Today went well, so what's wrong?

I found my wallet.
I found my library book.
I found a star in two of my Snapple caps today (for their promo).
I got a Chipotle quesadilla.
I went to the pool with my best friend.
I got special prescription goggles.
I finally got enough sleep.
So what's wrong?
I'VE ONLY JUST HIT 10,000 WORDS FOR MY CAMP NANO NOVEL, THAT'S WHAT'S WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-From your stressed out and completely demotivated Zoe.

Review: Matched

Matched by Ally Condie

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Although Matched was a great read, there were a few flaws (at least, for me) that have influenced my review. The plot is a bit typical for dystopia; I've found quite a few books revolving around a dystopian society now (such as the Hunger Games). Like most dystopian society books, it considers a rebellion.

The book didn't start off as well as I thought it would. I had gotten feedback about the book from my friends, and I expected to be hooked by the first page. The beginning of the book, however, was a little boring and I didn't understand much. If I hadn't read the summary on Goodreads, I probably wouldn't have understood a single bit of what was in the first chapter.

The book also felt rushed. It went from her Matching to finding out about Ky to her grandfather's Final Banquet. I think that if it had been slower, I would have enjoyed it more. The majority of some chapters are mostly of Cassia and Ky talking on the Hill. I'm also not very favorable of first person.

The ending was a little anti-climactic as well. It went from exciting and heart racing and slowly went downhill. In fact, the ending was so vague that you're pretty much forced to read the sequel (Crossed) rather than just enjoy the first book alone.

I'm not one for romance, but I found this book rather enjoyable. I mainly read it to satisfy my craving for another book of dystopia. In conclusion, this book was an interesting read and I would recommend it to anyone who liked the Hunger Games or Divergent. I plan to read the sequel, but not anytime soon.



View all my reviews

Chooooooooooooooch!

On Friday, I went to my first Phillies game (well, first baseball game, for that matter, not to mention the fact that I haven't been to any other game, baseball or not, in my whole life) with one of my best friends. I was incredibly overwhelmed when I arrived; I'd only seen Citizen's Bank Park on a TV screen in a living room until just then. Not to mention that the park the Eagles played at was across the road from it.

The park was so much different than I had expected. The stadium as a bit smaller than I had expected (considering I've never seen it up close) and there were stores. Everywhere. I thought that the only way to get food was to buy from those people that ran up and down the seats from the movies before, and that there would be some sort of gift shop. Fortunately, it was much better than that. There were gift shops everywhere, as well as different food outlets (including ice cream!).

The game was very entertaining to watch. When Carlos Ruiz showed up on the jumbo screen, everyone yelled "CHOOOOOOOOOOOOCH!" and I thought they were booing him at first. I asked my friend, and she told me that it was his nickname. They also clapped when a certain song came on. Apparently, they do this at every game. It's expected.

We left early because of a rain delay. It began to pour at the beginning of the fourth inning. It was definitely a night to remember. I hope to go to another Phillies game soon. Although I didn't understand some parts of the game or what the audience was doing, it was great!

-Dom

Minecraft Singleplayer Tour

As most of you know, I am cough-obsessed-cough with this game called Minecraft. I doubt that you haven't heard it, but if you haven't, here is a definition from Wikipedia. Not that I like Wikipedia (it's terribly detracting when you're writing essays), but I'm awfully too lazy to paraphrase for you.

Minecraft is a sandbox-building independent video-game originally by Swedish creator Markus "Notch" Persson and now by his company, Mojang.

Minecraft is focused on creativity and building, allowing players to build constructions out of textured cubes in a 3D world. Gameplay in its commercial release has two principal modes: Survival, which requires players to acquire resources themselves and maintain their health and hunger; and Creative, where the player has an unlimited supply of resources, the ability to fly, and no concept of health or hunger. A third gameplay mode, named Hardcore, is essentially the same as Survival, but the difficulty is locked on the hardest setting and respawning is disabled, forcing the player to delete his or her world upon death. An outdated Classic version is also available for free, although it is no longer being developed. Creative Minecraft resembles Classic, but with many more features.

So, there you go. I've never actually described my obsession or explained it, but mainly because I have this terrible condition called "procrastination" I can't describe it with words. And since I can't, I'll just give you a tour my my single-player world (alas, the world I escape to when I'm not in the mood for productive activity!).

This is my house; very simple, yet not too simple. I guess. I'm not a refurbishing professional.

We'll start at the front of my house. This house didn't take any more than 10 minutes at the maximum. I had a limited amount of cobble and only enough would to last me a while, not to mention the lack of any kind of decorative block. I made one of the most basic houses, and it actually turned out very nice! :)

This is the inside of my house. It's not too shabby.

I didn't want to spend 30 minutes decorating, so enjoy the dully furbished inside of my house.

This didn't take too long, but I really like it. I'm great at making mines.

To make this, I just dug up a 5x4 rectangle and made stairs. It's not too fancy and there aren't water elevators or anything, but it's very efficient. I love it! I found a cave very early into the mine and have been hunting for ores ever since.

It looks like a mini-forest. =))

Considering I had single player commands turned on (a mod that can spawn you supplies, change your gamemode, etc. in single player) and I didn't feel like breaking leaves for a straight 20 minutes....I cheated and spawned a stack of saplings. Minecraft is like the famous prison-break of the Productive Activity Jail Center.

I didn't want to make this super-complicated, so I just used up the space behind my house to make this.

I spawned myself seeds here as well. And the water. And the fences. And the fence gates. Maybe I should turn off Single Player Commands....nah

R.I.A. Esther Earl: This star won't go out.

For this one, I didn't spawn myself anything. I felt that my little-one-Minecraftian-neighborhood wouldn't be complete without a grave for Esther. I am a hardcore Nerdfighter, so it had to be done. (For more information about Nerdfighters, click here.) Esther was a Nerdfighter who died of cancer. Under the stone slabs, there is a large chest filled with flowers.

I call those islands over there "The Small Yet Efficient Jungle Biomes".

To finish the blog post, I'll show you "The Small Yet Efficient Jungle Biomes". I spawned in a small jungle biome placed on a small island. I was able to get most of my wood supply from there, as well as cobble. There are several small jungle islands over there, not just one. I go there when I'm too lazy to replant saplings in my tree farm.

For the album on Imgur, click here. That's all, folks.

-Dom

The Avengers - Movie Review

***CAUTION: SPOILERS! READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!***


The Avengers was a great movie. If I was one of those critics who rated according to stars, I would rate it five (well, 4.9) out of five stars.

The reason I'm so hesitant about rating it to the maximum is because, well, I'm not a big Marvel fan. I wasn't sure who Bruce Banner was until Tony Stark made that witty remark about him being a big green rage monster. I had to ask my sister a few questions during the movie because I wasn't sure who was who or what was going on at some points. That's why some parts didn't appeal to me as much as others.

Oh! And hey! I'm doing my IMDB research in this blog post. So...yeah. I feel professional.

Tony Stark/Iron Man was my favorite character! He may seem conceited, stubborn, biased, and overconfident...but to me, he was the wittiest character in the entire movie. All of his clever remarks made me laugh out loud. Robert Downey Jr. did an astonishing job playing as Stark in this movie.

Natasha Romanoff/The Black Widow was great as well. She was the only woman fighter and definitely one of the strongest of The Avengers. When she first appeared as hostage (I'm not sure if she was being held captive, but that was what I interpreted. Again, I am not the biggest Marvel fan), she did some epic kicks and swerves. She was epic in general.

Bruce Banner/The Hulk scared me when he first appeared. And I didn't know who he was, either, so I didn't know if he was a bad guy or not. When he screamed STOP LYING TO ME!!!!!! I nearly jumped out of my seat and dropped most of my popcorn. And then Agent Romanoff held up a gun and I was confused again. He definitely showed some of the Green Rage Monster, even before he first transformed in the movie. I couldn't stop laughing and almost started crying when he bashed around Loki in the Stark Tower. Oh, gosh, that was hilarious. Mark Ruffalo was great.

Steve Rogers/Captain America confused me. Utterly. I had no idea he was frozen for decades or something and was unfrozen and that he fought in a World War and that his shield could beat the Thor Hammer of Death or...yeah. Utter confusion. I really liked him though! He was a great Avenger. Since he was in a war, he had much experience and played a great leader.

Thor was funny, moody, and ABSOLUTELY TERRIFYING at the same time. His remark about Loki being adopted made me like him more. But his moods kept switching from mad to calm to wants-to-throw-his-hammer-at-Tony-Stark's-face. His power to summon FLIPPING LIGHTNING OUT OF THE SKY was quite the scare. I enjoyed Chris Hemsworth's performance anyway.

Clint Barton/Hawkeye seemed like a more...empty character, if you know what I mean. We didn't have much background about him, he didn't have many lines, and was hypnotized by Loki almost the entire time. He wasn't very important until The Black Widow bashed his head against a banister.

I'm still confused about Nick Fury. What happened to his other eye?

Now. Loki. Loki was an AMAZING super villain. He made me cringe and laugh and narrow my eyes and cringe some more and have spasms in my chair and adfjadsfsdTomHiddlestondidanastonishingjob. I loved Loki so much. Even though he was a terrible person. I love him like I love Bellatrix Lestrange; he's evil in a way that is just so moving. Nyaaaaaaaaah. I cannot stress out the astonishingness of Loki enough.

Overall, this movie was amazing! I would watch it again if I had the chance. I hope that there will be an The Avengers 2 soon.

-Dom

Experiencing Pottermore Again

Months and months after I had experienced the Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone on Pottermore the first time, I decided to make a new account and go through it all again. It was just as thrilling as when I had first gotten into beta, except they had made a few minor changes.

They had added sound. The sound made the chapters more exciting and I definitely liked the new addition. However, it seemed a bit loud and I had to turn my volume down. It wasn't much of a problem. Some of the collectible items were no longer available.

I remembered my answers from the first time I had gotten a wand (let it choose me, as it says in the books) during Beta. I answered all of them flawlessly and got the same results as I had gotten the first time. It was still a thrill to take the quiz again.

The Sorting Hat was a different situation. There are several questions, and for each Sorting, the questions are randomized. If your friend took the Sorting, chances are that they will get different questions than you did.

It was still a wonderful experience, as always. This time, I decided to lie and see what would happen (after all, whatever House I got into, the Sorting Hat's decision is final! I'll be a Ravenclaw and always be a Ravenclaw, no matter how many times I got Sorted). I tried to lie and get into Ravenclaw somehow by thinking out the answers until I came to a conclusion.

Once I had gotten through all seven questions, I was Sorted into Slytherin. I started to laugh. From this, I have come to a realization that forcing your answers is useless. They are all psychological questions and most of them are hard to figure out. If you try to get into a certain House, you'll fail because the questions are much more thought out than you think.

I've deleted the account because I have no use for it, but it was fun seeing all the updates and features they had added since Beta. I hope that Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets comes out soon. I still keep Pottermore on my Twitter text list, just in case. ;)

Don't Break the Chain

Earlier today, I discovered a video on Youtube uploaded by Charlie McDonnell called Don't Break the Chain. In this, he discusses a motivational method for procrastinators called, well, Don't Break the Chain!


This method helps when you are easily distracted by a task you need to/want to do. First of all, you need a calendar print-out. You cross out every day on the calendar that you complete your task. Once you have a streak, it is actually very hard to stop doing the task every day because you don't want to break the chain.


I am using this method for both blogging and writing in general. I printed out two calendars. My goal for blogging to to post on my blog at least three times a week. My goal for writing is to spend 15 minutes per day on something such as my newest fanfiction.

I think that this method will work great on me. It already is! I wrote two blog posts yesterday, so I will complete my task for this week under blogging. I wrote another chapter for my fanfiction as well today, so another X on my calendar. =)

I think this method will work a charm on me. When Script Frenzy in the beginning of this month, I completely forgot about my blog. All I could think was script script script script script script and more script. Now, I'm going to be forcing myself to.

-Dom