I listened to the audiocd of the first Queen of Babble book by Meg Cabot and I thought it was kind of cute. It’s been a long time since I listened to it so I couldn’t quite remember. My friend A told me that the Queen of Babble is actually the first in a series, so I decided to check out #2, Queen of Babble in the Big City.

The main character is Lizzie, who is the Queen of Babble herself. She’s got a big mouth that’s always getting her in trouble. The story opens up with her waking up in a luxurious apartment with porcelain tile and priceless works of art above the bed. It’s her boyfriend’s apartment, who just happens to be ridiculously rich, handsome, and generally perfect.

The plot of the story is fairly predictable, with Lizzie getting too clingy and pressuring her boyfriend to marry her. It’s absurd because they’ve only been together 6 months. I’ll confess that I had to return this book early to the library, so I just skimmed through the last few chapters. I can tell you I didn’t like it at all, and I don’t recommend the series, unless maybe you’re a teenage girl, or don’t get easily annoyed by obnoxious main characters who are far too ditzy to be taken seriously. It reminded me a lot of The Shopaholic in some ways. Definitely a thumbs down from me!

My boyfriend D and I went to see District 9 last night, as a fun date night out. I will say, this movie was incredible, it was different from anything I’ve seen lately, but it was depressing. We left the theater kind of pissed off at humanity. Still, I definitely believe this is a must see movie. Just prepare yourself mentally that this isn’t a light-hearted flick. I’m not going to give a full synopsis of this film because I don’t want to spoil it.

One of the beauties of this movie is that the previews were so brief. I’m so sick of long drawn out previews where they give away the entire plot of the movie, and ruin the twists. Might as well not see the movie at that point!

What I will say is that the movie is set in today’s time, something most science fiction movies don’t do, especially when involving aliens. It is also set in Johannesburg, South Africa. I thought this was refreshing because for once the United States wasn’t where all the action was. Who’s to say aliens would make first contact over New York City? Like they would know the difference?

Also, if you see the film, you’ll see why South Africa is so important to the story, and so topical.

The background of the story, even with its plot holes, is really interesting. An alien spaceship comes to a hover over the town of Johannesburg, South Africa. The entire world waits for first contact, but it doesn’t come. The craft just sits there, suspended above the city.

Humans in their impatience, cut their way into the vessel to discover alien refugees who are malnourished and dying, many of them already dead. They are nicknamed “prawns” because, well, that’s what they look like. These aliens turn out to be refugees who can’t get home. It’s not clear to me in the movie whether or not their home world is gone, or if they just can’t get back to it because of malfunctions with their vessel. It’s one of the plot holes that I mentioned, but it’s not actually that relevant to the story. The point is, these aliens are stuck on Earth, and they’re not going anywhere.

The movie is filmed as if it were a documentary, with shaky camera angles and interviews with different people. The movie centers around a man named Wikus van der Merwe, who isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed. In the beginning of the story, he’s the loveable idiot. He gets himself in quite a mess, all because he seems to blunder his way into it.

Wikus works for a company called Multi-National United (MNU), a private security firm that is in charge of the aliens’ welfare. Wikus thinks that the MNU are looking out for the aliens best interest, when in reality they’re trying to harness the alien weapon technology. Their weapons can only work with alien DNA and the MNU has been running secret, and incredibly cruel and horrific, experiments on the aliens in the hopes of operating their advanced weapons.

The aliens are living in squalor, very similar to the projects, except picture it full of aliens. They don’t have equal rights, and they aren’t allowed in public places. The MNU takes their weapons as if they won them in free online auctions or something. 

I won’t give away the rest of the story, I’ll just say it’s definitely a movie worth checking out. It left me feeling a little bit sad about humanity, but it’s also a pretty big eye opener.

I started taking night classes at the JC to bump up my education in the IT field. I was hired on as a techie, but I didn’t have the right kind of education to back it up. I got by on my charm alone!
So now that I’ve been with my company for almost 3 years, I decided it’s about time I hone up on my skills. A degree in Zoology isn’t exactly going to cut it in the IT industry. So I’m in a beginning networking class, learning the ropes.

I felt like such a nerd because I was so excited about bringing my new fancy laptop bag to class, and my
Custom usb drive with my company’s name on the side. Even when I was a little girl I liked new school supplies. The smell of new pencils, the shiny new binder with my favorite stickers on it. I guess even in my 20s that new school supplies excitement hasn’t worn off.

I missed college a lot after I graduated, but now I’m remembering all the stuff I didn’t miss. Deadlines, quizzes, reading assignments. ACK! Now if I were only in school this wouldn’t be so bad, but I’m got a full time job too. And a blog I like to keep fairly up to date. Guess which one is getting neglected? So hopefully this semester I’ll be able to do this juggling act. If you don’t see me update my posts, or if I’m all of a sudden doing book reviews on Windows Command Line, you’ll know it’s because that’s the only book I’ll have time to read!!

As if the AMC Show Mad Men weren’t cool enough, now they have a site where you can “Mad Men” yourself and turn yourself into a cartoon of one of the characters of this early 1960s based show. I opted for the equestrian apparel so I could be like my favorite character, the ever deranged housewife, Betty. The website is hilarious! I love how when you define yourself as male or female it’s “suits” or “skirts”. It was just what I needed to fill time during a particularly boring work day. Go check it out. Here’s my Mad Men version of me (which looks nothing like me!). Hanging out at the horse stables with my martini because it’s the 60s and it’s socially acceptable to have a drink in the middle of the day. We’re missing something here in the 2000′s.

The other day my boyfriend and I were channel surfing when we landed on the The Travel Channel. Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern was on, and we quickly got sucked in. Luckily we had already finished eating dinner, because some of that stuff was better than any kind of diet pills out there. The host Andrew got to sample some of Korean’s “finest” fermented foods on that episode. Yes, that’s right, fermented. As in spoiled. Soooo nasty. I swear I could practically smell what he was describing. The show is pretty entertaining, but I must warn you if you have a weak stomach to look away. Some of it is down right disgusting. And the way Andrew describes it all, you can almost taste it. The show is cool because it shows us sheltered Americans a little bit of worldly culture. Not all of the food is gross either, some of it looks delicious, but I definitely wouldn’t put the decade old fermented soy beans in that category.

The Killer’s Cousin by Nancy Werlin, is a MUST READ. I loved that I listened the audio books version because the reader had an excellent voice, and I felt more into the story than I may have just curled up on my couch. The audio version had the creepy music, the suspenseful pauses. It was downright chilling. The only problem I had was getting too excited and accidentally speeding when the climatic parts of the story were read.

First let me just say that I’m a complete chicken when it comes to anything remotely related to dying, death, murder, or anything of the sort. I didn’t think I’d be able to handle this book without throwing the CDs into the freezer (remember Joey on Friends?). But this book did a beautiful job of being suspenseful and creepy without being scary.

The Killer’s Cousin is about a 17 year old, David, who was acquitted for the murder of his girlfriend the year before. All through the story, David tells bits and pieces of what happened the day that his girlfriend died, but we never get the full picture. All we know is that it was an accident, but it was still done by his hand.
Because of all the bad press and publicity of his trial, David’s parents decide to have him move in with his Aunt, Uncle, and 11 year old cousin in Massechusetts. His Uncle sets him up in his own mini apartment that is a converted attic. When he comes to this house, it is revealed that this attic apartment once belonged to his older cousin, Kathy, who died under strange circumstances four years before. David starts seeing a mysterious shadow that he realizes is Kathy’s ghost.

Meanwhile, he is dealing with hostility from his aunt, and even more hostility from his young cousin Lily. Lily is a strange child, with obvious psychological problems, and an even more obvious hatred for David.

I could go into more detail, but I would just ruin the story for you. While I will say some of the plot was predictable, it wasn’t in a boring way. Even though I predicted some of the events, I couldn’t wait to hear what happened next. This was an edge of my seat, can’t wait to jump in my car and listen thriller. What are you waiting for? Go read it!!

I can’t wait for the new season of my favorite shows. It feels like it’s taking forever! Don’t get me wrong, I love my summers. But why does the programming have to be so terrible? On the weeknights after a long day of work, I like to come home and unwind for an hour or two with a little TV. Sadly in the summertime, it’s nothing but reruns or bad reality shows, like Tool Academy. Do these idiots really need their own television show??
So here’s a list of all the shows I can’t wait to see, as well as some new ones that look interesting.

• How I Met Your Mother
• The Office
• 30 Rock
• Parks and Recreation
• Better off  Ted (if those jerks at ABC renew it!)
• Grey’s Anatomy
• Brothers & Sisters
• Desperate Housewives
• Private Practice
• Mad Men
• Family Guy

And for the new shows out, these look like they have potential:

• Cougar Town



• Community

• Parenthood



• Accidentally on Purpose

New shows are always hard to like, because networks are so quick to cancel them. So hopefully if any of these new shows are good, the networks will recognize that, and stop playing back to back episodes of So You Think You Can Dance.  Also, thank you to all the networks for putting TV Shows online. If they didn’t, there’s no way I’d be able to keep up with all these shows.

Belong to Me, by Marisa de los Santos started out slowly, but then rapidly gained speed. I thought it was going to be a story about petty neighbors in suburbia. Instead, it’s a deep and heartfelt story about loss, new beginnings, and hurt feelings. Cornelia is the center and the story teller, and the stories of Piper and Dev intertwine with hers. Marisa writes Cornelia in a way that makes me feel like she could be my friend. The heartache and betrayel each of the characters goes through is so real, and not over the top in a Hollywood kind of way. My only complaint is the way Cornelia’s monologues tend to ramble and are a bit confusing. But the overall plot of the book and each person’s story sucks you in, and leaves you as the reader satisfied at the end.

I chose this book from the library because it was written by Candace Bushnell, who wrote Sex and the City. I have never read that book, but I used to love the TV show. After reading this rambling drivel known as One Fifth Avenue, I have no desire to see what Candace’s version of Sex and the City is all about.

The entire time I listened to this audio book, I kept waiting for the plot. It sort of materialized, but it was so lackluster that it left me saying aloud, “Is that it?”

Basically all of these random characters live in the upscale apartment building of One Fifth Avenue. They’re all incredibly stuck up and filled with self entitlement. I didn’t care about any of the characters, and I couldn’t wait for the book to end. Basically this book is full of gossip, unnecessary drama, and rich people with far too much money. Definitely better left on the shelf.