God's Not Dead

Today I went to go see God's Not Dead.

 And let me tell you.

It



was



awesome.




I mean, AWESOME.

I loved the whole plot and everything in it. I would recommend it to anyone. It had celebrity appearances from Korie and Willie Robertson from Duck Dynasty, and the News Boys! It was funny, and serious, and it told a great message about life and God.

So, go and see it, ok? Ok.

-Maddi

New meme!

Happy Friday everyone!

As you've probably noticed, there's no Top Five Friday today. And that's because today was really busy, and also because I'm going to try something new! As you can see on the right hand of your screen, there's a poll. (and yes, I know it's kind of a bias poll, but come on, it's BATMAN) So I have decided, that every week, I will post a new poll, and I will post the results of the previous one!

Sound cool? Cool. So, make sure you vote on the poll, even if it is bias. Also, I will probably do a Top Five Friday every once and awhile still!

Feel free to end me topics for polls. :)

-Maddi

Happy Birthday, Batman!

Today is the 75th birthday to the Dark Knight!!

Let me just tell you, Batman will and always be my favorite hero. Ever. No matter what, he's the best. And the fact that he's been around for so long, and people are still making things about him, make me smile and I can say that Batman really helped me through some tough times.

Before I started writing my own books, I used to make stories up in my head, stories that involved Batman, and they were so detailed and I spent years making them in my head, they were what helped me sleep at night, and what I looked forward to at night. Without Batman, I wouldn't be where I am now. By adding my own twist on his adventures, I can write my own books.

Just watching him in Justice League, and Justice League Unlimited, and his movies and his cartoon (the newer ones) make me smile, even though he hardly ever does. And the Batfam (which is what we all call Batman and his sidekicks) are always there for each other, even though sometimes they can act up and be mean, they always end up together. And then of course, Batman and Superman, they were the foundation of heroes working together, and they're best friends, and they keep each other grounded.

Ok, ok. I'm sounding a little crazy, I know. But I love Batman.

Here's a video of all the best moments of Batman from Justice League, and Justice League Unlimited:

And here's the opening of Justice League, and JLU:

So happy birthday Batman! Never stop being so awesome and amazing.

-Maddi

SPRING BREAK + Divergent

IT'S FINALLY SPRING BREAK!!!!! And you know how some people go away for Spring Break? Well, me? I'm staying home, reading and writing. WHOOP WHOOP.  But first, I have my last drive today, and then, in May, I can get my license! YAY!

What are your plans for Spring Break??

Also, DIVERGENT. Ok, so, I hadn't read the book in a long time, so I wasn't sure how close it was to the movie, but the movie was great. Even if you totally never read the book, it's a good movie. It explains things well, and the actors were awesome! I recommend it.

How some gifs from the movie:

Let me just tell you, this scene made me cry. (last book feels you know.)

AH FOUR. Theo James was a really good Four!

I hope everyone else has a great Monday!

-Maddi

Top Five Friday: Amount of Books in a Series

This Top Five Friday is a mouth full, but what it basically is how many books I like in a series, like three, two, one, five, six. Etc. So enjoy! I'll give examples. :) 5 to 1 today! (just a note: I like writing books in these types, just not reading them)

5. Trilogies

I'm just going to come out an say it, I don't like trilogies. I have never been able to write one, a true one that is, which just three books, no novellas or short stories. If I do, there's still so much to tell, and it leaves readers hanging, and it puts a lot of pressure on the author to make sure everything is tied up and sealed at the end. For me, for example, the second book in the Divergent Trilogy, it could have been made into two books, it was huge, because there was so much in it. And for the books above, BOUNDLESS could have had more to it, I'm still wondering things.

4. Really long series, such as more than five books.

I like a lot of long series, such as the 39 Clues, but that's kind of biased, because well, they're amazing. But for example, the the Soul Screamer series by Rachel Vincent. (which I haven't read, but I'm heard of it so much) I heard about these books for years now, there's always new ones, and novellas, and short stories, and it well, makes me want to scream. And I'm pretty sure it's all about the same characters, when the 39 Clues has a different author and the characters are always different each time. But then again, if maybe have read it, I probably would have never wanted it to end.

3. Companion novels

Ok, so an example of a compain, would be this: one book is about these characters, second book has said characters from last book, just the main characters are someone else, and so on and so forth. Which is cool and all, and the author is like: Start where you want! BUT WHERE?! And the problems are usually the same in each book, just the new MC is just a bit different than the previous one.

2. Standalones

Standalones are cool! I think it's really awesome when an author can just tell one story, and have it told in one book. It's not too vast, not too confusing. And yeah, you're sad at the end, but at least everything was wrapped up!

1. Four series books, with novellas and short stories.

This is my kind of series, like four books, with little novellas and short stories thrown in there. Everything is tied up, and all the questions get asked, and you learn more and more about the characters and their backgrounds. I don't have an example for this one, because there are so many series that I enjoy! :)



What's your top five Friday? Also, almost all the books mentioned above are my favorites, and you should all read them.

-Maddi

Shoot Christians Say

Ok, I'm not making fun of anyone, (they are, obviously) because, I'm a Christian, and I can totally relate. I say of lot of this stuff, and so do my friends. Just thought you all could use a good laugh! XD

Happy Thursday! :) I'm going to a play tonight! It's going to be fun! Oh, and going to the Divergent movie with my library on Friday. I will most likely do a review of the movie, or maybe freak out about it. I hear that it's really close to the book, so yay!

-Maddi

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy Saint Patty's Day! :D

I have school, and my second drive today! (two hours with an instructor) Should be a busy Monday!

-Maddi

Mom's Surprise Graduation Party!

It has been a very exciting day!! This morning, we left early to head over to our church to help set up Mom's surprise birthday party!

We had been planning this for months, and it was very nerve racking because I like to tell my mom everything, and I wasn't able to tell her something if it led to the party. So I had to try and stay cool while planning the party.

But today, it was finally the day of the party! And it was SO much fun. I got to hang out with so many awesome people, and I got to go outside and swing on a swing set, and talk to all my cool friends. Days like these, I miss being a little kid.

I love to swing.

Anyway, I just want to thank my mom for being awesome, and finishing up college. You're awesome mom!

-Maddi

Top Five Friday: Candy

Today I'm doing my top five Friday on candy! Going 5 to 1 today!

5. Chocolate

I love chocolate, don't get me wrong. I like it WITH something, like something inside or peanut butter. But just straight chocolate, I don't like.


4. Skittles

Skittles are ok, but I prefer M&M's if I have a choice!

3. Gummy bears, or anything gummy

I love chewing on gummy things! Especially gummy Life Savers!



2. Three Musketteers and all the other candy like it

I basically like all candy with something with them. I like Kit Kats and Three Mustketeers the best out of this category.

1. Jolly Ranchers

Jolly Ranchers are my favorite candy, I like all different kinds and forms of them. They taste good, and they're good to just suck on when you don't want to eat a lot of candy. It's basically sugar and flavoring, but still good.




What's your Top 5 Friday?

-Maddi

Holy Frozen Parodies, Batman!

This is the video for all of the Frozen parodies I have found, or my sister has.

I hope you enjoyed! They're all hilarious! Happy Thursday!!

-Maddi

What is a Selfie?

Happy Hump Day! ;D

I have decided to share with my paper I wrote last week. (every week I have to write a one to two page paper on an article I pick out of World Magazine) and I picked the article about Selfies. I'm supposed to expand on it, and state my opinion on it. My mom loved it so much, she gave it to her friend who teaches at schools about these sort of things, so I'm like freaking out on the inside about it. So below, I posted it, so feel free to reeeaaadddd.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


When you think of the word ‘selfie’, what comes to mind? The dictionary description for it is: 

noun Informal.
a photograph that one takes of oneself with a digital camera or a front-facing smartphone, tablet, or webcam, especially for posting on a social-networking or photo-sharing website: selfies posted by teens on Twitter. (Dictionary.com)

It has been a word in the dictionary since 2005. Selfies have been a big deal, it’s a way for people to take pictures of themselves in front of things when they’re on a trip, or when they’re with their friends. The first selfie every taken was by an Australian man in 2002, who was drunk. He posted and titled it: “…sorry about the focus, it was a selfie.” (World Magazine). Selfie was the word of the year in 2013, it bypassed it’s competition: Showroom (verb, to examine or test a product in a store before buying online), bitcoin (n., digital currency) and twerk (a vb. We’d be happier for not encountering)

Just imagine for a second if you were back in the 1700’s. No cameras by this point, if you wanted a picture of yourself, or your family, you had to have one painted. That sometimes took days to get done. But soon, cameras were invented, but they were only for special occasions. And you never smiled in them, pictures weren’t supposed to be happy times. Years go by the camera gets easier, and easier to use, you still can’t see yourself when you take a picture and it’s printed out, but hey, it’s still a camera. By the time that a cell phone comes out, one with a camera, you can actually see yourself, and what do you do? You take pictures of yourself smiling, or doing weird poses. Or the most used: in the bathroom, in the mirror. Sometimes you send pictures to people that aren’t good, and this is when people start questioning why they even bothered to make such a thing in the first place.

The camera was invented to capture memories and happy times. Sure, you can take a picture of yourself and post it to the many social media sights you have, but they weren’t meant for that. Have you ever been on YouTube? If you go through videos, you’ll find ones with girls saying things like: “Do you think I’m pretty?”, scroll down, and you’ll most likely find comments that aren’t very flattering and are outright rude. The same with selfies, we take them and post them, in hopes that someone thinks we are pretty, and that we matter. Those girls probably didn’t know anyone who posted those rude comments about them, and yet, the girls are broken and sad because some strangers didn’t think they’re pretty. Our society is going down the drain. 
We are beautiful, and we don’t need strangers to tell us so, or even our family. God made us beautiful, He made is in our own special way, and He thinks were beautiful. He made us in His image, so if you didn’t believe me before, you’ll probably believe me now. God is the being that created the Earth, and the entire universe, He created everything, and the fact that He created us in His image, so we must be beautiful and special.

You don’t need a selfie to define who you are, just look in the mirror and you’ll see who you are, who God made you to be. You’re special, and please don’t forget it.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hope you enjoyed! I'm hoping to watch the first episode of Once Upon a Time from season 4 tonight after AWANA! :D

-Maddi

This is so not ok....

Just watch, you'll understand.

-Maddi

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Today, I am dedicating this blog post to my awesome, Dad.

My dad introduced me to Justice League, and Spiderman. He introduced me to video games and all the electronics.

He helps me with my computer problems and he does weird things that can only make me and my family laugh at.

I'm not sure what I'd do without him, I love talking about things that no one else understands, just to make the rest of them confused, and I love talking about things he doesn't understand because it's funny.

It makes me sad when he's sad, because we're so much alike. Even though we can never argue, because it's like arguing with yourself, and even though we get mad at each other a lot, it doesn't matter.

I love my daddy a lot, and words could never express how much.

LOVE YOU, DADDY!

-Maddi

Top Five Friday: Languages

Sorry this is late! Had a busy morning! Learning two languages is time consuming...

Alrighty, here we go! Going 5 to 1 today!

5. Spanish

Ok, before everyone comes at me with torches and pitch forks, yelling that everyone should know Spanish because Mexico is right next to us. This doesn't mean I hate Spanish, it's a good language. It's just the fact that EVERYONE HAS TO LEARN IT AT ONE POINT. And it's EVERYWHERE. Which is great, because they're right next to us. And it also has the same structure as English does when it comes to grammar. But I love Mexican food, I mean, who doesn't?

4. Latin

It's a dead language, but it's very interesting to see where all our root words came from! And even though you might never use it, you can freak out your friends when you start speaking in it. GO ROMANS (and Greeks)

3. Korean

I'm a bit biased, since I love kpop a lot. But I love the way that Korean sounds, all fast and you have to use your vocal cords in ways you didn't have to before. I love the structure of the language as I'm learning. It's simple and to the point. It's all about context, and endings.

2. French

J'aime francais tres bien! My first official learning of a new language taken almost two years of it now, and I love it! It's so pretty, and I'm excited for the day that I can go to France and ask a French person where the train station is. ;)


1. English

Learning a new language is fun, but I'm always happy when I realize that I know how to speak one already, English! It will always be the simpler of all the languages I know. And it will always be the one I come back to!


What's your top five Friday?

-Maddi

Korean and a trophy? Say what?

Happy Thursday!! (take a moment to remember what I posted about Thursdays in January...) I am working on my school, and taking a break to write you this very important blog post.

So Tuesday evening, as I was obsessing over kpop dramatically, I decided something, I decided that I was going to learn Korean.

You:

Yep, learning Korean. Totally doing it. Don't worry, I'm still learning French and ASL at the same time, cause I'm a stud. (that's my new favorite word, by the way.)

AND, last night, I went to the AWANA Grand Prix at my church, and sadly, my car didn't win any races, it was very slow, like only got half way down the track slow, BUT, it did win second place in design!! (kind of sad, because the Batmobile is supposed to be fast.)

The last time I did the Grand Prix, I won first place, but I'll settle for second place this time. ;)

I hope everyone is having a good Thursday so far! (:

-Maddi

Book Review: Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

Cinder, the cyborg mechanic, returns in the second thrilling installment of the bestselling Lunar Chronicles. She's trying to break out of prison--even though if she succeeds, she'll be the Commonwealth's most wanted fugitive. Halfway around the world, Scarlet Benoit's grandmother is missing. It turns out there are many things Scarlet doesn't know about her grandmother or the grave danger she has lived in her whole life. When Scarlet encounters Wolf, a street fighter who may have information as to her grandmother's whereabouts, she is loath to trust this stranger, but is inexplicably drawn to him, and he to her. As Scarlet and Wolf unravel one mystery, they encounter another when they meet Cinder. Now, all of them must stay one step ahead of the vicious Lunar Queen Levana, who will do anything for the handsome Prince Kai to become her husband, her king, her prisoner.


Genre: YA, fairy tail retelling, dystopian

Cover Love: SO PRETTY.

Overview:

Going into this, I had just finished CINDER, the first book, and I was REALLY excited to continue on with the story! This book is about Scarlet, and a retelling of Red Riding Hood. Scarlet's older than Cinder, and she has a job, and she has a grandma who loves her. And also being older, her relationship with Wolf is a bit different than Cinder with her dude. But all in all, I loved this book, and Scarlet was a GREAT character. Don't worry, we still hear from both Prince Kai and Cinder. This book is a lot more action packed, and lot more Lunar stuff. Be ready for a crazy ride.

Romance:

Like I said above, Scarlet is older than Cinder. There's more kissing, when Cinder barely had like...none. So there's only like two times they kiss, but it's more described. With a little more detail, but not over the top. Just surprising since after reading CINDER. So it's all good, don't worry!

Language:

One bad word. Just one. And Scarlet was pretty mad, so I don't blame her.

Violence:

More violence in this one, since they introduce a new enemy. There's some blood, and people die. But just towards the end of the book, nothing gruesome. Just surprising after reading CINDER. But it wasn't bad, so don't worry, again.

Religion:

None.


This book was very good! I enjoyed it, and may or may not have been a good idea to read it right after I read CINDER, but it was still very good! A great sequel to a great book! I can't wait for CRESS to come in from the library so I can continue the story! Eep!

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars!

-Maddi

Girls' Generation Come Back!

Happy Monday!

Today, Girls' Generation, my favorite female kpop group, released their comeback video, and I need YOUR help to support them!

Just watch the video, (I know, it's in Korean, but still) and then like it, and then maybe write a nice comment below. Some people aren't being very supportive and going on and on about it. (stupid people and their invective language)

Here's the video:

You can watch their comeback music video of 'Mr.Mr' in the Kop! section of the blog! :)

OH, and here's their names starting left, from the top:

taeyeon - yuri - sooyoung - yoona

sunny - jessica - tiffany - seohyun - hyoyeon

Thanks, guys!

-Maddi

Nananananana...BATMOBILE!

Happy Sunday! :D

I just finished making my car for my AWANA's event called the AWANA Grand Prix! It's where all the leaders and kids can make a car from a kit you can buy, and then you race them! I made a car as a leader a few years ago, and I won best design prize! I'm hoping to win again this year!

Here's my Batmobile:

And a side view:

Now we're all ready to fight crime! ;) I wonder if I'll win the race, or a design award again...that'd be nice.

I hope everyone's Sundays are shaping up to be awesome! It's snowing here, and everything is cancelled!

-Maddi