Firsts

I thought it would be a fun idea to chronicle some of the firsts in my life so I don’t forget, in big things and little things, and in no certain order at all.

So, here we go. Let’s see what I can remember.

The first tooth I lost was when I was four years old in a fish and chips restaurant. I actually can still conjure up the rather blurry memory of digging it out of my mouth.

The first young man to ask me to be his proper dance partner was Stephen, and that was this past November. We’d actualy just met several months prior at Family Camp and we just really hit it off well.  Whenever we’re at the same parties we end up being together for the entirety of the evening. He’s lots of fun.

The first story I wrote was about a boy named Tom and his siblings. I was about seven or eight years old.

The first superhero movie I ever saw was Captain America: The First Avenger. (The second superhero movie I saw was Thor.)

The first mystery series I ever read (as far as I can remember) was Cam Jansen, the girl with the photographic memory. Did anyone else read Cam when they were young? Or Encyclopedia Brown? Or The Boxcar Children? Or American Girl History Mysteries? It’s no wonder my primary entertainment is sleuths and whodunits nowadays, that is all I read as a kid.

My first official crush was Basil Rathbone’s Sherlock Holmes. Unashamed.

The first vampire book I ever read was Dracula. Not Twilight. That’s how it should be. (By the way, Dracula? Best. Book. Ever.)

The first person I ever wanted to marry was my best friend Ben. It was kinda devastating to learn that cousins couldn’t marry however.

The first time I got to pet stingrays was at the zoo. But the first time I got to feed stingrays was two year later at Sea World. Both of these things are one of the best feelings in the world, especially if you’re an animal lover, like myself.

The first poster I ever bought was Star Wars related.

I’m pretty sure the first movie I ever saw in theaters was VeggieTale’s Jonah Movie. And I still like that movie.

The first pet I ever personally owned with a hermit crab.  Who’s name I can’t remember anymore.

The first laptop I ever owned weighed about 100 pounds and could barely run the old Army Man games (well, it wasn’t literally a 100 pounds but it was so old that it was just super heavy). My parents were nice enough to get me better one when I proved to be responsible.

My first boyfriend (and so far only boyfriend) is not even a boy. But he’s a he. And he’s the neighbor dog. Clarence. Who adores me because I’ve been walking him for nearly four years. And he treats me like I’m his girlfriend. Because he gets jealous of my attention. So everybody says he’s my boyfriend. Speaking of which: he was my Valentine this year! He laid on my feet, gave me his paw all on his own and even gave me a kiss on face when I asked for one.  Oh, if you were wondering, he’s a Golden Lab. And he’s my first boyfriend.

The first PG-13 movie I saw was The Blind Side.

The first kitten I ever saw delivered from beginning to end was the oldest of Princess’s litter, Dot.

And I would tell you all about the first time someone called me crazy but I don’t remember because it was so long ago and there have been so many numerous times that it’s impossible to pinpoint the exact first time. So, anyway.

~Jamie

11 is a fun number

The 11 Tag has come back around and I was tagged by two different people on the same day! I thought that was hilarious! So. Here we go, 11 facts about myself, I will be answering 11 questions from both LouPat and Solace Utara. By the way, thanks for tagging me, gals! I feel special when I see my name on someone’s list of tagged people for some reason. XD

1. I’m a bad writer; I should have been working on world building for my NaNo fantasy novel today, but instead I did lots of research on the Royal Opera Theater in London. All for a book idea that just popped up out of no where the other week. It has me very excited though; as of now, it’s’ a steam punk/Victorian murder mystery set in 1892 in London. And Sherlock Holmes might have a cameo in it. I’m very mad at myself about all this.

2. I just started a journal with one of the notebooks given to me for graduating. I always miserably fail at keeping journal’s, so we’ll see how long this one lasts.

3. I love Adrian Von Ziegler’s Celtic and Gothic music, it’s the bulk of my inspirational writing music. He’s also composes World music and Film music. Don’t be scared away by some of the darker pictures he uses; he writes amazing music which I would recommend all writer’s checking out at least once. CHECK OUT HIS YOUTUBE CHANNEL.

4. While our family has never celebrated Halloween, I enjoy seeing all the costumes that come out around this time of year. I’ve even been taking advantage of things that I don’t normally see in stores. I’ve bought enough things to pull together a Biker/Victorian-esque outfit, completed with a feather hat, delicate gloves, a leather jacket, dark sunglasses, and spiked bracelets. Along with my black boots and blue skirt, it looks awesome. All I’m missing is a motorcycle.

5. My sister and I just finished watching both Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea. I like Anne of Avonlea better.

6. Video game music rocks. I just found the soundtrack to a super old army game called People’s General I used to pretend to play when I was younger. The Intro music itself is so stirring and makes you just want to march off to war!

7. I have a thing for BBQ chips. ‘Nuff said.

8. I’ve decided I really want to see an accurate Dracula movie, but according to all my friends, there is yet to be one made…. I just did a Google search and there have been about 28 different Dracula films made but I don’t think any of them stay close to the actual story. SOMEBODY, PLEASE, FOR THE LOVE OF MARSHMALLOWS, MAKE A DRACULA MOVIE THAT ACTUALLY FOLLOWS THE BOOK FOR A CHANGE! I WILL PAY MONEY TO SEE IT! AND PLEASE CAST TOM HIDDLESTON IN IT SOMEWHERE! THANK YOU! AMEN! …. somehow that turned into a prayer. Lol!

9. I feel weird during autumn. My family lives in Arizona and here you don’t see much when it comes to season changes. No leaves changing colors or temperatures dropping very noticeably. No scarves or sweaters till November at the least. And seeing everyone on the blogosphere prattling on about, “oh i just love autumn when the leaves change brrr i get to wear my scarves now this is totally my favorite time of the year forget christmas now i’m going to starbucks for my pumpkin latte luv you bye.” LOLOL  Teasing aside, I feel left out not seeing weather change like everyone else. :*(

10. I still haven’t started reading Lord of the Rings yet. Grrrr. And there will be no time during November either. Oh well. I will put it on next Summer’s reading list, lol.

11. I love Donald Duck cartoons. Period.

LouPat’s Questions:

1) What is your earliest memory?

That’s kind of hard; I’m not sure how to separate memories and home video! LOL. Especially since I’ve been watching home video of myself since I was about two years old! So… kinda tough. One early memory I have is riding bumper boats at a kids park in our neighborhood.

2) What is your favorite holiday tradition? {Any holiday will do.}

Mmmm, maybe looking at Christmas lights with the family during Christmas. Probably anything to do with Christmas really.

3) What is your favorite musical? {This can be Broadway, a Disney film, Rodgers & Hammerstein, etc.}

All musicals I’ve seen are leaving my memory very fast, so I’m just going to say Beauty and the Beast because those songs are genius because they actually help the plot along and they’re beautiful.

4) Would you consider yourself an early bird or a night owl?

Mmmmm, more night owl than early bird but I can’t stay up super late like my sister does.

5) How has the Lord worked in your life since this time last year?

He’s certainly shown many instances of Providence that are too obvious to push to the side, so I think He’s helped me put more faith in His control over all things.

6) If you could have dinner with three theologians and/or heroes of the faith, who would they be?

OhMyGosh how are you suppose to do this???? Going off  the top of my head, I will say John Calvin, Martin Luther and William Tyndale.

7) How would you describe your favorite kind of fictional hero {not heroine}? Are you generally attracted to or intrigued by the aggressive, scholarly, reckless, quiet, jovial, brooding, tender, or straightforward?

Well, I like all sorts of different hero types. Take Luke Skywalker and Han Solo. Two very different male leads but both extremely heroic. And I like both of them very much. I know some people prefer Luke over Han and other people prefer Han over Luke. But me? I like them both equally!

8) What are you currently reading for pleasure? Schoolbooks don’t count

A Study in Scarlett is the book I’m reading now and AM LOVING IT. SHERLOCK HOLMES, HOW I LOVE YOU, YOU WONDERFUL WRECK OF A HUMAN BEING! *swoons*

9) If you could live in any other state, which one would it be and why?

Oh, I don’t know. Maybe Oregon or Washington State. It rains in those states a lot and I love rain very much. I could be sensible and say Texas because that’s a pretty conservative state but in all honesty, most people from Texas irk me. Texans, please don’t take offense, but you guys do seem to brag a lot. The general feeling I get from Texans is quite a bit of pride which just rubs me the wrong way. I know you’re very proud of your state, but please. Tone it down a little bit, okay?

10) What is your opinion of coffee? Do you drink it? If so, how do you drink it?

Coffee is fine for some people, as long as you do not get addicted to it. I personally do not drink coffee.  My mom only drinks coffee once in a while and my dad doesn’t like it. We don’t keep very much coffee in the house and I don’t even know how to make it. You pity me, perhaps. Oh well.

11) You’re about to go on an extraordinarily long trans-Pacific flight and you’re only allowed to take one DVD with you to watch on your laptop….. Jamie Joyce: your favorite Star Wars movie (I believe it’s Return of the Jedi) or…The Avengers. I may have just made you VERY desperate.

IT IS UNBELIEVABLE, I AM BEING FORCED TO CHOOSE BETWEEN STAR WARS AND THE AVENGERS! OHMYFREAKINGGOSH! ….. I’m going to say The Avengers though, because it is my recent favorite. Seriously, if you haven’t seen this movie, go see it now. Unless, of course, you haven’t seen Captain America, Thor or Iron Man. Watch those first, than The Avengers. TRUST ME, YOU WON’T REGRET IT!

Solace Utara’s Questions: (wordpress squished these together, don’t know why)

1) What are your fandoms?

Ah, I love talking about fandoms! My fandoms include Star Wars, The Avengers, and even Dr Who, although I’ve never seen the show. I’ve seen so much of it on Tumblr though that I feel like I could be part of the fandom in just a small way. And while I’m not a huge Batman fan, you could say I’m in The Joker fandom because I really like The Joker. And I’m in the Disney Fandom too.

2) Do you do fan art? If so, can you post it?

I’m afraid I don’t draw very well at all. I once drew a nice picture of Chewbacca in the middle of church (lol) but I’m afraid I lost the piece of paper. It was over a year ago.

3) What is your opinion of Ahsoka and why?

Oh goodness… I’m going to get A TON of hate for this. But I do not like Ahsoka. DISCLAIMER, I’M NOT SAYING ANYTHING ABOUT ASHLEY ECKSTIEN! But I do not like Ahsoka. To me, she messes up things and simply adds more questions to the Star Wars world. She’s such a big character, how come we don’t see or even hear about her in RotS? I could list other reasons why I don’t like her but that wouldn’t profit anyone.

4) Do you like to write?

Oh yes! I love writing!  I feel rather rusty with my fictional writing right now, it’s actually been a while since I did any decent fictional writing. But I’m hoping to loosen up during NaNo for the upcoming year of 2013!

5) Would you rather be an Elf or a bounty hunter?

I’m afraid I don’t know that much about elfs so I will go with bounty hunters, because they’re pretty swag. Lol. Cad Bane, anyone?! Or how ’bout Boba Fett? Some you up for a serving of Zam Wessell?

6) Explain your perfect fantasy relaxation place.

I actually have it right here in front of me. My desk, in my room, near the window, under the fan, with a candle next to me and my headphones on. I’ve not had my desk in my room for a long time, so I’m happy to be back in the quiet of my fortress.

7) Tell us a strange talent you have.

I don’t know if I have a strange talent! Lemme think….. no, I’m sure I don’t have a strange talent.  Lol. That’s sad.

8) What are things that make you happy?

Oh, good music, good books, good movies, good talks with friends, the good life, you know? Stuff like that. Oh. And ice cream. Yes, I sound very superficial but I believe in being grateful for the little things.

9) Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings?

I have not see either but I will easily go with Lord of the Rings over Harry Potter.

10) What’s the last song that’s stuck in your head?

I think it was the party music from the Toy Story short Partysaurus Rex. Watch the whole thing below. Why didn’t I get glow-in-the-dark bath toys when I was little?!?!?!?!?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqv0n_uQfdY&feature=related

11) Have you ever been in love?

I seriously don’t think I have been. I’ve been attracted to different people and I’ve had crushes but I honestly don’t think I’ve actually ever really, truly fallen for someone. (I have more feelings for fictional characters than for real people, actually. You know, Steve feels, Loki feels, Joker feels, Robin Hood feels, Star Wars feels, Sherlock Holmes feels…. I’ll will bet that the longest crush I ever had on a fictional character was Captain America… but let’s not go there right now. XD

I don’t feel like tagging anyone and I can’t think of anyone who hasn’t already been tagged and I don’t feel like coming up with eleven questions either. LOL. So, I’ll be a rebel and just end here. If you haven’t already GO CHECK OUT THE MUSIC LINKS I LEFT YOU! RIGHT NOW! Please and thank you.

~Jamie

An Avenger Post

I’ve come across some of the cutest Avenger fan art recently and it’s some of the best out there. Take this pic here, Thor is recharging the teams I-pads with his hammer and Loki is checking someone’s out behind him.

So cute!

LOL. I love group shots of them all, you can see everyone’s facial expressions in regard to each other. Look at Steve frowning at Tony! HA!

CLASSIC!

Rolling on floor laughing. Look at their cheeks bulging with food.

This is so cute. Literally so cute. Look at Phil Coulson, the little fanboy with his Captain America doll, he left his spot to come sleep next to his hero! SO CUTE. sldkfjklsjflksjk. Lol, I just noticed Thor!

Here’s another of fanboy Coulson happily staring at his hero still frozen.

And I love seeing all the Hulk/Bruce and Iron Man/ Tony art. The two Science Bros. I really the friendship these two have.

Sassy pants. Everybody’s has their sassy pants on in the Avengers.

I just needed an Avenger post today. Oh, if you haven’t seen this film yet, than go see it! It’s incredible! I really want to see again already!

~Jamie

Credit goes to the artists who created the art above, well done, guys!

Back from the Abyss

one of my birthday presents: a Captain America ‘hero and hearts’ wallet!

Well, I kinda took a two week break there, didn’t I? It was an unannounced break which I didn’t mean to take but it was actually nice to have a short break. And I’ve had a good couple weeks.

I had a wonderful birthday; I got my 38 special revolver (YES, EIGHTEEN YEAR OLD CAN OPEN CARRY WEAPONS IN ARIZONA! ), books (my own copy of Dracula, YAY), some action figures, a Hawkeye slap bracelet and other random stuffs. Mom and I watched The Help that morning together, I got a call from two family friends wishing me happy birthday; I spent the afternoon on my laptop creating a visual world for a fantasy story which has been, without my consent, building up in my head. We had Panda Express for dinner and watched The Mysterious Affair at Styles e later I got Mom and Dad to watch Monsters Inc with me. THREE MOVIES IN ONE DAY! UNHEARD OF! It was a great day of relaxation and unwinding.

my favorite book, right here people.

I also got to go on a spending spree with my birthday money; I RARELY get to go to the mall, but Mom took me to a double decked one at the other side of town last Saturday and I got to go into any shop that interested me. It was my first time visiting Forever Twenty One, people. Yep. I went nuts at the Disney store; they had a corner full of Avenger and Spider-Man stuff. There were so many stuffed animals there, too; I could have died. I ended up buying a Donald Duck shirt for myself and an Avengers shirt for Kayla. I bought a very cute hat at a shop called Icing (I tried to take some selfie shots of myself wearing it but they came out miserably so you’ll have to wait to see what it looks like.)

Internet shopping is always fun too: I ordered a Joker shirt, a laptop skin decal and keyboard stickers off of Amazon as well. The stickers are the only ones to have gotten here; they ARE SO CUTE. It makes my keyboard look so colorful and cheerful. I took pictures, but they’re not coming up right on here. Wahhh.

It’s late right now. So randomness will start flying all over. Prepare to duck.

It’s the end of July and August has just started… meaning for me, summer is beginning to end. I remembered I’d written a short summer bucket list a while ago; let’s see what I’ve completed.

*Lite ten fireworks off on Fourth of July

*Finish the Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes with Dylan

Complete and post the Avengers 40 Question Challenge with James (waiting on Kayla to work with the graphic)

Ride my bike more (ouch, haven’t done this very much)

*Dress in identical clothes with Kayla for the day

*Come up with a fresh novel idea for this year’s NaNoWriMo

*See The Amazing Spider Man with Kayla in theaters

Read Lord of the Rings (I did get the books for my birthday!)

and

*Think of some special way to celebrate my eighteenth birthday.

So, I actually did pretty good! Speaking of summer beginning to close, don’t you find it hilarious when you see different people complain about the recent season their in and long for another one? I always get a kick out of visiting different blogs and seeing, “Oh it’s so hot I want it to be winter soon with snow here I’ll post ten Christmas pictures now” and we get to the Christmas season and I’ll read, “I’m getting tired of this sludge I want to walk through grass feeling the summer breeze now I’ll post eight pictures of prairie grass and the beach”. It’s kinda on my not-really-but-sort-of list of pet peeves.

I don’t know why I just talked about that…. lol.

 Okay, so I mentioned up there that a fantasy story has been building in my head without my consent? Well, there’s nothing I can really do about but work with it. The picture above best describes my thoughts right now; fairies and books. And yes, this is the fresh idea I’m going to use for this years NaNoWriMo!

I’ll try to summarize my idea of the story and I apologize ahead of time for it not being the most thought through. Basically the short of it is (you’ll probably recognize where some of the inspiration came from, lol) two young people, boy and girl, get sucked into separate fictional world inside a novel and find that they’ve unsuspectingly been given the chance to experience the book’s adventure first hand inside a fantasy world with fantasy creatures. The problem is that being in different world is breaking down their bodies and they quickly decide that they’re not going to dilly-dally with the story, or the characters, or the plot but only find a way to get back to their world where they can exist without having their bodies slowly destroyed by the world’s atmosphere. However, the girl is kidnapped along with several other of their novel’s characters, and the boy of course can’t go home without her, so he joins their novel’s characters to rescue the girl and make sure the book has a happy ending before they return to reality. And yes, as they discovered, their own presence can completely alter how the book will end.

I’ve been using butterflies as part of my inspiration for the fairies

And yes, somehow, I will get fairies to have something to do with the story.

This is all still up in the air and I’m still `having plot inspirations. But Scrivener has been an absolute life saver for the novel planning; I’ve been saving all my inspiration pictures in there and writing down my plot ideas and so forth.

I’m glad I have new story idea growing, actually. The other story idea I have is so much more complicated that I don’t think would have worked for NaNoWriMo. This new one  here is taking leaps and bounds in all sorts of directions and I’ve not felt such creative for a fictional work for quite some time. So, this is really quite exciting for me!

Just had to share about it.

Soooo, Kayla and I watched Batman Begins again and I thought I’d give some thoughts on the main characters. Oh, and if you haven’t seen Batman Begins or The Dark Knight, I highly suggest you check them out, especially if you’re an action/superhero fan. It’s not Marvel but they’re still pretty good movies.

I really do like Batman Begins quite a bit. I don’t care so much for the beginning half but all the scenes that take place in Gotham are great. I do think it’s an underrated film which I think is kinda sad. I actually think I would enjoy it more than The Dark Knight except that The Joker took the cake in that one. If it wasn’t for the Joker, I probably would like Batman Begins way more than The Dark Knight. As of now, I like The Dark Knight just a little more for The Joker’s sake but Batman Begins is just under it.

*there may be spoilers lurking below*

Bruce Wayne: I like his character development throughout Batman Begins (he wasn’t anything special in The Dark Knight because his character development basically didn’t continue in that one and I didn’t enjoy him that much.) Bruce’s whole story of being orphaned, wanting revenge, living with criminal, learning different fighting forms and then ultimately creating his alter ego Batman is pretty cool to me. Trying to live two lives makes for an interesting aspect in a film. The fact that he battles with obvious human feelings like a fear of bats makes him more human and real. Overall, I like Bruce and Batman makes for a pretty interesting ‘superhero’.

Rachel Dawes: I personally preferred Katie Holmes’ acting for her over the actress in The Dark Knight (the other actress had cute features but I didn’t care for Rachel’s character progression in The Dark Knight either. She was basically brought down to marriage bait for the plot and she took her pretty time picking between Bruce and Harvey (and kissing both.)) In Batman Begins, we see her history with Bruce is, how she’s a smart District Attorney and one known to have strong principles that can’t be bought off. While Rachel didn’t stand out in any special way apart from other female characters in movies, I did like her and appreciate her strong stand in her principles. (Oh, I like how she has and uses a taser. lol)

Alfred: I LOVED THIS CHARACTER SO MUCH! Oh my goodness, Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce’s butler, is such a refreshing, wholesome character. Noble, dignified, witty, loyal, and tender yet firm. He’s one of the delightful characters that just make you smile. He’s easily one of my most favorite characters from the Batman movies. I couldn’t say more because it would turn into “alksjdkaljdklsjaksdjfkaslj” really quickly….

Ra’s al Ghul: Okay, so, I’m all oooh, Liam Neeson, cool, okay. However, as we got to know the character a bit, he really started to annoy me. He asked Bruce to do things that weren’t right and that wasn’t great considering he seemed to be a good guy. And while I think he was supposed to be a mysterious character, he ended up being too mysterious for me. And than SPOILERS he turned out to be the bad, bad guy in the end. Wahhh. END OF SPOILERS. So, he was an okay character. Liam Neeson was good though.

 Gordan: He was one of the uncorrupted, dependable police men in Gotham and I liked him. I connected well with him good which helped with certain events that happened in The Dark Knight. I liked how he just rolled with the flow when Batman kept showing up. He just quickly learned to adapt to him and that was nice to see. It took me a while to realize the reason Batman/Bruce went to Gordan was because he was an officer who comforted him after his parents had been murdered. Anybody else say, “Awwwww, no wonder”? So, in that way they have a connection. I also loved seeing him interact with the Tumbler.

Dr Crane/ Scarecrow: Okay, I had a bad case of, “He’s familiar, have I seen him somewhere else???” During the movie and it wasn’t till afterwards that Kayla solved the problem by saying, “That was Fischer from Inception!!!” Anyway, Dr. Crane was a great characters. He was with the good guys a lot and functioned easily around them even though he was one of the corrupted people. His mask for Scarecrow coupled with his fear gas was a great aspect in the film for me because it seemed quite original. (speaking of which, the special effects for all the fear gas scenes were very cool and a little scary!) I thought Crane was a decent bad guy and  his character worked well with the film’s whole plot.

All in all, I enjoyed the cast of characters a lot, more so especially in Batman Begins than in The Dark Knight. But, yes, I would recommend both for a mature audience.

I’m not going to talk about The Dark Knight, at least not in this post. I have a post about villains in the works where I’ll exploit The Joker a bit, but that’s it on Batman for now.

So… I’ve been eighteen for almost two weeks. People keep asking me, “How does it feel to be eighteen” and I think they half expect me to go with the old joke of, “not much different from seventeen”. *sarcastic lololololol* And while it doesn’t feel obviously different,  it’s still a great feeling to hit a big age. It just feels bigger than other birthdays. Dylan turned eighteen early in the year, so I got some understanding; he and his mom dropped by the other day for something really fast and somehow the age came up. He simply stated, “Isn’t it great to be eighteen?!” And I nodded and said, “Yep!” So how does it feel to be eighteen? The answer is, “It feels good.”

Anyway. I guess I had to quickly rant about that. lol. So. End of that story.

And now I’m posting this just to see if anyone will actually do it! LOL, I mean, why not?

I have some posts I need to finish; I have another “Being Me” edition on the trials of having naturally curly hair, my plans for later this year and then that villains post. So, you can watch for those in the near future.

I’ll let you know next time I plan to have another two week break, by the way.

~Jamie

Happy Birthday to Chris Evans

Chris Evans is one of my favorite actors (strictly for his acting skills–I don’t agree with a lot his personal beliefs); if you don’t know, he plays my most favorite character ever, Steve Rogers aka Captain America. And today, it’s Chris’s 31st birthday. I couldn’t let the day pass without wishing him a happy birthday and saying a quick thank you. Chris really brought Steve Rogers to life in both The First Avenger and The Avengers, and I can’t think of anyone else playing the role as well as he did. So I want to say thank you for successfully bringing this noble man to life in the films. He’s a great actor because unlike the character Steve, most of the other characters he’s played are real jerks; I think it takes some good acting to be able to play such a wide variety of characters like that. So, a happy birthday to you, Evans! I hope to meet you in person someday and I’m look deeply look forward to your return in the Captain America sequel! God bless!

~Jamie