Pumped for Hunger Games Movie

I love working in the morning as opposed to closing.  It's so nice to just be out by 4 pm and have the rest of the day to just do whatever.  Of course it's also nice when you have solid plans and fun activities to fill the later hours of the day.  Today it was not so; but at least I got some reading done and some quality me time at my favorite Starbucks.  I figured I'd rather be productive then sit at home and channel surf or browse the net.  I was about to start my manuscript too but then I decided against it due to the fact that I had slightly exhausted myself with the reading.  I think I'm going to begin outlining the book tonight.  I really want to get cracking on this thing and days like tomorrow (day off) should provide plenty of free time to get some quality writing done.

So I finished The Throne of Fire by Rick Riordan (the second book in the Kane Chronicles series).  Overall I enjoyed it way more than the first book of the series; The Red Pyramid.  If you like young adult fantasy literature along the lines of Narnia and Harry Potter I would highly recommend Riordan.  I find his books to be fun and quick reads while also very educational.  For instance, with the Percy Jackson series I learned about all of the different gods from Greek mythology and their roles.  I think that the books could be a great tool to pair with a social studies curriculum (there's the teacher in me) about Ancient Greece.  The Kane Chronicles accomplished the same feat of a fun read that's also educational only this series focuses on Ancient Egyptian society and Egyptian gods.  I'm a big fan of Riordan's writing and I highly recommend any of his books to someone who enjoys the young adult fantasy genre.  The books could probably be read by kids 5th and 6th grade if they're diligent enough readers (I certainly wouldn't have gotten through a 400 page book at that age but I wasn't very driven at that age).

I also watched a movie tonight titled Red Hill.  It's an Australian movie featuring Ryan Kwanten (Jason Stackhouse in HBO's True Blood) about a rookie police officer who walks into a very messy situation on his first day at a new precinct.  I didn't have great expectations going in and I was even tempted to mail it back to Netflix before I watched it.  I just had a feeling that it would be nothing special.  I didn't have anything super pressing to tend do so I watched it and got what I expected.  It was an alright movie with an interesting plot twist at the end but nothing to write home about.  If you're debating watching this movie I'd say don't bother.  Nothing special about this one folks.

To switch gears one movie that I am super psyched about is The Hunger Games (In production).  If you haven't read the books go and get the first book now.  Excellent young adult series about a futuristic dystopia with adolescents fighting to the death.  Trust me you will not regret this read.  Anyway, as soon as I finished the first book one of the first thoughts was that it would make a kick ass movie if done well.  So naturally when I heard that The Hunger Games movie was in production I was very excited.  I lost some excitement though when I learned that Jennifer Lawrence would be cast as the female lead and main character, Katniss Everdeen.  Nothing against J Law but in the book Katniss is described as a girl with olive skin and dark brown hair.  Lawrence is kind of the opposite being that up until this point she has upheld the post of young Hollywood blonde bombshell.  If you haven't seen her in her red Oscar dress and you find women attractive I suggest you do so.  Actually, here you go:

So as you can see, pretty girl but no olive-skinned brunette right?  Call me picky but I like it when movies keep book characters authentic (Exhibit A Harry Potter Movies-Nailed it).  One reason why I hated the Percy Jackson movie; a few main characters were fundamentally different from how they were described in the book (and a few were omitted from the movie altogether).  Anyway this morning as I waltzed into work what did I catch a glimpse of...the cover of entertainment weekly featuring none other than Jenner Lawrence dressed in her full Katniss outfit with brown hair and a tan to match.  Check it out:

I'm absolutely thrilled by what I saw this morning.  I'm really happy to hear that the head honchos in charge of putting this film together actually care about authenticity.  I'm also happy about how passionate Lawrence is about the character as she explained in her interview in the magazine (of course I read the article).  Bottom line, I'm now psyched for this movie and I rescind any previous doubts I had about the film in production.

And all of a sudden I'm very warm; I'll have to turn on the AC. Summer is around the corner although you wouldn't know it with all of this rain.  You know, I used to want to move to Seattle or somewhere in the Pacific Northwest but now I already feel like I live in Seattle.  It's rainy or overcast every day so why leave here for the same weather 3,000 miles away.  Crazy times, where is the sun when you need it?  I'd like a day without rain please, let's make it happen soon shall we? Buenos noches.