Weaksauce Wednesday: Illness

Dear friends, a virus infected me last Friday and sometime over this weekend I infected Krispy.  I am still valiantly battling my way toward health while Krispy may or may not yet succumb to zombiehood.  Only the future will tell.

Between imminent death (not good), watching copious amounts of Rome (very good), and reading Incarnate (not good), we didn't have a blog post prepped for today.  And given our schedules and general sickness and schneizeleffort we have decided to take a brief blogging break for the rest of March.

We return you to your regularly scheduled madness on April 1st, which in fact is not regularly scheduled because it's a Sunday, but we have something very special to share with you all and hope you will join us in celebration of a revelation unlike any other occasion!

Until then, my friends, good health to you all.  And remember: Always shoot zombies in the head.

Randomosity on Fridays: TV/Movies We're Excited About!

It's that most happy of weekdays again, Friday! It's predicted to rain all weekend hereabouts, which means it'll be a great time for me to catch up on reading, writing, and my 50/50 challenge!

In the mean time, I'm RIDIC excited for the following 5 things!

1. Game of Thrones Season 2 starts in April! SO EXCITED. I'm endeavoring to get Alz caught up before it starts, but I probably made a misstep when I got her hooked on an older HBO show, ROME. Game of Thrones S2 trailer below; it goes without saying, beware possible spoilers.




2. The air date for THE LEGEND OF KORRA, a sequel series of sorts to Avatar: The Last Airbender, was FINALLY announced! Totally badass woman of color fighting crime in an Asian influenced steampunk-esque metropolis? YES PLEASE.

This gif is relevant to how I feel (appropriately from the original Avatar: The Last Airbender):

Check out Korra Nation for the trailer, and help possibly move the premiere air date from APRIL 14th to MARCH 24th!


3. Speaking of kickass women, we're also RIDIC excited for Pixar's BRAVE. Summer can't come soon enough!




4. Oh, and we can't forget THE AVENGERS movie out in May. Not gonna lie, we're mostly excited to see more of our favorite trickster, Loki!




5. AND this needs no introduction, but of course, we couldn't help but get a little swept up in all the hype for this little movie, opening this coming week.

So, what upcoming shows/movies are YOU excited for?


P.S. Also, I've started a new Tumblr with two of my high school friends. It's called CUPS AHOY! We're sharing our love of cups and mugs, and if you love them too, we hope you stop by! :)

Choose Your Own Dystopia: Part 2

This Friday, we'd like to present to you the dystopia we chose.


***
THE LAST MANATEE
A city named Heaven is Hell on Earth

In a post-apocalyptic fantasy world, the utopian city of Heaven is ruled by the benevolent council known as the Alza. Legends and myths are carefully documented and interpreted as metaphors for life and the rule of the Alza; to speak of them in an unauthorized manner is punishable by death, for everyone knows that unicorns, dragons, and manatees are symbolic imaginary creatures and not real beasts.

Until the day that Krispin, a naive young boy who believes in the millennia-old Alza, discovers a forbidden manatee. Intrigue and disaster ensue with the death of Krispin's parents and the disappearance of his best friend Sophael--and the arrival of an unusual young man named Julien who speaks of manatees as if they were his people.

Krispin's world becomes a nightmare of malevolent Alzans, mysterious manatees, and the increasingly attractive Julien. Krispin's latent magical powers burst into full pineapple-flavored bloom as he aids the Resistabellvolutionaissance--the R, for short--in their attempt to overthrow the Alza once and for all.

Even Krispin cannot imagine the destiny that awaits him, the passion and heartbreak that will arise from betrayals and hardships, and the loss of the one who is too precious for this world. Filled with rage and hunger, Krispin's story has only just begun.

***


Moon Stock from wyldraven
Manatee from Wikipedia


***

Q4U: Want to take a shot at building a dystopia OR do you want to guess how this story goes?

Happy Friday (and happy building)!

Choose Your Own Dystopia!

We've been reading a number of dystopians in YA lately, and thus talking a lot about what they do and don't have in common. While we may have a more serious discussion of dystopians with you in the future, we thought it'd be more fun to present you with our findings...in a sort-of quiz form.

It's not really a quiz though. It's more of a framework for helping you build your own dystopian!

Proceed to our Dystopian World-Builder:

1) You live in a dark dangerous ______ world.

a. post-apocalyptic far future
b. post-apocalyptic near future
c. post-apocalyptic fantasy

d. post-apocalyptic fantasy far future

e. post-apocalyptic fantasy near future

2) It's a terrible place ruled by a ______ government.

a. utopian
b. militaristic
c. tyrannical
d. religious
e. all of the above

3) ______ is forbidden!

a. love

b. mutation

c. technology

d. the manatee

e. free thought

4) You are a naive young ______--

a. girl

b. girl
c. girl
d. boy
e. girl


5) --who believes in ______--

a. the obviously evil government
b. truth, beauty, freedom and love
c. destiny
d. Star Trek
e. the inferiority of "other" people

6) --until ______ changes your mind about everything.

a. the death of your parent(s)
b. the disappearance of your annoyingly boy-crazy bff
c. the appearance of a mysterious hot young man
d. the appearance of two mysterious hot young men
e. all of the above (which means three mysterious hot young men)

7) After the aforementioned life-changing event, you discover that you have ______ powers!

a. mutant

b. magical

c. divine

d. genetically engineered

e. pineapple-flavored 

8) With these newly discovered abilities, you will help ______ overthrow the government.

a. the Resistance
b. the Rebellion
c. the Revolution
d. the Reconaissance
e. the Resistabellvolutionaissance


9) Tragically, your ______ dies in the process--

a. tofu love interest
b. bff
c. mentor-figure
d. sibling
e. forbidden manatee

10) --in what is surely the most ______ of all.

a. noble sacrifice
b. senseless death
c. deserving death
d. consummate metaphor for this dystopian world
e. badass scene

11) After all, s/he was ______.

a. too precious for this world
b. a traitor
c. annoying
d. too badass to continue living without threatening to overshadow you/the protagonist.
e. all of the above

12) You are filled with _______.

a. rage
b. hope
c. regret
d. determination
e. hunger

And now your story truly begins...


We hope this worldbuilder has helped you create a truly terrifying future for your imaginary victims friends. Tell us what your future dystopia is like in the comments!

On Friday, we will share our bleak vision of the future with you. Until then, do tell us, did we forget any pertinent dystopian concepts/events/tropes?

Randomosity on Fridays: Picture Edition

First off, the answers to Wednesday's Name That Book Post!

1. Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi



2. Entwined by Heather Dixon

3. The Space Between by Brenna Yovanoff

4. Wither by Lauren DeStefano

The most unidentified doodle was The Space Between while the most identified was Wither.  Good job in general though, folks!

Now for our Randomosity: Krispy and I were all out of ideas ill-prepared lazy inspired to take pictures of random things for our weekly randomosity.  As such, behold!  A masterpiece of blurry photography and poor lighting!  I was photographer and Krispy was poser.  Not that kind of poser.  Or is she?*

Left:  Buffatee rests in Krispy's sister's cup that is, indeed, pink inside and half a rabbit outside. For some reason I find this gruesome. The cup, I mean, not Buffatee wallowing inside the lower part of a chopped-in-half rabbit.  (Mustacheatee says HI in the background.)

Right:  Kitty shows off Krispy's Kindle's new Kitty-matching cover!

Left:  Krispy's current favorite shoes are in fact her sister's. I too like these shoes because they are black as my heart and spiky.

Right:  Genuine butter beer!  Cauldron-brewed and -approved!

Last but not least:  Sheepy, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Lord Sheepy of Sheeperton, Resident Round Ball of Fluff and Fatness.  Currently he holds a grudge against me for giving him a gentle relaxing massage the other month, while both he and Krispy claim I beat him.  I say I kneaded him as one kneads bread-dough and as masseuses massage and are paid copious amounts to do; they say I punched him all over.  I say I was but merely attempting to re-fluff him; they say I savaged him savagely.

Last of all, a question for you: Sheepy VS Kitty: Who would win in a battle of wits and who would win in a battle of war?  (Sheepy says he knows where you live so you better know for whom to cast your vote.  Kitty says he likes going to Disneyland.)

* Making good on my 2012 resolution to bully Krispy more.