Elevenses

Jenelle Leanne Schmidt tagged all her followers!
It's that old elevenses tag... I've been saving facts for a few months, so here goes nothing!

Rules:
List 11 facts about yourself.
Answer the 11 facts from the tagger.
Make 11 new questions for the people you tag.

Without further ado, 11 random facts...

1. I really like Elton John's music.
2. Like most homeschoolers, I went through a dinosaur phase.
3. I just ran out of 11 random things... I thought my list that I had been saving was longer.
4. Strawberry cheesecake is my favorite type of dessert.
5. The other day I got Tolkien's translation of Beowulf!!! Eep, I'm excited to read it!
6. All I want to do is write short stories. But at the same time, I'm too lazy/tired from schoolwork to actually write them.
7. I figured out today that I will finish Algebra 2 by August 15, a week later than I had anticipated. Maybe I need to start upping my game to three lessons a day instead of two...
8. My mom and I are watching Star Trek Voyager again. Man, I love these characters. But I really need to stop guessing what's going to happen because I keep contradicting myself.
9. My voice recital is on Friday night! I'm singing I Have Confidence from The Sound of Music. Look out for a video on Saturday.
10. My wisdom teeth come out on Tuesday. At least the bottom ones. I'm glad. They're impacted. Sigh, I shall no longer be wisdomous... oh no! It's already started!
11. My friend and I used to put on Hannah Montana concerts when we were younger. That was fun.

Jenelle's questions:

1. What do the words “as you wish” mean to you? 

2. Which would you rather face: incredibly fearsome large rodents who are relentless, or a sphinx that can see straight into your heart and will blast you with lasers if you’re not pure of heart? A sphinx! Those are cool! Even if they can blast me with lasers.

3.  Name a song that has brought you to tears. Oceans by some Christian artist or another...

4. If you could only eat one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be? Oooo, tough question. Probably chicken alfredo with a side of bagels (with butter), strawberry cheesecake for desert, and a banana/strawberry/peach smoothie to drink.

5. Would you rather be a giraffe or an elephant? An elephant. I don't think they smell as bad as giraffes.

6. If you could enter one fictional world, but you had to stay there for the rest of your life, which one would you choose? Oh, another hard question! Well, it certainly wouldn't be the Inkworld. Hmmmm... probably- argh, this is a hard question. Not because there are too many to choose from; it's because most of the places I would want to go were real places or took place one time in history (or in the future). It would be pretty fun to go into the Defender's of the Realm world. (Defenders of the Realm is a super fun strategy board game. Like Catan or Carcasonne or Ticket to Ride, except more strategy. The "heroes" work together to kill minions and evil generals. The game gets more difficult as you progress through different stages of war.)

7. What is one place you haven’t been to that you would love to see before you die. I would love, love, love to go on a tour of places in the Bible someday.

8. If you had to be a henchman, which evil villain would you most want to serve? Mwahahahahahahaheeheeheeheeee... Professor Fate from The Great Race, played by Jack Lemmon. He's got a snazzy theme song.

9. Would you rather make people laugh or cry? Oh, laugh, definitely. "Make 'em laugh... make 'em laugh... Everyone wants to laugh..."

10. Are you a morning person or a night owl? Night owl, most definitely. It's 11:30 and I'm just starting to consider tottling off to bed. I like being a night owl; I hate being a night owl who watches TV until so late at night, she can only read one chapter out of one of the five books she happens to be juggling at any given time.

11. Favorite hot drink? Tea.

Instead of tagging anyone particular, or coming up with 11 questions... I'm just going to come up with one question which you ALL must answer!

Name your top five characters from TV, and tell me why they are your top five. 

Live long and prosper!

Museum.

Yesterday my dad and I went to the museum we had meant to go to on Monday (but then I got sick and you know the rest).
It was so cool! Among other things, they have a sci-fi exhibit and also a fantasy exhibit. And a super cool tower of instruments!

 

Now onto the sci-fi exhibit.... They had a replica of the robot from the movie "Forbidden Planet" which is possibly the weirdest sci-fi movie I have EVER seen. The music made it even weirder.
Anyway, the robot was cute.

 

That was across from the gift shop. Then you went down, down, down some stairs into the actual exhibit.... A quick jump to warp and you were there!

 

Right away we were drawn to the first exhibit: Captain Kirk's chair! And Uhura's uniform. And TRIBBLES!

 

Also, Jack O'Neill's goggles and ID, if you are a StarGate fan:

 

Turning the corner we beheld a fearsome site! "Exterminate!"

 

A Dalek from the Sylvester McCoy (7th Doctor) era.
And next to that, Lieutenant Commander Data's uniform!

 

The exhibit was set up with different questions pertaining to each artifact. Data and the Dalek were in the android section. As well as the displays of costumes and props, science fiction books were displayed! That was pretty cool. They even had a reading corner where you could pick up a book and read it (I only recognized two. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books, by Douglas Adams, and Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card).

 

They had lots of sci-fi weapons....

Klingon Bat'leth.

 

Ronon Dex's energy pistol from StarGate: Atlantis.

They had lots of weapons from StarGate... And an Anubis guard head. It was pretty cool.

They had Yoda's cane (my dad's comment: "It looks bigger in the movie.") and Darth Vader's lightsabre which he used to cut off Luke's arm in the fifth movie.

And my dad met Superman....'s suit:

 

Then it was time to move on to the fantasy exhibit! Oh my goodness it was SO cool! It was set up like a castle with little secret passageways (that I, of course, took!) and there was a huge "tree" and a dungeon with a dragon in it.

 

 

(Picture not by me.... picture by someone who was lucky enough to go on a day when there were no groups of little school children blocking the way.)

They also had original Tolkien documents, showing where he changed Smaug's name to Smaug from something else.... I don't remember what it was. And changing Aragorn's name - three times! That was cool.
They also had a bunch of Narnia stuff which I took pictures of, for my friends out there who love Narnia:

 

And now my favorite part of the fantasy exhibit.... Princess Bride stuff!!!

 

Inigo's costume, Buttercup's wedding dress, and the Dread Pirate Robert's outfit and sword. They also had the six-fingered sword.

 

(The one on the left.)

All in all, it was a very good day and a very cool museum! I will definitely be paying it a visit again in the future!

Live long and prosper.

A classic tale of true love and high adventure.

And now a review of one of my favorite books (it's a great movie too).

 

Title: The Princess Bride.

Author: William Goldman.

Synopsis: I don't even know how to summarize this book... So I guess I'll just steal the Goodreads summary:
What happens when the most beautiful girl in the world marries the handsomest prince of all time and he turns out to be...well...a lot less than the man of her dreams?
Fencing. Fighting. True Love. Strong Hate. Harsh Revenge. A Few Giants. Lots of Bad Men. Lots of Good Men. Five or Six Beautiful Women. Beasties Monstrous and Gentle. Some Swell Escapes and Captures. Death, Lies, Truth, Miracles, and a Little Love.
In short, it's about everything.

My rating: 9/10 stars.

Things I liked/me gushing about this amazing book: THIS BOOK IS A WORK OF GENIUS!!!!! Seriously, it really is. William Goldman tricks his readers into thinking that he's abridging his favorite book from when he was a child, which is by the author S. Morgenstern. Really, of course, this is all a story telling device... and it works brilliantly! I think that William Goldman is incredibly clever for writing the book this way.
His whole writing style is laced with satire. The whole first chapter he keeps interrupting himself to say that this was after stew and Paris, but before Shakespeare. It's hilarious.
William Goldman is always interrupting the narrative of the story to add his own comments. His comments are italicized, so you know when he's talking, but it can be kind of confusing.
The whole book is just so entertaining... and the characters are great.
For those of you who like the movie, the book is pretty much exactly like the movie, except more. There is the whole Zoo of Death sequence, which, to my memory, isn't in the movie. The scene with the Zoo of Death (in the book) where Inigo and Fezzik are travelling down to try and find Westley is so great... It really shows the friendship between the two characters. I love the scene, despite the evil, poisonous, green spider (which Inigo squishes with his boot so it's all good).
Lots of stuff from the movie is in the book (because the book was written first. Goldman also wrote the screenplay for the movie, which, of course, he based off of the book). Some memorable things that fans of the movie will find are... Miracle Max and Valerie ("I'm not a witch, I'm your wife!" also in the book), and, of course, "I am Inigo Montoyo, you killed my father, prepare to die," also... "Mawridge is what bwings us togeder today." Yes, that is in the book. Written like that. It was so cool to read that part.
Pretty much everything else in the movie is in the book... the pellet with the poison in the flagon with the dragon (wait, wrong movie. But anyway, the whole scene with the iocane powder and Vizzini is in the book).
Something else really cool about the book is the fact that Goldman gives us background stories for Inigo and Fezzik. We get to see the six fingered man kill Inigo's father, and we get to see Fezzik, at age six, fighting men (because he's so big already). It's really cool. Also kind of frustrating because the background information comes right before the duel the man in black fights with Inigo on the cliff tops and right before he suffocates Fezzik.
Oh yeah, and remember that super cool sword fight Inigo and the man in black have on the cliff tops? That is all in the book. It's super cool. And it isn't glazed over either, it is described. Not boringly, coolly. It's cool. Like bowties.
This is such an amazing book. If you are a fan of the movie, I think you will be a fan of the book as well.

Things I disliked/things you should know: A couple swear words, of course. -.- Also some kissing. In some places more than kissing is implied... But nothing is described in detail.
Beware of long chapters. (I think there is, like, eleven chapters in all. One chapter is about two pages long. Then there's the SUPER LONG middle chapter which is about 70-100 pages long....
And also some gory/scary/intense stuff. Mostly having to do with Westley. Him and Buttercup are drowning in snow sand in one part and *shivers* I really don't like reading that part. Then Westley gets attacked by a R.O.U.S. (Rodents Of Unusual Size) and it really injuries his shoulder (which I hate in the movie. It isn't as gory in the book... but it is still bad). Then there's the part where Westley gets his life sucked away. Again, nothing in too much detail. But it is still there.

Have I read it before? Yes!

Will I read it again? Absolutely! I can't wait until I have kids... Then, when they're old enough, and sick, I can pull out The Princess Bride for the first time and read it to them.

Would I recommend it? Absolutely yes! It is definitely a classic, in my mind, even though it was written in the '70's. I would, however, recommend this book to people over the age of... I don't know. Ten? Somewhere around there. Twelve? Eight? Somewhere in that vicinity.

Have fun storming the castle!