The Melbourne Writers Festival

So today I had a glorious excursion into the city and particularly federation square. Why was it glorious you ask? Aside from the fact I had no classes that day and the weather was near-prefect it was really interesting to get a writer's perspective on how they approach their reading and their writing. Today I attended three sessions. The first was with Morris Gleitzman and two other authors but I cannot remember what the actual topic was other than them reminiscing about their reading techniques. The second session was with two bookdesigners who design the cover for books. It was basically a look at how they approach it and would be interesting for someone looking to work in this area. I therefore did not enjoy it as much. The final session was three people, two of which were authors, recommending books for us to read. It was interesting and I already have a few books that I will be looking out for. It finished with the announcement of the short-listed books for the 'Inkies' which is a literary award chosen by teenagers for teenagers and this was also interesting. The sessions I went to last year were focused more on the authors and their writing processes. For this reason I enjoyed myself more last year but still had a blast this year.
You should really check it out, see you tomorrow.

Characters we Love to Hate

Throughout history there have always been those characters in texts we have just loved to hate. These texts have include books, movies, television shows and even videos on the internet. No matter who we are we generally have those characters who we hate so much it becomes something we enjoy to do. A great example of this would be Draco Malfoy from the Harry Potter Book series by J.K. Rowling. He is the sort of character we hate but, at times, have sympathy for. We love Draco for that as he is a character we can hate without feeling bad about it. Here are a few others I have come up with:

Ollie Dinsmore: Under the Dome

Ollie Dinsmore is a farmer in the new television drama airing on CBS (America) and Channel Ten (Australia) Under the Dome which is based on the book of the same name by Stephen King. Ollie is a farmer who owns the only pump with the only fresh water under the dome after the water tower was destroyed in an accident. He is just such an evil character who only cares about what is in his best interests and not in the interests of everyone else in Chester's Mill (the town stuck under the dome).

Source: http://www.globaltv.com/

President Corinalius Snow: The Hunger Games Trilogy

Suzanne Collins hit the jackpot with this series and President Snow is one character you just love to hate. At first he just appears as one of the rich and arrogant Capitol Citizens but it later turns out that President Snow knows a lot more than he lets on and is more guilty than anyone else in Panem. However, by the end of the trilogy Collins challenges your view of Snow in such a way that you think twice about how guilty Snow really is and whether there are others worth more blame than him.

Source: http://neversawsuchawoman.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/my-hunger-games-movie-review.html

Dwight Schrute: The Office

There is no other comedic character in television history that is as funny, naive yet smart as Dwight Schrute. He always thinks himself three steps in front of everyone else when most of the time he is either being tricked or just mistaken. He really is a hilarious character to watch in the American remake of this British Comedy hit. Dwight really epitomises the love-to-hate relationship.

Source: http://www.businessbee.com/resources/news/operations-buzz/fact-dwight-schrute-gives-the-most-amazing-business-advice/

Don't let the hated characters ruin your favourite shows, see you tomorrow!

French

French, is such a romantic language and you can say anything in French and make it sound romantic. For example: "J'adore comment que je veux vous tuer" sounds so romantic and I dare you to stop reading right now, search up a French person on Facebook and message them with that. Well, even though it sounds romantic the meaning of that sentence is anything but. In English: "J'adore comment que je veux vous teur" translates to "I love how much I want to kill you" which is not so romantic. Don't ask me why I chose that sentence, I just did. Wow, I sound really morose.

As you may know, I study French at school and I find it actually a fun subject (I can just hear one of my friends going "'Fun'? How is French 'fun'?" I don't know how to answer that question but for me French is fun. I just enjoy learning it and I don't know if it is because of the way it sounds, the pretty pictures in the textbook, or getting to use Language Perfect in and out of class to study. For me French is one of my favourite subjects (right up there next to Maths) and it has been shown that learning a different language improves your ability to learn and understand new things or something along those lines. Learning a different language provides someone with the experience to be able to travel overseas and understand at least some of what is been thrown at them (literally and figuratively). 

I used to study Italian in my old school but I never really enjoyed it as much as I enjoy French (I now study French if you haven't picked that up already) now and I guess I'll never really look back because I have learnt some basics of Italian and now am learning more in-depth French which is challenging and enjoyable. The good thing about this is that I can sort of say I am multilingual because I speak a bit of Italian and French as well as a lot of English (I live in Australia, of course I speak English and I am writing this blog in ENGLISH. Do you see the connection?). French has opened up many opportunities for me and I really enjoy learning it and am grateful to have been given the opportunity to do so.

May the odds be ever in your favour, see you tomorrow!
Puisse le sort vous etre favorable, a demain!

Beautiful Creatures and Catching Fire

As I wrote in a previous post, for Easter Mum buys us books and this year she bought me "Beautiful Creatures" by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl. It's a great book and I am hooked. Once I pick it up it is hard to put down. I'm only up to page 250 and already there have been quite a few shocks and a lot of suspense. I really recommend this book and, guess what, it was made into a movie which was released in February of this year! It has some great cast but the damn trailer spoilt a part of the book for me I wasn't even up to yet! That's annoying but now I have something to look forward to when I finish the book. Which shouldn't be too far away! But the DVD is not out yet so I'll probably have to wait. So far Ridley is my favourite character (even though she hasn't been it very much so far). I just have to say that I hate how Blogger corrects my spelling using American English which has slight spelling differences to Australian English (the Americans love to drop letters) so I have all these red lines all over the place which makes it hard for me when I edit the post because most of the red lines are for American spelling or names which just really annoys me because I miss the real errors because of this (somehow). Anyway, Beautiful Creatures is a stunning book which I recommend you read (before watching the trailers, not even a damn spoiler alert! What they reveal is meant to be a shock, I'm halfway through and I don't know it yet except for in the trailer!).

The next thing I want to talk about is the new Catching Fire Teaser Trailer! The full trailer will be released on 14th April (JUST 10 DAYS) and this was a teaser trailer for it. It was all over my Facebook, Twitter and YouTube feeds this morning and I thought it was a hoax, but no, it was super real and super cool! I AM SO EXCITED!!!! (I warned you right in the first post that I would fan-girl all over Catching Fire, don't say I didn't warn you) You can check out this awesome clip by clicking here. I am so excited for Catching Fire to come out and so I was super excited to see this. Also, yesterday, I saw an image of Katniss' pre-Quarter Quell interview with Caesar Flickerman in which she was wearing her Wedding Dress which is awesome. Here is the photo:

So cool!!!! Can't wait for November 21st (Australia gets it before the US, YES!) and I am also excited because I got my Mum into reading the series and she only started on Monday and is already halfway through Catching Fire. I also inducted my cousin into Panem and she started on Saturday and has already finished the series. Just shows how addicting it is! So get ready for the April 15th Post (15th since Australia is ahead of America so when they get the trailer on the 14th it will be the 15th in Australia) because I will probably be fan-girl-ing like crazy over the new trailer!

May the odds be ever in your favour, see you tomorrow!