And now you know what's funny?

I suddenly feel on fire and, for the first time in a month or so, I want to blog a lot more! But you know what's funny? I don't have anything to review right now! I could read a book and review it, but it would take several days to do that.

WHAT CAN I DO!?!?

Hahaha, have a nice day!

~Reuben/Arkatox~

Pride & Prejudice

Several students in our school got together on Tuesday, since we're on Spring Break, and we watched some movies on our giant TV. The first movie we watched was picked by the boys, and it was Sahara. The second movie we watched was picked by the girls, and it was Pride & Prejudice. Both were based off of best-selling novels, but from what I hear, Sahara didn't follow the book very well (I haven't read the books for either).

You could tell the obvious difference between movie genres. Sahara was full of action, adventure, and a lot of bad guys shooting at the good guys. Pride & Prejudice was full of drama, humor, and some romance. Okay, they both had their extremely funny moments, but I laughed a lot more during Pride & Prejudice. This may be partially because I laughed several times just because the girls were laughing, even though I didn't get what was funny.

Believe it or not, I actually enjoyed Pride & Prejudice better of the two movies, even though the boys were pretty much forced to watch it. I guess I'm just the type of person who can occasionally put my manliness aside and do something different. I used to actually be more of a girl than a boy. Five or six years ago on New Years Eve, I was even called a "Tom Girl" by a girl. It's just because it took me far too long to grow up.

Yeah, that's right, I took too long to grow up. Not many people know, but I still played with my stuffed animals when I was eight. Embarrassing, eh? I was just a young kid back then, and it was hard to transfer to being a normal boy. But then again, eventually, I grew up and now consider myself more mature than the average 14-year-old.

How is this related to the movie? I'm just saying that because I was once a girly kid, I can sometimes forget who I am and enjoy movies and such that I otherwise wouldn't care for as much.

Now Pride & Prejudice was very well-done. The main family had five daughters (and they were all played by actresses totally unrelated to each other), and they all looked really similar. That obviously means the people who made the movie knew how to pick actresses that looked alike (LOL).

The story was a drama, as mentioned, and based off a classic. There were some really good acting jobs done by many actors and actresses including Keira Knightley, Matthew Macfadyen, Rosamund Pike, Simon Woods, and Donald Sutherland (who also did a really good job of acting in the 1976 film adaption of The Eagle Has Landed).

The story was pretty good, the humor was . . . humorous, and overall I liked the movie. Sahara just had so much shooting and action, and I didn't even like it that much the first time I watched it.

~Reuben/Arkatox~

The Phantom Tollbooth

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster was first read to me when I was probably five years old. Since then, I've read it several more times. Doesn't sound too hard? I'm the type of person who can't read a book over again unless it's been perhaps three years since the last time I read it. The glory of young adult fiction, which The Phantom Tollbooth is considered to be, is that I can read it multiple times.

If anyone simply won't read this book because it's considered young adult fiction, like for junior high kids, I'm personally going to go their their house and sock them in the face. This book is unique in more ways than I can say. Norton Juster is a total epic genius, and forever he'll have my respect.

This novel is an enigma. Is it an allegory? Is it a fairy tale novel with allegory elements? Nobody completely knows what it is, so I'll leave it at being an enigma.

Wikipedia describes the book as a "children's adventure novel", which I believe that's exactly what it is. It's full of adventure, knowledge, and content that would make a kid enjoy it. But remember, we're all kids in our own way.

The story is focused on a boy named Milo. He thinks life is dull. Everything is boring, and he doesn't care. He's just a lowly kid who can drive a car and has one in his room (that's one thing that I thought was interesting, even though he's portrayed to be in possibly fifth or sixth grade). But he doesn't care much about the car either.

One day, as he comes home from school and a day of boredom, he comes across a strange package addressed to him. In his bedroom. Yeah, the same bedroom with the car that he can drive. Inside the package was a tollbooth, some signs, and some coins. A message that came with it told him to set up the tollbooth and the signs, and drive up to it (paying a toll with one of the coins), and then go on an adventure.

Confused but bored, Milo decided to do this, and suddenly, after he paid the toll, he was in another world, driving down a road in his car. Along the way he comes across many strange places and creatures, and in all truth, his life was never the same again.

He was sent out on a mission with two friends he made along the way. Tock, a watchdog that literally had a watch built into him, and the Humbug, who actually was a giant bug, helped Milo along the way in his quest (appointed to him by Azaz, the king of Dictionopolis) to save the two princesses, Rhyme and Reason, so that rhyme and reason could literally return to this strange world known as the Kingdom of Knowledge.

The way was long and tricky, but in the end . . . I'm not going to spoil it for you!

I'll just say this book was very well written. It's full of puns and it plays on the English language a lot. Plenty often it's confusing, but the more you read it, the more you understand. Norton Juster is a complete genius, and this book will forever be a favorite.

~Reuben/Arkatox~

P.S. As a side note, I lost my DSi, and the game I was playing. This pretty much means no review for that game (not too big of a deal, except I can't finish it), and I'm getting a 3DS in a few days when it comes out anyway.

Edit 02/09/12: My apologies for the postscript. It was appropriate at the time I wrote the review, but people are no longer going to find this review from reading my blog posts in order, so it's a little awkward now. :P

Why the silence?

I'm sorry I haven't blogged much lately. I've had a ton of schoolwork and other stuff going on, and sometimes I just didn't feel like blogging.

I'm actually not currently writing anything for my blog. No work-in-progress book reviews or original stories. No nothing. I once started a music review of the Newsboys album "Born Again", but I quit in the middle due to lack of motivation.

Anyway, I'm currently reading The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster, and playing through The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks for the DS. Both of these things I've read/played before, but not since I've started blogging, and I'm going to make sure I review them both (though I may want to review The Phantom Tollbooth first, since my last three blog posts have been strictly about gaming, and we need some variety).

Anyway, that's just a short update. If you feel like it, leave a comment. Don't forget to check my brother's blog!

So yeah, talk to ya later,
~Reuben/Arkatox~