SPOILERS WARNING

Well, over all I was really pleased. I had some disappointments but one of my biggest fears was the acting of Dakota Blue Richards – I feared with another “unknown” we’d have a repeat of Daniel Radcliffe – but I thought she did really well, especially considering her age and lack of experience. I still don’t like Nicole Kidman though, I don’t know why but it’s like I can just tell she’s acting.

I saw the movie with 3 people who haven’t read the books and they all really enjoyed it too. My husband says he liked it more than any of the Harry Potter movies and now wants to read the books. He says it was more sophisticated than Harry Potter but doesn’t understand where all the controversey is coming from (I then explained the controversial parts are mainly in the last book). The only thing he felt they didn’t explain very well was why/how Lyra was living at the college.

One of the annoyances is that I could tell the only reason it’s rated PG-13 in the States is because of the ONE line where Serafina refers to her “former lover”. I know young kids won’t understand the depth of the story but I think it could still be enjoyable to them as a fantasy adventure – but they had to alienate that age group to put in ONE line.

My other disappointments:

1. The amount of scenes in the trailer that were cut from the movie. I understand cutting scenes is a normal process but don’t put scenes in the trailer if you think they might be cut! They manage it with other movies, why not this one? I hate seeing trailers and looking forward to seeing more of certain scenes and then realizing the scene has been cut. I was especially looking forward to the scene where Lyra screams “I’m not yours! I’ll never be yours!” which looks like it should have been the ending scene where the she’s about to go into the next world. Even though cutting the end off early took me by surprise and I was disappointed because I really wanted to see that scene, I understood why they did it. My husband felt the movie ended at just the right place and if they don’t edit it to please the viewers who haven’t read the book, they’ll just get criticized for that. It’s a damned if they do, damned if they don’t situation. So I was disappointed but I do understand their reasoning. I just hope that scene is in the beginning of the next movie!

2. I felt like they kind of brushed over the horror of losing one’s Daemon. I remember in the books, seeing the boy without a Daemon is so horrific, it’s almost sickening. But I don’t think they portrayed the strength of the horror in the movie. It was so fast paced that they rushed over it. And when Ma Costa says “we’ll get your daemon back” – I thought that really misrepresented the concept of daemons to the non-book readers.

But everything else about it was great – the CGI was amazing and just the imagary in general too was really beautiful. Overall I thought they did a fantastic job bringing the book to life. They must face all sorts of criticizism whenever they make a movie from a book but I really enjoyed it.

It’s a bit like a modern PacMan in that the goal is merely to eat as much “stuff” as possible without running into/getting eaten by other “things”. It’s a game with organisms floating and swimming in water and each time your own organism eats something, it evolves (gets larger and more complex). There are other organisms which can harm you or seemingly eat parts of your organism and therefore de-evolve you. You conquer them by eating them before they can get to you – after a few bites in the right places, they break apart into simple and harmless organisms which you can then chomp up to evolve further. As you evolve, the water/background changes color/gets darker and the organisms become more complex. The imagery is beautiful and the tilt control works really well to make it easier to move around. It’s not fast action or hugely challenging but strangely addictive!

I’ve seen him live twice now and he’s really good. Anyone who has the chance to see his stand up, I highly recommend it.

If you’re looking for a clever, humorous light read, this is definitely a good option. Nothing deep or heavy, just some good entertainment with a bit of black humor and a clever mystery to uncover.

It’s not that this was a badly written book or anything. I guess I just didn’t like it because I had an idea of what Mary was like in my head and this is not her. I suppose when you have created of idea of someone in your own mind you’re only bound to be disappointed by someone else’s portrayal of them.

I am reading another one of her books and enjoying it though.

Apparently provolone is not very popular in the UK – my husband had never heard of it before he lived with me in the US. Now that I’m here in the UK, I really miss having it on my sandwiches.

Best. Cheese. Ever!

I only drink water if I’m very thirsty – it’s tasteless which I don’t enjoy. I’ll stick to juices.

And I’d just like to point out that the whole 8 glasses of water a day thing is a myth. Apparently, you usually get enough fluids from the foods you eat and the drinks you have during meals. You may need to add a couple drinks in addition to that but this only adds up to about 5 glasses a day – 8 is unnecessary especially if you’re trying to drink 8 in addition to the normal drinks you have during meals! All it’s going to do is make you pee a lot.

It’s best with semolina flour, in my opinion. Here’s a good guide: http://www.hormel.com/templates/knowledge/knowledge.asp?catitemid=15&id=540

Definitely one of the best debut albums ever.