In my opinion, it just really looks like an oversized iPhone that isn’t going to be that useful. I mean, no camera? Still no multi-tasking abilities? The inability to support flash? A stylus pen would be a brilliant addition, too.

The name sounds funny, too. I mean…. don’t you think of pads when you hear the name iPad? Lol. And check out the video below. MadTV is awesome.

Though, to give it some good points, there ARE some things that I like.

Things I like

Like, their Notes thingy. I like that sidebar thingy, the ability to look at the list of different notes I’m working on, etc. I can already imagine a Productivity app appearing, making use of the extra space an iPad (the name is distracting… because it makes me want to laugh) has.

And their Calender thing. It looks bloody cool! I mean, you get the Month, Week and Day view all in one!

The iBook app seems pretty cool too, unfortunately it’s only available in the US, so that means it’s not going to happen here for quite some time yet.

And lastly, the iPad accessories. (Which makes me want to snicker, because what kind of accessories do you have for pads?) They look pretty darn cool, especially that keyboard thing. It’s definitely going to be useful, since the iPad (OH GOD THE NAME SERIOUSLY THE NAME) has iWork, so it’s gonna be useful.

iWork:

The price though…. doesn’t look too good. USD499 = about SGD701, not including stuff like shipping, etc. And that’s only for a 16GB iPad.

The one thing I would have really liked was a camera feature. I mean, if you have a camera, it’ll be like – TADA, awesomeness. Just imagine being able to have video chat or skype in your bed. You wouldn’t need a huge ass big heavy laptop overheating on your lap, but you’d have a nice beautiful screen to look at while you chat.

Another cooler feature would have been the ability to have more icons on your dock! Four…. is really not enough. Six would be nice. I mean, there’s space after all. Why not?

But… Let’s look on the bright side.

Ok. So while I was disappointed at first, after thinking about it, the iPad (okay, I’m starting to sort of get used to the name) has possibilities. Let’s say you’re going out for an interview. You can use the iPad to display your portfolio during the interview! It not only looks cool, it makes you seem cool too. For me, I could have used this to show the short films I’ve worked on to my interviewer, so they’d get an idea of what I’ve done.

And in a sense, I guess iPad has a plus point, being that its screen is bigger, as compared to the iPhone. I mean, there’s been times I wished my iPhone was bigger, so that it’d be easier to type and not strain my eyes (or thumbs).

Who the iPad is for

So. The iPad is probably perfect for you if you’re a photographer/designer/film director (or student)/business person for showing your clients (or interviewer) your work/portfolio BUT don’t want to take out your huge ass laptop; OR if you’re a really big fan of Apple’s stuff and want a device you can take anywhere that has a bigger screen that allows you to watch movies, surf the web, for eg, instead of using a laptop/desktop. Here’s more possibilities of what to do with an iPad from Photojojo.

But if you have an iPhone, and a laptop already, then this probably isn’t for you. In fact, I bet your first thought might have been “Stupid oversized iPhone” and feel disappointed because it wasn’t what you expected.

I might get this. One day. If it has a camera function thingy. And have a large wad of cash lying around to buy it just for fun.

It’s a want, not a need.

Other links to check out:

• An In-Depth Look at the Apple iPad from Mac.AppStorm
• iPad from Apple’s site

I have to say, from what I’ve read so far, the idea doesn’t seem so far-fetched when you look at it with as an expert on the subject. If something comes up and matches something you know about, I guess you’d link the ideas together. Well, what scant knowledge I have about the subject did seem to fit what the author had been writing about.

It does boggle the mind, though, and it really makes you wonder if ideas like mind-controlled slaves and governments being controlled by a group is that far-fetched and impossible.

And then my mind started wandering off into worlds of its own about conspiracy plots and the fight to control human beings and turn them into robots and ideas about being inserted with electronic chips that can track us down and contains our entire history and… well, etc.

The urge to write and create a world of heroes and heroines fighting to save the human race from a board of evil, megalomaniac dictators. I can see the plot going like this:

Heroine is living life peacefully when an unknown stranger (Hero) bursts into her life through some sort of event. Maybe she’s an innocent bystander who is nearly caught in the crossfire between the Hero and the Evil Minions. Insert various plot elements, but they trust each other at the end, and the Heroine is enlightened about the evil doings of the Evil Dictators and how widespread the brainwashing is. Heroine learns there is a Rebel Force fighting the ED and after a battle, decides that doing her part to save the human race is what she wants to do.  Part 1 ends with hope about overthrowing dictatorship.

Part 2 has Hero and Heroine developing a deeper relationship, but neither wanting to do anything about it. Throw in a sub-character Female Hanger-on who is attracted to Hero, and the Rebel Committee Board who plan recons and stuff. I don’t know how to continue from here on, but I’m sure I’ll figure it out if I decide to write a story like this.

Should be fun. I mean, it seems pretty action packed and wars are fun to read about. Sort of. Like, medieval wars in fantasy lands kinda. I’m totally not into modern warfare. They make me cry, though, sometimes.

I’m currently quite addicted to another of TH’s song called “Attention”. Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but I suppose this song is literally about the attention that Tokio Hotel gets as a famous, successful band. I feel it reinforces my theory especially with the line, “I choose to be lonely than live without your attention” – meaning that they’d rather choose to be lonely (remember World Behind My Wall?) with the attention, rather than be not lonely but without the fame and attention.

I remember what Bill’s said before in an interview; that they’re addicted to the success and the fame and that it drives them on to be more famous, to be more successful. I distinctly remember this phrase, “It’s like a drug.” Sounds pretty ominous to me, and I’m quite sure I’ll freak out if I see Bill start doing A-OK hand signs or photoshoots that cover his left eye. -.-

I love the beginning of the song, though! It’s really addictive. I like the bass, and the guitar, and how the drums come into playing in the song. It’s definitely different from their Humanoid songs, and has more of a mixture of a Schrei/Zimmer 483 sound that’s matured. Add on the fact that you have a rather deep voiced Bill at some parts of the song…. and you get a melted puddle of rainin9. Heh.

It’s not what you said
It’s the way you say it
It’s not what you did
It’s the way you do it
Sick and tired of needing your attention
I chose to be lonely than live without your
Attention

In case you didn’t click the link, what’s happened basically is that people back in Washington are incensed over Obama’s bow to Japan’s emperor while on his Japan trip in Asia. And they’re saying that Obama has disgraced his country because of his waist deep bow, and that he should have “stood tall while representing America overseas”, and I’m like, what the hell? What kind of rubbish is that? The critics saying that are just being really ridiculous.

I live in a multi-racial country. We tolerate and respect each other’s race, religion and language. We don’t go like, “Oh, we’re the racial majority here, you have to listen to us and follow our ways and only our ways and to hell with yours.” We make compromises; the easiest example being that when we are ordering catering for events, we make sure that the food is halal, so our other Muslim friends can join us in our meal. Or we provide alternative meals and things like that. We respect each other’s customs.

Which brings us to Obama bowing to the Japan emperor. It was a sign of respect. It doesn’t show America as a “weak and overly-deferential” country. It shows a man representing his country who understands and respects the culture in the place he is visiting. I mean, seriously! In Japan, you bow to show your respect. You’re meeting the Emperor of Japan! He’s representing Japan and Obama’s representing America!

It’s a meeting of two people representing their countries. Are you seriously going to just stand there all stiff upper back with your pride and say, “Oh, this shows we’re not weak because we don’t bow and we’re not overly-deferential”? What the hell? I just don’t get it.

If you go to a foreign country you follow their customs and respect their ways. It’s as simple as that. And Obama was polite, respectful, and diplomatic. And that’s that.

That’s Gee, my cute little bear from China, modelling the beret. He looks so cute wearing it, if not a little more than metrosexual. It’s totally meant for a girl. But Gee’s still cute anyway!

Closeup of the sides with braids

Ain’t it pretty? And now I’m working on bday girl’s Christmas present. What with all the deadlines swarming me already, I have to start things early just to end on time!

Needles: 6.5mm
Yarn: Moda Vera Flirt in Turquoise
Pattern: Beret Recipe by Through the Loops!

Started: 16 October 2009
Finished: 17 October 2009

Mods: Cut out 9 strands of yarn to make a 3-way braid. Diameter of hat increased till (KFB, K12)* rep.

And that’s it for now! I foresee lesser updates, at least until the month is through. School’s started and it’s going to be such a chore, if not for the fact that I love school.

By the way, Nanowrimo’s about to start! Anyone joining?

The most shocking thing (so far) that everyone knows and is still talking about would be the death of Michael Jackson, our dearly beloved King of Pop. I woke up on Thursday morning, stumbled out of my bed only to hear that MJ was dead. It’s really sad.

Taken from Final Photos of Michael Jackson

And soon after that we get a flurry of news articles from everyone and everywhere, paying tributes to him or writing up articles about his (failed) life or speculating on the cause of his death. It ranges from him already sickened by a lung disease with only 6 months left to live (thus the masks and wheelchair) to overdosing accidentally while trying to get out of the 50-date concert tour that was supposed to have happened this July to underlying psychological trauma and having not ‘outed’ himself from the closet. And then we get news of at least a dozen of MJ’s fans reportedly killing themselves.

It just makes me go a little boggle eyed. o.O

And on the blogosphere radar, a trashy gossip blog popped up a little over a week ago, proclaiming herself as the Gossip Girl of my school. (I’m not linking the site. You can go google if you really, really want to read it.)

My school’s abuzzing with this site: People are slamming the blog for her atrocious use of the English language, incredibly hurtful information about sexual activities between parties who were eventually identified (!!! I just checked and there are no more names, must have been edited !!!), and the principle of the blog in general.

All I can think is: You’re screwed, dude.

Speaking from personal experience, I’ve sort of been through this as well. On a really small scale of just ONE post. A long long time ago, when I was still young and naive and measured happiness by the amount of page view sites on my blog, I blogged about the backstabbing issues between two parties (in my defense, I really did hear them hypocrites backstab and then act nice in front of one another but it’s over now so lalala) and, well… They ganged up and went to the teacher-in-charge of the Student Council and tried to get me kicked out of running for President. They even printed out the damned blog post to show it to Mr TT. Thankfully, though, they forgot about it after I apologised and I was elected as President.

Point is: Back then I thought I knew what I was doing and I remembered the thrill that rushed through me. I sucked at social interaction and I thought Xiaxue (XX) was cool. I thought that following XX’s example would, somehow, make me cooler. I was pretty desperate in wanting to be known/remembered; I wanted to matter, I wanted to be someone of importance and all that, someone whom people follow and all that. I thought there might be consequences, but I thought I was making a point about hypocrisy, as well as doing the public a service in pointing out their character flaws.

See? Thinking wasn’t really my forte back then. Hindsight is really 20-20.

But speaking seriously. Who likes having their dirty laundry aired in public? Not me, that’s for sure. And most definitely them, either. I’ve learnt from it now, though. Whatever thoughts I have now, I keep them in my head. No point blogging out all those incidences and secrets that might hurt or harm people. Plus, the fact that there were plenty of newspaper articles popping up then about secondary school students who bitched about their teachers and got punished (or something), further cemented my decision. Not to talk bad about others, that is.

So… In general, it’s pure stupidity. From the posts so far, I’m assuming whomever this person is, they know what they are doing, but they’re not realising fully the consequences of their actions. I have to admit though, that the blog sure as hell is like a guilty pleasure. It’s like watching a train wreck. It’s awful, bad, but you can’t take your eyes off it.

There are plenty of consequences with regards to her posts. Eventually, she (since it is gossip girl and not gossip boy) will be found out. The Internet is awesome, but I’m quite certain that everything you do can be tracked down, unless you have extremely advanced technology like the Autobots and the Decepticons.

1. First and most obviously, is the possible threat of expulsion that will probably ensue in non-admission into other polytechnics. I’m not certain about this, but I’ve heard that once you’ve been kicked out of poly, pretty much every other polytechnic is closed to you.
2. Secondly, with names identified as subjects of gossip in particular posts, Gossip Girl (GG) can be sued for libel. That’s incredibly stupid because now that you’ve published information about the subjects, regardless of the veracity of the information, their reputations have been affected. Even if the information is proven false, you’ve already casted aspersions on their characters.
3. Thirdly, it is literally social suicide. Everyone will shun you, spit at you, kick you while you’re down on your knees because what you’ve done has managed to anger almost all of the students in our school. (Can’t say all, since I wouldn’t know.) We are a pretty small group of media students, as compared to other schools like business or engineering.

Not only that, let’s say for example, most of us end up becoming media practitioners in Singapore since we are media students in training. We’ll all probably end working with one another. With a black mark on your name, how could people trust you with any sort of secrets and believe that you would not go back to your old ways?

So, GG, stop what you’re doing! The bloodhounds are baying, can you hear ‘em? There are people out there who are beyond pissed with the events so far, and they are chanting for your blood. This has escalated into a pretty serious issue, I’d say. If it were me, I’d shut down the blog, wipe clean the digital footsteps and hope to God or some higher power that they don’t trace me.

And finally. Did you know that two days ago, the entire floor of the HDB I stayed in was swarmed with bees? It was horrifying. Horrible, I say, horrible. And damn bloody gross. I took a video with my lovely new Canon HF S200 camera, so here’s the video.

That was around 5pm. I took another video at around 8, 9pm, and there were even more bees. It’s really gross. Do not watch while you’re eating, or be prepared to feel nauseous. I’ll upload the other video later, so that’s it for now and I’ll be back soon! Have fun and be nice.

There was a time about 2 months ago or so when I was interviewed on the streets about PDA (and which I thought they were referring to Personal Digital Assistant but really they meant Public Displays of Affection)… and I sort of found the site where the vodcast was uploaded.

Due to some sort of masochistic streak I have in me that delights (extremely) in embarrassing myself, here is the >>link<< to the video. (click on the camera icon) Please do click on it so that I can blush and then whine about how perfectly idiotic I seemed in the video with an earphone hanging out of one ear while speaking half-English and half-Chinese. In fact, you can even laugh at me!

Or not. Just kidding. At some point my masochism stopped, only to be replaced by a perfectly sarcastic attitude.

Okay. Moving on to the next topic, I have undertaken the task of cataloguing the entire folder of bookmarks of stories that I like very much. It’s going to be an insane task, but I get a perverse satisfaction from putting myself through ‘hard work’ and nitpicking at the list and pages until they look absolutely delectable. I love lists. It’s a new delight in my daily diet of ‘let’s do something incredibly tough just for the heck of it’. Oh, and you can check it out >>here<<. It’s my old blog and pretty bare at moment ’cause I deleted all of the old posts. Did I mention that I love Bulk Delete?

And the way I’m talking, I sound like I’m addicted to adverbs. If I curse there’ll happen to be words like bloody and freaking peppering the sentences; if I’m waxing lyrical like I am now I’ll go something like:

intones in dry, sarcastic tone of Snape

“You are an incredibly stupid imbecile. I simply cannot fanthom how impossibly small your brain must be for you to make such a monumental mistake out of a perfectly simple task. You must have been excessively malnutritioned for your hand-eye coordination to be this bad… Blah blah blah insult parentage brains relatives choices blah blah blah.”

In fact, there’s even a >>Severitus!fanart<< where Snape spouts out a whole chunk of insult like a never-ending fountain. It was pretty hilarious, since in the end he was insulting himself and didn’t realise it. I find it incredibly funny when people don’t get that they’re being mocked or insulted at. It’s insanely perverse, yes. (Severitus = Snape’s Harry’s dad. It’s an alternate universe people like to live in sometimes.)

And speaking of fanart, here is another you simply must read. It’s tha best. (click on the image to go to the link)

*dies laughing*

Words: 100
Summary: A HP/DM drabble inspired by Linkin Park’s ‘Leave Out All The Rest’. Awesome song. Draco wakes up thinking of the boy he loves and is unable to forget.

Here’s the link: 5 Years

I would appreciate it if you could leave a short review!
I’d ask for the rest of my other stories too but I’m not going to be greedy… Just yet.

I couldn’t sleep, no matter what I did. It drove me nuts and now I’m bleary eyed and I’m quite certain that my eyelids are going to shrivel up and die on me just when I need them most. *yawns* I got a lot of thinking done, though.

And writing, during the weekend. It all started with a small idea, but then grew into an entirely different kind. It’s kinda odd, seeing how the plot was charted out. I’m calling it ‘Just Us’, for the moment, based on a song that I really like a lot. The song’s the same name, Just Us, by Mia Rose.

I still find it really weird how the story practically wrote itself. Well, the bare minimums, at least. Coming up with the idea is fine. And now I have scenes and chapters to expand on and it’s kinda… freaking me out.

Over the weekend I also tried a couple of new programs, like OneNote and yWriter. Ok, so I’m a Mac user, but I’m darn glad that I installed Windows on my poor Macbook, because it allows me to use those particular programs. OneNote was the spark that led to my current affair with JU (Just Us – I’m going to be talking a lot about it for the next few weeks, at least and I’m lazy and I refuse to type out the extra letters and you can’t do anything about it. =P)

I usually dislike intensely anything to do with Windows, seeing how I have to patch up the older computer with all sorts of stuff as bugs just infest it. (I’m the IT girl/repair girl/know-it-all in the house. Sucks for me.) The new computer’s juuuust lovely. The screen is huge, and it has great speakers for when playing Audi! But I digress.

OneNote is like a digital notebook that MS created. The idea is that you can collect/store (?) information like the way you do in a notebook, only digitally. So you can have multiple notebooks, with section dividers, and pages in each section. Also, you can click anywhere and just start typing, just like a notebook. There’s other stuff too (like password-locking sections), but basically: it’s a digital notebook.

As you can see, I have visual inspiration to keep me inspired to write. You’re lucky you’re seeing these mild ones… I used to have *AHEM* a picture of a very HOT D.R. gracing that current page. All very drool worthy, I assure you.

The other program I used is yWriter. I remember stumbling across it as I looked for an e-book reader, and a recent brush with the site made me check out the other programs available on the site there. And there I found… yWriter. *cue heavenly angels singing*

It’s a note: FREE!!! program that helps to break down your story into little pieces so you can make sense of it. That’s if you’ve managed to get the entire story down, usually in Word. And I know (I can’t say for you) how freaking hard it is to expand on certain scenes. I start to write and then lose track or the file gets so huge that it lags when I scroll up and down. To quote a classmate, it’s “irri-noying”.

So, the beauty of it is that in your project (story), you can create multiple chapters and as you work in one chapter, edit it and fill it with scenes and stuff. There’s a daily word count target (if you’re those people who love breaking targets), a dictionary (but you gotta install it) and back up stuff. It’s nice too ’cause it has stuff like Characters, Locations, and even Items. I’m not too sure what Items is for, but I think it might be useful if you were working with magical items, etc. and need to keep track of where it’s been. I guess.

What’s also really cool is that there is a storyboard feature in it! You can move the scenes around on the different characters and stuff.

And so… All I have to do now is break my little story into pieces and then work on them.

Question is, which one do I work on first?

Words: 242
Summary: As the title says, living in fear.
Author’s note: I’m in some sort of funky mood nowadays since I seem to be churning out hurt and angst by the dish load. Thankfully they’re short and straight to the point.

Slap. Thud. Boom.

It was happening all over again. She ran into her room, and quickly turned on her music player, hoping to tune out the sounds of flesh hitting flesh, grunts of pain as the woman fell to the ground, her nose probably bleeding again, and another bruise on her already blackened eye. She turned the knob to the loudest volume, but the music was never loud enough. Never loud enough to take her into another world. Away from the nightmare she lived in.

Another world, another lifetime, where such things never happened. How she longed for those days. Outside, something shattered. She shuddered, thinking of her mother falling onto a glass-littered ground. Taking out those glass shards would be extremely painful. How long could her mother take this? She wanted to run out, to help, to protect, to do something. The urge was so strong she jerked herself backwards when she saw her feet moving on their own. NO! She screamed at herself. She knew what would happen if she did something. It would only make things worse. She locked her door, just in case. Sometimes the beatings ended up in her room. She still had the bruises to prove it. She quickly scrambled to her bed, and hid under her covers. Outside, the beatings continued. She shook in fear.

Boom. Slap. Thud.

And then, silence.

It was a while later when she heard someone crying.
And a long while later before she realised it was her.

I’ve had it since the book was first released and although I don’t know why I didn’t read it earlier, I remember being not really interested in reading stories in the first person point of view, especially having read the insaneness that Bella had to go through when Edward left her. It was waaay too much angst for me, and living in another’s person head was not what I wanted. Especially since living in my own head is sometimes hard enough as a task itself. Why would I want to go through another’s turmoil when I had my own personal hell to torment myself with?

*snickers*

But the story was pretty great. It was really interesting to see how the story unfolded, because I already had a vague – okay, make that – clear idea of what to expect since I stupidly, accidentally read the summary while looking for something that wasn’t even related to it! Darn. It just irks me, knowing what the story is already before reading it myself.

If you’ve haven’t read the book, don’t click on. Spoilers galore ahead. But if you have, click on!

Notes: Just my thoughts – more like ramblings, really.

It’s been a long time since I first read the first 3 books, and unfortunately, my memory of what happened is extremely hazy, ‘specially since it was through weak human eyes and a weak memory. (Get that? Like when Bella was a newborn and recalling her human memories, yup that.) But I remembered enough stuff like James, the psycho hunter, the vengeful Victoria, baseball games, Edward leaving, Bella going nuts, falling in love with poor Jacob, the evil Italian vamps, and oh yeah, the engagement.

So the book started with the engagement issue, and obviously the wedding went through without a hitch, except for Jacob, still hurt and all, who had a little episode with Bella. It then proceeded to the honeymoon, and since I already knew that Bella would have gotten pregnant, I was pretty curious to see how Stephanie Meyers would approach the issue of sex. I feel that there was much implying done, and poetic words thrown around to explain sex and all. Not bad, actually. There really wasn’t much sex and sexual stuff, so the story would be alright for teens, I guess. One part of me had actually been anticipating a nice steamy, romance novel scene, thought. *grins*

Juuuuust joking.

At some points I wanted to beat up Edward though, when after a nice happy bout of *ahem* he had to go screw up Bella’s happy. That man seriously takes waaay too much guilt upon his shoulders. Sometimes it felt like I wish he could read Bella’s mind and understand that she loves him, and STOP FREAKING OUT! Urg. What an idiot. Oh, and did I mention that I think it’s funny that Edward was a… er, innocent too? And seriously. Destroying the headboards? Poor pillows. (If you don’t understand, reread that chapter!) And Emmet making all those funny comments when they came back about destroying houses and cottages during their throes of er, passion, made me grin like Cheshire Cat; if I knew Em in real life, I bet I’d make those kinda comments too, just to see Bella embarrassed. Hee. I’d definitely gang up with Em and be an evil teasing sister. It’d just be too funny teasing Bella.

I was also curious as to how a human-vamp pregnancy would be like. I haven’t come across such a case from all the stories I’ve read (and I’ve read a darn lot too) and I wasn’t too sure what to expect. What should one even expect? I liked the way Stephanie had written the story, and I think it’s pretty interesting to read about Bella’s failing health as her stomach grew bigger. I usually could figure ahead of plots, but I couldn’t guess it this time, even though it should have been pretty obvious. Symptoms like vampire skin on the stomach? Unable to do ultra scans? Drinking blood ‘cos of the baby? Cool. And Edward’s at-first-hatred for the baby was unexpected. I would have thought that he would have welcomed a continued lineage, but I didn’t expect that his love for Bella was so… consuming. So much so that he would be willing to kill his own child, and even let Bella have all the kids she want, even if it means she would have to do that with Jacob. Can someone tell me where to find a man like that? Can an ad be placed for someone like that? Reciprocated, devoted love, like an inextinguishable fire. Amazing, really.

But it was really cool too, when Edward heard the thoughts of their child. I did not expect that. I guess that’s just one of the benefits of having gifts unlike that of a weak, pathetic mortal human. *grins* Ah, my mortal soul, too weak to wreck havoc upon mankind unlike Bella (when undead) who could crush a big lumpy boulder. On a serious tone, when it was time for Bella to deliver, it was heart accelerating for me. I liked that part very much. While reading, I was very worried that Bella would die, even though I knew that she’d live… as an undead. Poor Jacob’s and Edward’s obvious panic was palpable, and when Jacob thought she was dead, even I thought she was dead too (at which the other part of my brain feels that it must declare that it – oh intelligent one – knew that she wouldn’t die, the blasted thing).

As I read on, there were some extremely hilarious parts too. Like when Jacob was conversing with his Beta, Leah (after separating from Sam’s pack) about Seth’s mental intelligence and how their Mom dropped him on his head way too often, and the snide comment about him having chewed the lead paint off the crib was funny, too! Oh, and Bella’s anger rage annoyance? at Jacob’s nickname Nessie for Renesmee was funny! It was hilarious when Bella growled (I think) “You named my baby after the Loch Ness monster?” Heh. Poor Jacob… Or not.

The confrontation with the Volturi was confusing, however. There was just too much information to absorb, and all the vampires who came to witness for Renesmee were overwhelming. I managed to get my head around all these different characters after a while, but as I said, it took a while. I had to put down the book, think about the story, before forging on. Bella’s shielding gift was really awesome, too. I liked how Stephanie wrote it such that Bella gained strength from wanting to protect her daughter, and the idea of a shield was good. Mostly, though, during this scene (the confrontation) I just wanted to smack all their heads. Some parts felt a little too slow, in my opinion.

When Alice came back it was a surprise. (Again, should have seen this but today I seem to be slow in my mental faculties). I didn’t expect it, although I should have, and the introduction of I liked the idea of Renesmee not being the only weird human/vamp kid around. And at the ending when Bella shared her thoughts with Edward (finally!), it was a nice touch. I feel like I should also have seen this too, but… what the heck. If I couldn’t have foreseen them, even though there were all the clues there, it means that Stephanie Meyers was really good at weaving her tale.

So… I suppose, all in all, this book was a good read. A little long, but not of a length I haven’t seen and conquered before. I wished there’d been more action, though. Finishing a book in 4 or 5 hours… Not too bad at all. I’d give this book a six out of ten.

Aaaand all that’s left to do now is go dig up the other 3 books, and reread them during this holiday break of three weeks. Shouldn’t take me what, a few days? Heh. And I guess that’s it for now.