Its been a long time....

So I haven't updated in awhile. I'm surprised I haven't been chewed out about this. However, most of the people who read this I talk to pretty often as well so maybe its not TOO surprising.

I do need to have a bit of a rant though. A rant about Twilight. I will probably go on about this some more in another post, but here are some things that are bothering me about this book and the phenomenon its created.

**Warning - Spoiler Alert**

1. The first book is obviously written about a teen to be read by teens. The following books become less and less teenage-specific and more and more adult novels. This is bad because the teens are attracted to the story from the first book but in order to find out what happens are exposed to a story line that is more adult than I'd prefer my own kids reading even if they were teenagers.

2. Its not written all that well. But for some reason, several girls and women have ignored this fact and have fallen in love with the Twilight world. Granted, the story line is interesting to a certain extent (until its ruined in the fourth book) but its still not a superb series. Too many phrases are repeated throughout the books ("my favorite crooked smile" made me want to pull my hair out each time I read it). There are also a few gaps in the story that make me wonder who edited the stupid things. For instance, Alice tells Aro that he can let Bella go without killing her because of a vision she sees and shares with him. He indicates that her visions are sometimes faulty but she insists that this particular event (or events) WILL happen. What he saw is never explained and its not even plausible. In the fourth book, he has NO idea how or why Bella was turned into a vampire or else he would have know that Reneesmalwoeruoing (the crazy named daughter of Bella and Edward) was not a true vampire baby that he was so angry about. So what exactly did he see about her that made him decide to let her go without hurting her? Dunno. And that's a big problem for me.

3. The series is completely predictable. Except for the end in which you think something is going to happen...and then it doesn't. Predictability would have been preferable to that ending.

4. Grown women are falling in love with a man that COULD NOT POSSIBLY EXIST! Is he perfect in almost every way? Well, except for that little vampire problem, yes. This bothers me very much. Flawed characters are more interesting as well as believable. On top of this, in my opinion its not healthy for any woman to expect their significant other to be anything like Edward. Is there any normal looking woman who thinks that its a good thing for men to want to only marry super models? We women have to fight this thinking everyday, both with ourselves and with the male population. We don't like being told through the media and society that we're not good enough because we don't look as beautiful or that even though we're smart and witty and fun to be with its not good enough. Why should it be acceptable to do the same thing to men? They have a bit of this to fight with as well and to add Edward to the pot just makes things worse. Human men (that actually exist) cannot possibly live up to this standard. Its a bad lesson to teach girls that they will only be completely in love if their boyfriends act, look, and talk like Edward. Now can men take a few notes from Edward on how to treat a woman? Absolutely. If you men actually want to know what women want, please pay attention to how Edward treats Bella. But I don't expect any man to be able to be that perfect at all times no matter how in love he is with someone.

5. The movie was bad. It was poorly directed and poorly acted. I understand that there wasn't a big budget for it. But you'd think that with as big a hit as the books were that just a bit more budget would have been given for this project. I don't have time to go over all the reasons it was bad except for one reason - skin should not make twinkling noises when the sun's light hits it even if it does sparkle. That's just stupid.

6. Even though the movie was obviously stupid, there are many MANY women who defend it! Ladies, I can appreciate the story line to a certain extent and this movie did NOT do it justice! I was actually looking forward to the movie because I wouldn't have to hear the constant dialogue of Bella's brain putting herself down and being ooey gooey about Edward and his stupid crooked smile. The first part was promising, but then it felt like the director gave up and said "We're gonna make a butt-load of money no matter how bad this is, so lets just not put a lot of effort into it, shall we?" The scene where Edward is turned into a vampire? Horrifyingly bad! Could it look more like a love scene between two men? No. It couldn't. It was that bad. Please don't defend this film to me ladies. I have a hard time continuing to respect your taste in film.

So there's my rant. I have more to say about it, but I'm tired. And unlike some fictional characters, I have to get up and go to work tomorrow, rain or shine.