Dragonball Z?" The girl who went up got the first question but was unable to answer the second, which resulted in me banging my head against KS' shoulder repeatedly. 

In between shows, we went around the stalls and bought some stuff. I stopped at this stall that sold really cool necklaces. Coincidentally, I was wearing a very similar style of necklace because my awesome sister had gotten it for me overseas, but I bought another necklace that had the eiffel tower on it.  

I also had for the first time, a potato hurricane stick. There were several seasonings you could choose such as Salt & Ketchup, Salt & Vinegar, Korean Spicy, White Cheese, Cheddar Cheese etc. But as a big fan of ketchup and potatos, that's what I chose. Eating it wasn't as hard as I thought. All you had to do was to kind of peel it away from the spiral. And had a red bean taiyaki, which is a japanese fish-shaped pastry, which was pretty good.

So yeah, yesterday was pretty awesome. What should I do today? It's kinda cold and grey outside, so I settled for making some instant miso soup and curling up on the computer chair and wrote for my fanfic. Should probably be doing some bio textbook reading, but I'll do that later.

Book Review: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children - Ransom Riggs

Published June 7 2011 by Quirk Books

Goodreads Description

A mysterious island.

An abandoned orphanage.

A strange collection of very curious photographs.

It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience. As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a deserted island for good reason. And somehow—impossible though it seems—they may still be alive.

I've always been intrigued by the cover of this book. It just wasn't something that I saw everyday and it wasn't until that I actually picked it up to read it did I discover that the girl was actually floating in the picture. I had originally thought that it was just some sort of shadow behind her. Anyways, I read the summary inside the book jacket and was immediately taken in by the mysterious wording that promised a good suspense read and it was.

Originally, when I read the brief description mentioning "family tragedy" and "journeying to a remote island", somehow I pictured Jacob Portman being stranded there by a mechanical failure of a sort, but it wasn't like that. Instead, the book started off with Jacob listening to his grandpa tell incredibly unbelievable stories that left him hanging for each word. Some of them spoke of an invisible boy, whose clothes that he wore were the only aspect of him that were visible. Others included a boy who had bees living in his stomach and whenever he opened his mouth, they would fly out. Naturally, they were just stories, right? With his grandpa's age, it was even harder to believe those old stories. But when an unexpected event occurs, Jacob starts to question whether or not they were some form of truth.

By piecing together small hints that his grandpa gave, Jacob eventually ends up on the island in his grandpa's stories. And there, he discovers the ruins of the old children's home, where his grandpa had once stayed. At first glance, it seemed impossible that anyone could live there. And when Jacob asked around, it turned out that that very spot had been the location of a bomb during World War II and all its residents had perished. And yet, there was something about that home that called to Jacob, which leads him to meet the peculiar children, who had somehow escaped the disastrous event and were still living, nearly 70 years later... at the age that they were during that day.

The writing had me hooked right away. Everything was so suspenseful that I had to know more. What added to the book were the photographs that were a little terrifying, yet intriguing. They showed some of the peculiar children, who had very interesting talents, such as the ability to float, the talent of manipulating fire and various other skills. The way the photographs were taken were striking too. There was an air of mystery in them that made me anticipate what the next photograph would be like.

As awesome as the writing was, I did find some of the plot to be rather confusing and I was unable to keep up with what was going on exactly. For the characters, there wasn't a particular character that I felt attached to, since there wasn't a lot of detail for each of them, other than their peculiar abilities. And because of that, I bumped it down a few notches. Nevertheless, it was an interesting read and the photographs were definitely worth looking at.

Source: Borrowed

Rating: 4 coffee cups (Enjoyed it immensely)

Thank god it's the weekend!

Listening to: Baby I'm Sorry - B1A4
Feeling: Content

After a long week full of midterms and exams, I'm so so glad that it's over. This weekend has been pretty great so far and I'm a little sad to see it end. On Friday, I met up with JL and we hung out at a local Chapters, where I got some books to fill my bookshelf. It was definitely great to see high school friends again! After some catching up on each other's lives, we called it a day and I prepared for the next day, where I had the honor of meeting Richelle Mead, one of my favorite authors! For authors that I really love, I usually stalk them both on Facebook, twitter and their respective blogs and I'm really glad that I did this week. Due to exams, I wasn't on as much and I nearly missed her announcement that she was coming to a nearby city to do a signing. I did a double-take when I read the news (only like 3 days prior the exam), but after some denial, I realized that it was actually happening!

So I got to the bookstore two and a half hours early to see that there were already like 10-15 people ahead of me in the lineup waiting to see her. Amazing, huh? According to the staff, the first few people had been waiting even before the store opened. The wait was rather uneventful, but I spent the time reading over my bio lab teaching script and finally, we got to see her in person! Richelle did a brief reading of The Golden Lily, her newest book (that was released last week and that I was super pumped to read) before doing a Q&A session and finally the signing.

Unfortunately, due to the number of people (like 200 or so), she was only able to sign 3 books per person, so out of the 8 books that I own (by her), I could only get 3 signed. A little disappointing but understandable. Oh well, hopefully she'll come back again soon.

During the lineup, they also had a spray tattoo artist, so I went and got one. Originally, I debated on whether or not I should have the golden lily tattoo on my right cheek (like the way Sydney, a character from the book, had hers), but then once I saw that it lasted 3-4 days, I changed my mind and had it on my arm instead. It looks pretty sweet!

It was quite entertaining to see that some of the hardcore fans had gotten official VA gear such as t-shirts, book bags and other stuff. Some of them had the Team Adrian Ivashkov or the Team Dimitri Belikov thing going on. I should probably do a review on The Golden Lily soon, since I have so much that I want to say about this book. And another review for this other book called Miss Peregrine's Home for Particular Children by Ransom Riggs.


I really really can't wait for this week because another book that I've been dying to read (Before I Wake by Rachel Vincent) is being released this week!! And I won a pre-order of a copy from the Soul Screamers Reading Challenge so I hope I can get it soon!

Another Sunday

Listening to: La Campanella - Liszt
Feeling: Tired

Not much was done today other than cleaning out my hamster's cage, reading some reviews, and making mac & cheese, which I offered to my dad (since it's Father's Day and all), but this was kind of how the conversation went:

Me: "I'm making mac & cheese right now, you want some?"
Dad: -looks at the cheddar, the parmensan, the butter and the milk that is added- "No thanks. There's like a billion calories in there. It's so high in fat." 
Me: "I have yet to discover a mac & cheese that isn't high in fat."

It turned out alright, but I'm not a huge fan of mac & cheese and since I haven't had it in a while, I forgot what it was like. 

Spent the rest of the day going through some old videos of the variety show, We Got Married (season 1, of course), and alternating between studying for my midterms and final. While biology isn't so bad, psych is definitely really boring. Especially since it's everything that we've been through already, so it's just a review of concepts. But as boring as it is, it's mandatory because my psych class ends in a few days (which I cannot emphasize my joy that it is over!).

My fanfic chapters seem to get longer and longer recently, but I guess it's probably because there's been a lot of stuff going on, so I wanted to throw them all in. And I'm very thankful that the response has been really awesome. Only about 9 or so more chapters to go before I can go onto my next project. :)

I can't wait for the 26th because Before I Wake (Soul Screamers #6) comes out that day and I'm gonna go buy it in between my classes!

 Image credit: Google

Novella Review: Never to Sleep - Rachel Vincent

 Published January 1, 2012 by Harlequin

Goodreads Description:

Don't Close Your Eyes.

Sophie Cavanaugh is not going to let her freak of a cousin's strange psychiatric condition ruin high school for them both. Not after all the work she's put into cultivating the right look, and friends, and reputation. But then, Sophie sees something so frightening she lets out a blood-curdling scream—and finds herself stuck in a bizarre parallel world where nothing is safe and deadly creatures lurk just out of sight, waiting for her to close her eyes and sleep...forever.

Could this world be real? Or does insanity run in the family...?

 

Never to Sleep is a novella by Rachel Vincent that takes place between the events in If I Die (Soul Screamers #5).

When I first realized who the narrator was, my initial reaction was that of someone biting into a sour lemon. "Why Sophie?" I kept wondering. After all, she was my least-liked character in the Soul Screamers universe. I even liked Avari, the hellion of avarice better than her. But I gave it some thought and realized that out of all the characters that have been introduced, Sophie's the only one that has been kept in the dark and how frustrating that must be. So what would Rachel come up?

The short story starts out Sophie's recreational activities, such as dancing and enjoying the life on top of the social ladder, however, a surprising turn of events appear shortly after she crashes into a handsome individual by the name of Luca and everything turns for the worst when Sophie and Luca landed into a realm of nightmares. You guessed it: They landed in the Netherworld.

So generally, we get to see Sophie's rude introduction to a parallel world where the majority of plants desperately wanted to feed on you. And where you can never shut your eyes if you wanted to live. Was "insanity" a hereditary gene that Sophie had gotten from her crazy cousin, Kaylee? She apparently seems to think so because there's no way that this was all real. But unfortunately, it is. And Sophie has to come with terms with that or else risk never returning to her world where the scariest thing was the jealousy of your friends who wanted to be the "queen" of the social ladder.

Generally, Sophie's personality doesn't change in the slightest during this novella. There were many times that I could recall gritting my teeth because her voice is so annoying. She is a self-centered, conceited brat who can think of no one but herself. She blames Kaylee for ruining her life just because she could. I felt quite sorry for Luca who was stuck with her because Sophie was probably one of the worst people you could get stuck with in a world whose inhabitants wanted to eat you. But at the same time, I was amazed with his ability to put up with her because surely, if it was me, I would not have been able to do that. If you took her annoying commentary aside, it was almost refreshing to see what Sophie thought of the Netherworld. We already knew (for the most part) what Kaylee felt whenever she went there, but from someone who knew absolutely nothing, it was a different feel.

What I quite enjoyed in this novella was the mention of a certain imporant event in If I Die that had me rejoicing because it was only a matter of time that it happened. I was also quite surprised by the outcome of the novella and what Sophie learns by the end of it. Maybe her relationship with Kaylee will change because of it. Either way, we'll find out in Before I Wake (Soul Screamers #6).

Source: Owned

My Rating: 4 coffee cups (Enjoyed it immensely)