Link Recs and LoK

I thought today I'd just share a few funny/enjoyable things I've found on the internet that you might like too. Spread the love.

1) How Not To Clean A Window. This is basically a bunch of pictures showing people defying death in order to get their windows cleaned. It's hilarious and a little scary, which is the best kind of hilarity. The sad part is that I looked at some of the photos and thought, "Hey, that's not so bad! I would do that!" I tell ya, I'm a Darwin Award waiting to happen.

2) I believe John Green from the Vlogbrothers on Youtube mentioned this in a video of his, but I think it's worth sharing that there is an island called Luzon which is an island, in a lake, on an island, in a lake, on an island. This is where I'm escaping to in the event of the zombie apocalypse if you want to join me. Space is limited.

3) Do you like famous paintings? Do you like cats? Then you'll love Famous Paintings Improved By Cats! Seriously, go check this out. Now. I probably shouldn't have laughed as hard as I did at it, but I can't regret it. It was the best 5 hours of my life.

4) This is a youtube video that I find lovely. It's kind of a fan-made music video to the song Little Lion Man by Mumford and Sons with Ron Weasley. It is really well done and I feel like the song fits Ron very well. If you're at all a fan of Harry Potter or Youtube, it's worth a look.

5) One of the places to visit on my bucket list is the Gum Wall in Seattle, WA. Follow the link to the Wikipedia page about it and be amazed. The wall fascinates me in a way that partly makes me want to vomit but mostly makes my insides go mushy at the creativity of our species. As well as the sense of community it takes for everybody to band together in sticking their gum on a random wall and for nobody to come out and scrape it off.

6) Babies Tasting Lemons For The First Time. Am I a bad person for laughing at this? Then you're probably a bad person too. Go check it out.

7) OH MY GOD this just about made my life when I saw it. Disney Face Swap. Basically, some genius Disney fan swapped the characters faces. Hilarity ensued. Another thing that probably shouldn't' have entertained me as much as it did.

8) Youtubers Lucke Conrad, Alex Goot (Goot, really?), and Tiffany Alvord did a cover to Chris Brown's song Next To You. I'll admit to never having heard the original (I'm a fan of Chris Brown's face, not his music) but the cover is amazing. I bought it on itunes and it's a member of my Writing Papers playlist, which basically consists of about 10 songs that I listen to on repeat while I write papers. If you didn't get that from the title.

9) Here are some beautiful Disney wallpapers by alicexz that take my breath away. The one of Rapunzel with the gold and the purple is the background on my computer. It used to be a picture of my friends and I, but they got booted out for Da-Punzz.

10) Last but not least, 50 Unexplainable Black And White Photos. It's what it sounds like, but trust me, it's good.

In unrelated but very exciting news, an article came out announcing that Legend of Korra has been picked up for more episodes! YES!!!!!! From what I understand, Season 1 will be book one (which we just saw) and book two (which will come out in 2013). That is all they were originally planning for. Now they have added a Season 2 which will contain books three and four for an extra 26 episodes!

I'm really excited to see what the creators do with all this extra time. I've heard around that they pretty much already have book two finalized as far as plot and everything goes, which disappoints me a little because I enjoyed Avatar so much more because it was more spread out and...thorough, I guess. I wish they had known about the extra season earlier so that they could have incorporated that extra time into their plot lines.

But hey, I'm talking like this and the freaking thing isn't even close to being out yet. For all I know, they guessed that Nickelodeon would pick it up for another season and planned ahead. Who knows.

I'm just really curious to see what happens next. Korra's got her bending back, including air, Republic City is saved, she can give other people's bending back, she and Mako are in love, the baby is all right...what's next?!?!

I'm not so good at the patience.

The Legend of Korra

I mentioned in an earlier post that I was watching The Legend of Korra, the much-anticipated sequel to Avatar: The Last Airbender. I wrote a post about Avatar where I pretty much talked about how amazing it was and that you should go watch it. I stand by this opinion with Legend of Korra. It is fantastic for a children's show--something that can be entertaining and accessible to all ages. I will admit that I wasn't as whole-heartedly thrilled with LoK as I was with Avatar, but I enjoyed it.

The main premiss of Legend of Korra is to follow the next avatar, Korra, and her adventures in the future. It seems to be set in Republic City around a 1920's-esque time period, with cars newly emerging and jazz etc. What this means is that we get to know a whole new cast. The only really familiar face we see is Katara, the only surviving member of the gaang. I actually preferred this to continuing with the characters we know. I feel like Aang, Katara, Toph, Sokka, and Zuko's story was done and that any more story dealing with them would have felt cheap.

That's not to say we leave the old crowd behind entirely. Korra ends up living with Tenzin, one of Aang and Katara's sons, to learn airbending. From their house she can see a huge statue of Aang looming over Republic City. We also get to see a statue of Toph, and meet her daughter Lin Bei-Fong. Lin is the police chief of Republic City, enforcing laws by using metal-bending--a nice connection to her mother.

The producers actually put a lot of little things in LoK that you can just tell are purely for the fans to feel nostalgic of ATLA--and I'm grateful for them.

I came across this picture on Pinterest the other day and it just about made me cry. I feel like Katara must have a very conflicted but strong relationship with Korra. On the one had, Korra is the reincarnation of the love of her life. But on the other, she is a constant reminder that Aang is really dead and gone. I feel like these two images are too similar for the artists not to have done it intentionally. They're beautiful.

Another cool moment was in the finale, after General Iroh II jumps out of a plane and manages to hang onto a rope attached to the statue of Aang's glider. Iroh says something along the lines of, "Thanks for looking out for me, Aang." This is such a tear-jerking moment because, while it's the General who says it, he is voiced by Dante Basco, the actor who voiced Zuko in ATLA. Sooo goooddd.

Avatar and Legend of Korra are different though. LoK is considerably darker than ATLA. The villain is Amon, a mysterious, masked man who somehow can take people's bending away. Only the avatar is supposed to be able to take people's bending away, which makes Amon truly scary. He uses this power to pursue his dream of creating a bending-free world. His Equalist movement is supported by lightning-fast chi-blockers, reminiscent of Tai Lee in ATLA. I found it really interesting that Amon and the Equalists used technology to fight against the benders, kind of like a metaphor for traditional old values being beaten out by technology.

My only real problem with LoK is how rushed it felt. I'm not just talking about the finale (which was much too fast-paced IMO) but the season as a whole. From what I understand, LoK was initially supposed to be a 12-episode mini-series, meaning that the creators had to set up character development, plot, conflict, and resolution all in 12 episodes. This is made even more challenging by the fact that, apart from the finale, the episodes are only 30 minutes long including commercials. Considering that, the producers did a fine job, but now that we know there will be a second season, I would have liked for things to have slowed down and been fleshed out more.

For instance: the romance. Anyone who watches this show can tell you that romance is a major part of the plot line. This makes sense because the characters are in their late teens so are obviously...romantically inclined *coughcough* horny little bastards. But there's just so much romance for 12 episodes! I think what mainly frustrated me was that it appears all the conflict, both romantic and otherwise, has been resolved with the end of the season. Normally producers like to leave you with a little something to push you into watching season two, but we don't get that in LoK. All the characters are left in a pretty good place (I'm trying to do this with minimal spoilers, y'all, but it's hard as fuck) more in line with a series finale than a season finale. It disoriented me, I guess you could say.

I think that how rushed the season was definitely impacted the character development. Without going into details, we learn a lot about Amon very quickly without really having time to process it before the season is over. Other than Amon the characters are reasonably well-developed even though I still want more. But I don't think I'll ever stop wanting more.

Overall I had a lot of fun watching the first season of Legend of Korra and will definitely watch the second. I hope the second is a little more spread out, and I pray that there will be a third season. I feel like they could do a third season because the fandom is so loyal and friggin' amazing that they would watch it forever.

SPEAKING of the fandom, I have some recs for you of awesome people doing awesome things in the ATLA/LoK realms.

First, I believe I've mentioned her before for her Harry Potter fanart, but Viria13 is a lovely artist who also has a few ATLA/LoK drawings. They are amazing and you should go check them out!

I've mentioned the youtuber sawyer7mage before too, but he's worth mentioning again. He reviewed every episode of LoK nicely. I agree with pretty much everything he says and I strangely want to rub my nose up against his. Don't judge me.

You should also check out the myriad of fan-made youtube videos that are out there for LoK. Below is one of my favorites by RoseKnightingale. it combines the  series ATLA and LoK and throws in some Anastasia music to boot. Watch it please! You can check out WooperRevival134 as well. His videos are hilarious!!

Well, that's it for me! I hope you'll give Legend of Korra a shot if you haven't done so already!

Sitting in the Library

I'm back at the library again. There are people around and it's making me self-concious. People. Ugh.

I meant to work more on the Top Ten Disney Heroines list yesterday, but instead I spent the whole day (literally) reading The Girl who Played with Fire. I'm on The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest now, and liking it a lot. I expect I'll finish sometime tonight, but my cousin, Elizabeth, is coming into town tonight so I guess there's no guarantees. She is a year older than me, only a few months really, and we have been very close since childhood. She was supposed to come in last night but ended up having to work so she couldn't. She'll be here tonight though, and I'm looking forward to a break in the monotony of country living. She'll be someone good to talk to.

My cousin Erich's "band" came yesterday to practice. I didn't meet the boys, but according to Elizabeth they leave much to be desired. Their music is interesting, in that there are no lyrics and discernible beat. I spent the time watching the Legend of Korra episode that I had missed, and I think that it was time well spent.

I still haven't explored the library yet. The tables where I sit are right behind the magazines, a surprisingly small YA fiction section, and the manga racks. To the right looks to be a children's section. At least thats what I can gather from all the blonde mothers leading their squabbling children over there. I don't think I'll venture into the children's section--this library is much to busy for such an embarrassing action.

Across from me are movies and cds. No dvds. To the left are glass rooms with desks and I heard the woman at the information desk say the nonfiction section was that way.

From the look of the library you would think it would be two floors, but as far as I can tell it isn't. It makes me wonder what is happening beyond the ceiling above my head though. Is it just a vacuum of empty space? Storage for out of date books? The old, physical card catalogue system? The pickled corpses of unruly children? Who knows.

A family of geese is playing outside of the window I'm looking out of. How charming.

I'm afraid I don't really have much to say. I just wanted to let the world know that the Heroines List was coming soon. Thank you for your patience.