Sunday Post

Let's chat about what's going on this week... on my blog.. on other blogs... on the internet... and just everywhere!    I link up my post to Sunday Post and Stacking the Shelves.

I was busy last weekend and a little behind on visiting blogs.  I went to Kansas City for the NASCAR race.  While there I visited the Kansas City Library and boy was it an amazing sight!  I loved the building.  It is painted to look like books!

 
I am getting excited to see my blog makeover. OK... well I am not scheduled until mid June... so I have about a month to wait.  But it's still fun. 

On the Blog:
-Does One Post Get All the Views????  I have this issue and am wondering what to do.
-Titanfall- Video Game Review
- Bout of Books 10- Updates and Challenges.  I love this readathon!
-There is a new  Project Disney - Hercules I love Hercules sooooo much... but comparing myth to movie was not easy!
-I talk about the new Godzilla- Movie Review .

Around the Blogospere:
- Does the sun yellow the pages of your books?  (plus you need to see this bookshelf)
- Eastern Sunset talks about never ending series. 
- We are having a great discussion about diverse books in my Young Adult book club on goodreads. Would you care to comment and also give your opinion over there??  There is a good debate on whether or not we NEED diverse books.
-This post is great about what is happening to the blogging community.  What is it with these bloggers lately who think they are elite and don't have to comment on other bloggers blogs or even comment on their own blog?
-Clean Reading... do you have issues with swear words in books?? The comments on this post are great!

Internet:
This guy's life!!  I want!


Twitter:
OK I totally tweeted Jackson Galaxy on Twitter and he messaged me back.  If you don't know who that is he hosts the show My Cat From Hell and wrote the book Cat Daddy (go read this book!!)  He tried to get cats in their forever homes.  Anyways... He messed me back.  Though I think it might be and automatic reply who cares right???

Books Books Books:
This week I did get Dreams of Gods and Monsters which I will be starting this week!  So excited! I also downloaded the audio book of the Golem and the Jinni so we'll see how that goes since I am not a fan of audio books.

Godzilla- Movie Review

Godzilla 2014

Oh Godzilla.... why!!   I wasn't going to write a review about Godzilla but my fellow movie blogger Whoa This is Heavy inspired me to do so. This movie... I had such high hopes from it from the trailer.  I spent $15 to see this in IMAX.  $15!!  I was sooo bored.   This movie spends way too much time on story.  Last I checked this movie was Godzilla.. GODZILLA.  We want to see monsters.  Unfortunately this movie doesn't actually show monsters till the end of the film.  I should've heeded some guy's warning who came flying out of the theater from the showing before mine telling us all it sucked so bad.  He put his 3D glasses in the bin and left, before the film was finished.  Mind you I didn't think it was so bad that I would skip the ending. 

The CGI in the film is of course great.  Godzilla looked scary and huge.  He was pretty amazing.  After reading other reviews.. the same thoughts came to my mind at the end of the film that I saw others have.  I kept thinking about Pacific Rim.  What an amazing monster movie that was.  SOOOO great.  So when this film was over I thought.. oh man Pacific Rim was way better then that.  I wish I was watching Pacific Rim....Charlie Hunnam... focus.  I just couldn't help compare the two.   

Let's chat about the plot.  Spoilers are coming if you care (which you shouldn't since you know.. boring).  I was confused.  Why did the military want to set off the nuke... then they did set it off... then all of a sudden go back and want to turn it off??? Like within 10 minutes of all those choices??  WHAT!  Then... we watch all these trailers and the most interesting character Brian Cranston gets killed off so fast.  I mean... eh?  

Look... this movie is a rental and not even that.  What for it to come on TBS or something next year.  

I give this movie a C.

Project Disney - Hercules

Project Disney: The plan is to tackle all of the Disney films, re-reading the classic stories and tales that inspired many of them and to look at how the changes the filmmakers made, the new elements they introduced and the essential elements they kept. We will, of course, be talking about the films as movies as well, saying why we enjoy them and what some of our favorite moments are, but our focus will be on looking at them as adaptations. For the films that are not drawn from any one work we’ll be looking at some of the possible literary influences that we see in the stories. I am participating in Project Disney inspired by Picture Me Reading!  

I have been waiting for Hercules on Project Disney forever!  This is one of my all time favorite Disney movies.  I will say though that this movie was harder to pinpoint the origin story for the film.  Hercules is apart of Greek Mythology, so there are a lot of stories and books that have to do with his background.  The movie of course doesn't just focus on the Hercules myth either... it includes the muses, Pegasus, Megara,  and lots of mythological monsters.  I know all the songs for this movie, and I of course watched the Hercules cartoon series on Disney channel.  I loved that show so much.. it explored way more mythology then the movie. For this Project Disney I read : Edith Hamilton Mythology and Don't Know Much about Mythology. Plus a lot of internet research.

The movie mainly follows Hercules from his birth to adulthood.  Hades discovers that Hercules will someday prevent Hades from taking over the world. So Hades makes it his mission to take away Hercules immortality.  Hades sends Hercules a drink to do this but Hercules leaves one last drop. Hercules is not allowed in Olympus anymore unless he can prove himself a true hero. Hercules is trained by Phil and falls in love with Meg. Eventually Hercules is able to prove he is a hero by saving Meg and is allowed on Olympus. So since this movie is totally not like the myths I thought we could compare the myth to movie.  I will try to talk about the myths as they appear in the movie.

The beginning of the movie has the Muses are telling us the story of Hercules.  The Muses sing gospel songs to us and just seem to love Hercules. The Muses in Greek mythology are actually daughters of Zeus. There are 9 of them and they aren't really friendly to humans... nor do they have anything to do with Hercules in mythology.

Next up Hercules is revealed to be a demi-god born to Hera and Zeus.  In the movie he is the only child of Zeus and when Hades sends his minions Pain and Panic to poison Hercules.  While they are doing this Amphitryon and his wife Alcmene walk up on them and find the baby Hercules.  They have been wanting a baby for a long time so they adopt him. In the myths Zeus actually sleeps with Alcmene and she becomes pregnant.  Zeus actually appears to her looking like her husband so she had no idea. Zeus sleeps with a lot of women and Hera is very unhappy about this (Zeus and Hera are brother and sister). Hercules is also a twin, his brother's name is Iphicles.

Next up we meet Hades.  I love love Hades in the Disney movie.  His attitude is fabulous and to be honest I think he is funny.  In the original versions Hades is actually not a scary guy (not like how Christians think of the Devil).  The Greeks think of him as just another god trying to take care of the dead in the underworld.

Hercules is first seen in the film as a young man who goes out and finds a satyr Phil to help him train for the obstacles he must go through to be allowed back in Olympus. OK as for the myth.  The reasons he ends up doing his ten famous tasks is a long story. He kills a lion that has been bothering the town of Thebes and then the king there allows him to bed his daughters.  Hercules ends up with 50 children from this!!! Hercules continues to help the town of Thebes and Hera becomes jealous of his accomplishments so she drives him mad.  He kills two of his children (at this time he is married to Megara and it's 2 of his children with her).  He goes to see the Delphi Oracle and discovers that if he completes ten tasks for Eurystheus he will be immortal again and allowed in Olympus.

Pegasus.. who doesn't love that horse in the movie.  I love how buddy buddy he and Hercules are.  So cute.  The real story of Pegasus does not have him coming from a cloud, rather he comes from the blood from Medusa's head when Perseus chopped it off. Also... Poseidon's son is the person who rides and tames Pegasus.  Earlier I mentioned Phil or Philoctetes.  In the movie he is satyr and trains Hercules.  In the myth Philoctetes does actually meet Hercules but not until the end of Hercules story.  Philoctetes is actually human and meets Hercules as he is dying.  Philoctetes lights Hercules funeral pyre.

Let's chat about Megara now. In the film Megara is seen trying to get Nessus the centaur to join in the Underworld for Hades.  In the scene Hercules sees her and saves her, which is how Hades finds out Hercules is still alive.  Megara has sold her soul to Hades to save her ex-boyfriend. So she pretty much has to do what Hades says.  Hades now hires her to lure Hercules into traps.  In the original myth Hercules murders their kids so he marries Megara off to his cousin. This is really the only time she is in the myth. Nessus on the other hand plays a huge part in the story of Hercules. Nessus steals Hercules second wife and Hercules of course beats him down because of it.  While dying Nessus gives Hercule's wife a potion to give to Hercules if Hercules does anything to hurt her.  She gives Hercules the potion when she thinks he is having an affair and it burns Hercules so bad he rips off his own skin and lays dying.

Hercules' 12 tasks (they become 12 because he supposedly cheats on two of them)  are pretty much just shown in a montage in the Disney film. We do see the Hydra of Lerna but Hercules defeats it in a different way. He gets help from his cousin who burns the necks after the heads have been chopped. The big battle at the end of the movie with the gods and Hercules battling the Titans is fun to watch.  In the film after the battle Hercules decides to stay on Earth with Megara since she can't enter Olympus.  In the myth Hercules goes to Olympus after he dies.

As you can see... Hercules has a lot going on.  I love the film though.. the music in this film is some of my favorite.  The Michael Bolton "Go the Distance" song is just amazing.  The film and the myth are so completely different this time around in Project Disney but I had fun comparing the two.  There really is a lot more information that I didn't include in this post since it was already getting so long.  I recommend you go out and read more information on Hercules.  His story is just fascinating.





Be sure to check out my other Project Disney:
Snow White
Cinderella
Peter Pan
Treasure Planet
Sleeping Beauty
The Great Mouse Detective 
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
The Princess and the Frog
Pinocchio 
Fantasia 
Beauty and the Beast
Lady and the Tramp
Alice in Wonderland
The Rescuers
The Rescuers Down Under
Tangled
Oliver and Company
Mulan
The Little Mermaid
Bambi
101 Dalmatians
Frozen
Fantasia 2000
The Jungle Book
The Emperor's New Groove
The Sword in the Stone
Aladdin
Atlantis
The Aristocats
The Lion King
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977)
Winnie the Pooh (2011)
Robin Hood
Pocahontas
Dumbo
The Black Cauldron
Mary Poppins
Lilo and Stitch  
The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad
Make Mine Music
Tarzan 
Melody Time

Titanfall- Video Game Review

Titanfall

I recently purchased the Xbox One for the game Titanfall.  I was going to wait to buy it but when the game came out and everyone was excited I jumped in.  It's too bad that I don't love the game.  It is a first person shooter game with the added bonus of a huge robot (Titan) that spawns after about 2 minutes of game play.  You can either jump in the Titan and use it to fight or have the Titan follow you and fight with you.

My least favorite part of the game is the campaign. You cannot play this game solo, or off the internet. You must be signed in to Xbox Gold. This isn't a problem for me since I have Gold but for others this could be a problem. Also, the campaign is so confusing. I still haven't played it from start to finish. You can barley hear the dialog since you are in the middle of a battle the whole story. I haven't been able to start the game from level 1 either. I have to start where the last person playing last off... so if someone in your household was playing and got to level 6 you have to start there.

The multiplayer can be a lot of fun though with friends playing.  You can team up and jump and ride on each other's Titans. There is a large amount of game play types... capture the flag, territories.  I do enjoy that. The mic on the Xbox One though is sometimes screwy.  I have spent forever trying to get the party chat to sync up.  Really Xbox needs to fix that.  It will just take time though to get used to navigating the new Xbox dashboard.

I was able to get this game for free with my Xbox One purchase.  I like it but don't love it and just can't see it staying popular as a multiplayer only.  I also question what will happen when there aren't very many players playing anymore?  Will NPCs be put in instead?  Since you can't play a solo campaign I think eventually the game just won't be sucessful in a year from now.  6 out of 10

Does One Post Get All the Views?

Every now and then I check my stats on google analytics.  Probably just like all of you.  For me though... I have certain posts that get tons of views.  My Project Disney posts.  Now I am not bothered by this... but I wonder if those readers go on to read the rest of my blog?  Project Disney is such a specific subject.. I read the source material for the movie and then compare book to movie.

I often wonder if other bloggers have a post that has kind of gone what we will call "viral" on their blog.  What is that post about?  I do think some of the hits on my Disney posts come from Pinterest.  Where people could possibly just been clicking for the picture itself. I try to find ways to entice these readers to go to other places on my blog.  I have read blogger tips that say to look at your most popular posts and use those posts to get people to stay on your blog.

What do you do on posts to keep people around?  Do you do anything special for this? Of course getting people to your blog is easy, but getting them to follow and stick around is a whole different ball game. I am using linkwithin (which looks funny now as I get a blog makeover), I link up to links that I think are relevant to the post, I do try to get people to bounce around.  What do you think?  Oh and I just had to throw some Archer gifs in this post ... they have nothing to do with anything!

Sunday Post

Let's chat about what's going on this week... on my blog.. on other blogs... on the internet... and just everywhere!    I link up my post to Sunday Post and Stacking the Shelves.


On the Blog:
-May 4th is Star Wars Day:  May the 4th Be With You- Star Wars Pop Up Review
-I talk about the new Spiderman 2 movie and what I thought of it.
-Top Ten Book Covers Framed As Art  this was so fun to me!  I love art so fantastic covers are totally my thing.
-I review Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz
-I post another  Comic Adventures Issue #10 ... I talk about the terrible comic Age of Ultron.. I can't believe the next Marvel movie is going to be based off this comic!

Around the Blogospere:
- Kelley at Oh the Books talks about Benefits of Reading YA as an Adult.
-Feed Me Books now talks about what you do when a series ends. 
-Great Imaginations shares their Burn Book where they talks about 50 bloggers that they love! 

Internet:
The new show Gotham comes out soon....please please be good!!!

Books Books Books.
Gaw I am so behind on reading.  Next week is Bout of Books though so I should be able to kick it in gear.  I have been playing video games at night instead of reading so that doesn't help me stay caught up either!!   I have been researching Hercules and Pocahontas for my next Project Disneys coming up.  Too bad neither have just one book they are based off of! Any recommendations for these two people's biographies or mythology books???

Bout of Books 10- Updates and Challenges

I am going to participate again in this read-a-thon!  I really need to get caught up on some books andwhen I saw others participating in it I knew it was perfect for me.  It starts on the 12th!

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, May 12th and runs through Sunday, May 18th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure, and the only reading competition is between you and your usual number of books read in a week. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 10.0 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog.

Don't forget to use the #boutofbooks hashtag when updating on Twitter and follow boutofbooks.
I will be updating my progress here on my webpage and on my my twitter page. 
I will only be updating to this page so check back here. I also will be doing my challenges on this link so scroll down to the bottom to see them!

Oh and I am an expert this time around so I really hope I get to stop by your blog and see how you are doing!

Time Devoted to Reading
 I would like to try to read 2 hours a day at least.

 My Goals:

I would like to participate in a twitter chat.  I participated in one last time around and it was a lot of fun and a GREAT place to get advice from other people.   

Books I want to read:  I have a few ARCs of comics and I need to get those read!  
The ones with no titles are Batman vol 4, and Damian Son of Batman

Updates

Monday
Number of books I've read today:0
Name of book:  The Selected Works of TS Spivet
Total number of books I've read:0
Number of hours read: 2 1/2.  I was on a road trip back home from Kansas so I got to read in the car.
What else I did: Since I was gone all weekend I am trying to catch up on blog posts and visit blogs since I am an expert and want to go out and cheer everyone on.  I am also catching up on my own blog posts and the challenges.

Tuesday

Number of books I've read today: 0
Total number of books I've read:0
Name of Book: The Selected Works of TS Spivet
 Number of Hours I've read: 2 hours
 What else I did: I may have done more reading... if I had brought a book to the DR. with me this morning.  I went for labs expecting to me in and out and then when I got there my labs weren't in the system so I waited an hour.  I know better then to not bring a book with me everywhere!!!

Wednesday

Number of books I've read today:Still on the same book
 Total number of books I've read:
 Books: The Selected Works of TS Spivet
Number of Hours I've Read:  Maybe like 30-40 minutes
What else I did:  I watched 3 season finales of shows.. Arrow, Once Upon a Time, and Agents of Shield so that backed up my reading.  Then I hosted a twitter chat for the Clean Sweep ARC Challenge I am hosting. Though it seemed to me that the people participating didn't realize I was a host... and that only Kimba was a host.  That was awkward.  Then I went to jump into the Bout of Books twitter party but didn't end up saying anything.  Last two times I participated I felt like my posts were just lost in the crowd so I just read other posts.  Plus I had probably spammed my followers enough tonight with twitter chat!  LOL!  As an expert I have been visiting a lot of blogs.

Thursday

Number of books I've read today: 1
Total number of books I've read: 1
 Books: The Selected Works of TS Spivet
Number of Hours I've Read: 2 hours?
What else I did: I just couldn't finish the book I was reading.  I had to mark it as a DNF.  I tried to read it and love it but it just didn't work for me and I didn't want to spend anymore time on it.  I feel so guilty for quitting but I just was really struggling with it.  It was making my readathon go really slow too.  I wrote the review and it will up on Monday.

Friday

Number of books I've read today: 0
Total number of books I've read:
Books:
Number of Hours I've Read:
What else I did:

Saturday

Number of books I've read today:
Total number of books I've read:
Books:
Number of Hours I Read: 
What else I did:

Sunday

Number of books I've read today:
Total number of books I've read:
Books:
Number of hours I read: 
What else I did: Not sure if I will do anything today because it's playoffs and the Denver Broncos are playing!

Challenges/Giveaways

Monday 5/12
If you like X, try Y -- The Book Barbies

If you like unique books with another story in the margins try The Selected Works of TS Spivet! #boutofbooks @reiflarsen
— Angie (@kingmod) May 13, 2014

Tuesday 5/13
Bookish Battle Royal -- My Life in Books

1. Choose three or more fictional characters as combatants – they can be haphazardly picked or themed (for example, I went with badass classic literature protagonists)
2. List three strengths and weakness for each contender (feel free to skip this step if you’re using social media to participate in Bout of Books i.e. Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads…)
3. Determine who would come out victorious and give a little explanation why you think they would win – get creative with the outcomes!
4. Link in the comments and if you tweet about this challenge make sure to use the hashtag #bookbattleroyal in addition to #boutofbooks because I want to see all your dueling characters!

Ok this challenge seems fun so I am totally in! I thought I would pick Stephen King chacters:

#1 Danny from the Shining by Stephen King
Weakness: young boy, trapped in hotel with abusive father,
Strength: Can read minds,

 #2 Roland from the Dark Tower by Stephen King
Weakness: Detached, Unsympathetic, scarred from death of friends and family,
Strength: Gunslinger, Loyal,

#3 Randal Flagg from Stephen King books
Weakness: Has to follow Crimson King, sometimes appears to be just some kind of trickster
Strength: Appears in many different incarnations,

I think that with Danny being able to see into people's minds he would be able to see what the others would do in a fight before it happens.  Roland would probably protect Danny from Flagg throughout the fight. While Flagg has always been an enemy against Roland through all time. Roland would eventually win because Flagg would probably disappear into another time. 

Books You're Looking Forward To -- River City Reading

Wednesday 5/14
Book Pairings -- My Overstuffed Shelves

Thursday 5/15
Spell It Out Challenge -- kimberlyfaye reads

I love these (when they aren't poetry!)  Here is my name Angie

Friday 5/16
Cover Scavenger Hunt -- Book Monsters
Rainbow Book Challenge -- Neon Yeti Reads

Saturday 5/17
Show an Author Some Love -- Doing Dewey

Sunday 5/18
Retitle Your Current Read -- Oh Magic Hour


Twitter Chats
(chats last approximately one hour)
TZC = Time Zone Conversion

Monday: 1pm CST (TZC)
Wednesday: 8pm CST (TZC)
Saturday: 10am CST (TZC)