Glee

I love this show. For those of you who don't know it is about a high school glee club trying to get some respect against all odds. Every character is like someone you know and while it makes you laugh it makes you cheer just as much. I have only seen two episodes and already I feel extremely attached. I could go character by character and explain why you should watch the show, but really just take my word for it and at least give it a try.
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The Kite Runner

I have not seen the movie so this is solely based on the novel by Khaled Hosseini. I went somewhat backwards having first read A Thousand Splendid Suns and then this novel. While I enjoyed them both, The Kite Runner left me somewhat depressed when the other left me feeling uplifted. The story is very intense and I seriously hated the main character for most of the book. I was called in for jury duty a while back and I was reading A Thousand Splendid Suns while waiting to be called in and a fellow juror expressed to me that she believed if everyone in America read these books there would be no racism. While I admire her optimism I believe people have their biases and wont change over a book, however I do feel that these books would at least instill a certain amount of compassion towards the people who have immigrated here from such dire circumstances. These novels take you deep into the heart of the war in the middle east from both a female and male perspective. I do recommend both of these books, just perhaps not for a little light summer reading.

Battlefield 1943

Recently we have switched from COD4 to Battlefield 1943. I love this game. Due to the unexpected amount of purchasers the first week was a little rough. It was hard to get into a game, would freeze and the squad feature wasn't working. However, now almost all the bugs are fixed and playing is a really fun experience. There are the 3 original maps:




Plus the air plane only map Coral Sea which was unlocked after the online community reached 43,000,000 kills.


As you see above you can fly planes (and parachute from them) in this game, but you can also drive tanks, jeeps and boats.




The point of the game is for your team to capture as many flags as possible. This works best if you work in a squad and organize strike points. The controls aren't clunky, the graphics are good and the kills usually seem fair. This game is only $15.00 so I'm waiting to hear your excuse as to why you don't have it yet.

LA Ink

This is the only reality show I watch. I love watching people come in with a vague idea of what they want and watching the tattoo artist make it actually turn out awesome. These people are amazing artists. I also love how people can bring in pictures of people they love and both Kat and Corey can make their tattoo look exactly like the picture if not better. I don't have any tattoos myself but if I could think of something I would want on my skin forever I would feel honored to have these people draw it on there.

This season Hannah and Kim are gone :(

I will miss them they added a lot of spirit to the show. Kat has been really busy with her other career endeavours (book, cosmetic line and merchandise) so her little brother hired Aubry Fisher to be their new shop manager but she doesn't know how to do anything so she's just slowing them down.

Kat just hired a new artist named Amy in hopes that she would fit in. So far she hasn't really found her niche and since she's only been tattooing 4 years Kat isn't all that impressed with her stuff but I think she has potential. Her make up is scary as hell but other than that I really like her and hope she gets better. We're only 2 episodes into the new season so hurry up and get watching.
Thursdays @10pm on TLC

Sweeney Odd

I watched Sweeney Todd last night and finished feeling a mixture of hatred and delight. A barber with a beautiful wife is thrown into prison for a crime he didn't commit by a judge infatuated with his wife. After 15 years in prison he makes his way back to London to exact his revenge. I knew going in that Tim Burton enjoys making strange movies, playing with color pallets and walking the fine line of discomfort.



Even still there were points in this movie that shocked me into laughter. I really felt that I was watching a play instead of a movie (yes I know it is based off a Broadway musical). The story itself is very strange and most of the "plot twists" I could see coming from a mile away. I hated all but one character (a little boy named Toby)



and I did not understand or believe the "love" between Anthony and Johanna.



At times it felt to me that some scenes that should have been short and entertaining became long and somewhat boring because they had to fit a song into it. However, as a whole it was very entertaining. Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter are very good singers and work amazingly well together. The murders and disposal of bodies was so brutal it came off as comical which somewhat lightened the mood of an incredibly dark film. While the setting itself looked like something I dreamed up after eating some bad food I found myself mesmerized by the colors and textures.



Overall I would say it's definitely worth watching, but I wouldn't buy it.

Twilight

For about 6 months now I have had a number of people tell me to read Twilight. I wasn't all that interested, but I took Delaynee to the library to get some more princess books and there it was so I checked it out. I did not want to put that book down. Stephenie Meyer was able to capture my attention and keep it just as well as J.K. Rowling did with the Harry Potter series and I have been waiting forever to find a book that could do that. I actually didn't really want to like it. I wanted to be able to say that I thought it was stupid and call a bunch of people idiots, but much to my displeasure it was awesome. The main character reminds me of myself so it was easy for me to relate to her and Edward's internal battle was both comical and enthralling. I loved it. I joined a book club recently and was able to pick 5 books for free and I found the set of all 4 of the Twilight series books that only counted for 2 so I am impatiently awaiting their arrival.



Yesterday was Mother's Day and I treated myself by buying the movie. Jesse and I watched it while downing a bottle of vino after putting the kids to bed. I hate when people go on and on about how a book is better than a movie, but really in this case it was a lot better. The movie was OK, but the scenes that were really intense in the book came off as funny and awkward in the movie. The actors did fine jobs and I am not sure how I would have done it differently, but for me it didn't really capture the essence of the book. It was very evident that the demographic is high school girls, but I still liked it because I liked the book so much. If you watched the movie and it put you off of reading the book I really recommend reading it anyway.

Peggle

I LOVE Peggle. I can sit down to play this game and before I know it 3 hours has gone by. When you see someone playing this game it looks really lame. You have to play it to understand. You just move the shooter to where you want and shot a ball at a bunch of different colored pegs to clear a board. While it doesn't really sound all that fun it is extremely addicting. There are 10 different "masters" that you learn from. They each have a different ability that when you hit the green pegs you can use to help clear the levels.

You will first encounter Bjorn.

Bjorn's special power is guided shot. The next three shots you take will have lines showing the direction the ball will bounce.


Second you will learn the skill of multiball from Jimmy Lightning.

If you hit a green peg while playing under Jimmy Lightning your ball will split into two and they will hopefully go in two different directions getting you twice the pegs.

The third skill is Pyramid Power with Kat Tut

Hit the green peg with Kat Tut and for that shot and the next 4 the free ball bucket will transform into a pyramid giving you a better chance at scoring that always appreciated free ball.

Space Blast with Splork

Hit that green peg and all the surrounding pegs will be hit. This skill is especially effective on levels where the pegs are grouped in clusters.

Flippers with Claude

Once you hit the green peg two claws will appear on the bottom corners of the screen. This transforms the game into a pin ball game of sorts where you use the claws to try to flip the ball back into play or into the free ball bucket. These last for 3 shots.

Spooky Ball with Renfield Pumpkin

Spooky Ball is one of my favorites. If you hit a green peg Spooky Ball is activated and you go down the level like normal but once you fall out the bottom the ball will then drop from the top of the screen to go through a whole second time. If you manage to hit the purple point boosting peg you will get a free ball almost every time.

Flower Power with Tula Sunflower

Activate her power by hitting the green peg and the closest 1/5 of the orange pegs left will light up. You need to hit these early in the level to have any effect.

Lucky Spin with Warren Rabbit

Hit a green peg using this skill and a spinner will immediately pop up. The spinner will either land on extra ball, triple score, magic hat or one skill from a different master. This is a good skill to use if you are trying to get a lot of points. If the spinner lands on magic hat a little hat will appear on top of your ball and the pegs the hat touches as well as your ball will light up. This also carries on to the next shot.

Fireball with Lord Cinderbottom

Activate this power and the next shot you have will be a large fireball that will burn right through the pegs. If done correctly you can shoot it off the free ball bucket and walls to hit the maximum amount of pegs and then land it back into the free ball bucket.

Last but not least is the Zen Shot with Master Hu

Hit the green peg and on your next shot you line up the shot but then Master Hu will move your shot slightly to give it the "maximum zen" meaning the best possible shot. This is really helpful on levels that have sliding possibilities or at the end of a level if you need to hit more than one peg in one shot.

There are duels, challenges and online multiplayer as well as the adventure mode. I recommend this game for anyone. It's family friendly and funny. I got Peggle off XBLA, but I've seen versions to download online at popcap.com and versions for the DS and also for ipods.