Divergent (the movie since that's more relevant at the moment)

From:www.forbes.com

Wow. A post about the newest sci-fi movie based on a book and aimed at teenage girls. That's new.
This was gonna be a much cooler post and be in comic book form, but unfortunately I'm lazy and would rather play Portal 2 than draw.
So no comic for you guys.
Anyway, back on topic.

Teaser type plot:
Divergent is dystopian novel set in a future Chicago. The city has been surrounded by a fence in order to protect the citizens from whatever is 'outside' ((which I hear is to be adressed in Allegiant (((the third book))) which I haven't read yet so please don't say any spoilers)). Inside the city is an entirely different story. The inhabitants have been separated into 5 different groups (factions) that value different things. Abnegation values selflessness. Amity values peace. Candor values truth. Erudite values intelligence. And Dauntless values courage. The cultures of each faction heavily surround what it values, and influences everything from what they eat to what they wear. When a person turns 16, they are allowed to choose which faction they will live in for the rest of their lives.
Beatrice Prior is an Abnegation born girl who is about to choose where she will stay for the rest of her life. Each of the kids are given an aptitude test to help them make their decision by putting them in a simulation that measures their reactions and thinking. Normally, you get one answer, and it wasn't that hard to tell that it would be your answer. Beatrice gets three. This labels her as a Divergent, a person who can't conform to one faction.
She later chooses Dauntless as her faction, since she always admired their courage and how they could have fun. The rest of the book goes through her training, and a scheme that one of the factions is cooking up.

Spoilerific from here on out.
Characters:

Tris (Beatrice's nickname): The main character of the story. She is very reckless, cunning, and selfless. Because of this, her three results on the aptitude test were Abnegation, Erudite, and Dauntless which she constantly mentions and worries about. Because she switched from Dauntless to Erudite, she is bullied by the other transfers and called 'Stiff'. However she often proves herself in training, and because she saves the entire faction which would have to get you some respect.
Also, she's played by Shailene Woodley who is an AMAZING ACTRESS. HOLY CRAP. SHE IS SO GOOD AT IT THAT I CAN' T EVEN BELIEVE IT.

Four: Tris' instructor during training and eventual boyfriend. He is the epitome of the Dauntless. He has perfect aim with any sort of weapon, is extremely strong, and believes in everyday acts of bravery. Unfortunately for him, Dauntless has turned more towards a belief in reckless bravery, which Four doesn't approve of.
Obviously Four is a nickname (but omg can you imagine if it wasn't? #worst parents ever), that Four earned during his initiation. For initiation, you have to go through your fear landscape and face your worst nightmares. Four is legendary for only having four fears (most people have 10-15).
It turns out that Four transfered from Abnegation (like Tris) to escape from an abusive father. This might be part of why Tris is attracted to him, coupled with the fact that he's sort of gorgeous.

I couldn't decide whether to have
the normal poster or the shirtless
Four poster, so I did both,
From:www.imdb.com

Caleb: Tris' brother. He seemed like the perfect Abnegation kid, but he transfered to Erudite which dispelled that theory. He's not very brave, but he's incredibly smart.
The main reason I bring him up is because he's played by Ansel Elgort, which is beautiful since he and Shailene will be in 'The Fault in Our Stars' together.

Christina: Tris' best friend who transfered to Dauntless from Candor.

Peter: The biggest dickwad ever who will do anything to get ahead. This includes stabbing someone in the eye with a butter knife so his ranking will be higher.

Al: A really big transfer from Candor to Dauntless. He's a total sweetheart, but sucks at being Dauntless.

Tori: A tattoo artist that helps Tris to understand her Divergence

Will/Uriah/ etc- Friends of Tris' that do stuff.

Final reaction:
I'm a dork who absolutely HAS to read the book before I see the movie. Unfortunately, everyone I saw this movie with hadn't read the book, so I was the only one who knew what was going on.
Since you're supposed to do reviews in a good/bad/good format, I'll start with something good.
The casting was amazing. Shailene was the perfect Tris. Theo James was a great Four, and everyone else looked very close to what I had imagined in the books.
Okay, now to complain about the same thing that I complain about in all of the movie-baed-off-book posts. IT WASN'T LIKE THE BOOK. EVERYTHING WAS CHANGED. BLAH BLAH.....blah.

Sorry guys, I'm really losing motivation to do this.
Let's just wrap it up.
Another thing that I really liked about the movie (though I admit this is more to the book's credit), was the scene with one of Tris' fears. Basically she's afraid of intimacy, and vulnerability, which is presented as Four forcing himself on her. She responds to this with a well placed kick to the stomach, getting her off him and fighting back.
I might just be focusing on this because I'm currently doing a report on feminism for school, but I think it's great that tons of girls around the world will see this scene. In a culture that keeps sexual abuse in the shadows, this'll show people that this sort of thing is not okay.

Conclusion:
If you've read the book, you're going to be disappointed because of extreme plot changes. If you haven't, you'll probably be confused cus they stunk at explaining things.
You should still go, but don't go with super high expectations.

Edit: Hey guys! I found this video and you should watch it because it has to do with next week's post.

Disneyland Adventure (P.S- It's a long one)

Hello dear readers!
I promised last week that I'd give you an explanation as to what I was doing, and why that resulted in that horrific post.
Well, I was in Anaheim for this huge Catholic conference at the Anaheim convention center. My mom goes to it every year, and had this dream that she would take us to the youth day when we were old enough. Apparently we were old enough this year, and had to sit through 8 hours of Christian rock, 'aerobic praying', mass, and lectures about who even knows what.
This was incredibly ridiculous, considering I don't intend to be confirmed Catholic, yet my mother is in denial about it.
Overall, it was a lot more fun that I thought it would be, but that might've been because I was forcing myself to have fun. I had been told repeatedly by my dad that if I ruined it for my mom, I was royally screwed.
Also I was stressed the whole time, because I missed four tests at school that day which I spent ALL THIS WEEK MAKING UP. I LITERALLY WASN'T COMPLETELY CAUGHT UP TILL THIS MORNING.
There were a few redeeming qualities to it. Before the below picture was taken, there was this cool drumming thing that had absolutely nothing to do with Catholicism, with made it pretty great.
It was also the one year anniversary of Pope Francis being elected, so everyone naturally went batshit over that.
I only took one picture of the whole thing:

That's the Anaheim Convention Center Stadium. It was packed with about 15,000 kids from all around California. I think that Juan Diego was there too, but we didn't see any of them. I really only took the picture because the decorations were pretty.

OKAY HERE'S THE FUN PART:

My mom went to the actual conference that Friday, which was with all the Christian adults. Since she knew we weren't gonna be able to sit through all that a second day, she got us tickets to both Disneyland, and California Adventure.

So basically Gabe (le brother) and me got to run around Disneyland a week ago today by ourselves.

Naturally we got up bright and early, and got in right when the park opened.

Theres Main Street U.S.A all bright and early. Gabe is the kid wearing the dorky hat on the right.

We went to the Matterhorn first, since it was closed the last time we were in Disneyland. While we were in line, Gabe started complaining about how his German friend who had a very stereotypical German name that I can't remember would be flipping his shnitzle at the fakey german decorations at the ride. I told him to shut his face and just be happy that I was going on a water ride with him.

I was also flipping out because I kept thinking about how I was missing a very important English thing, and that I would have to make it up the next Monday.

It's really pretty, even if  it's fake and there's a lady's head in my picture.

I sort of lied when I said we went to the Matterhorn first. We tried to go to Space Mountain, but they were doing repairs on it that morning, but said it would be open later. We checked back after Matterhorn, but it was still closed.

Something you should know about my brother is that he is absolutely horrible with money. He needs to buy everything that catches his fancy, even if it's obviously a piece of crap. So naturally, since we were in Tomorrowland with no one around, he gets a build your own lightsaber.

Cus he's a dumbass.

Anyway, since Space Mountain still wasn't open, we went to SPLASH Mountain, since we had never been on that either.

I think that my earlier comment about not wanting to get wet became a challenge to Gabe.

I vaguely remembered going on Splash Mountain WAAAAY back when I was 4 years old. By remember, I mean I remember crying the whole time and trying to get my dad to stop the ride and let me off.

This memory made me a little anxious to get on the ride, but I knew that at the end it was a short drop, a big splash, and then it was over.

What I didn't remember was the animatronic hell that came between.

During the ride I told Gabe that if I was the ruler of hell, I would make it this ride on loop. He looked at me like I was the most evil person he'd ever seen.

"I will murder you and everyone you love"

Never go on Splash Mountain.

EVER.

After that horrific experience we were heading back to Space Mountain to check on things, when we saw that famous statue of Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse and some other ones.

When we finally made it back to Space Mountain, it turned out that it had opened while we were in robot hell and the line was a good old three hours long. Since there was absolutely no way we were gonna waste our day in that line, we went to the innovations exhibit that was right next to the ride.

First thing I see when we walk in:

MOTHER

DUCKING

IRON MAN

*ENSUE RABID FANGIRL MADNESS*

AAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

The rest of the exhibit was sort of a blur, but they had Fifa 11 and I tried to be John Green for a bit but failed epicly. However, I did beat my brother, so at least I learned something from the Swindentown Swoodlypoopers.

After that we tromped through Fantasyland and Adventureland for a bit. We went to Tarzan's Treehouse (which was another ride that I hadn't been on since I was 4, but this one was a lot better) and Indiana Jones (hands down the best ride in Disneyland). Everything in Fantasyland was either full or broken down, so we went to Toontown instead.

I regret to inform you Toontown, that neither baseball or duck is a number. I see you trying to make lemon a number too, and it's just not gonna happen.

We went to Mickey's house and were in line to see him and everything, but then we realized that we were in line to go see a guy in a mouse costume who was probably hating life at the moment and didn't need two teenagers to come in and add to the amount of people he had to hug that day. So we left.

At that point, we decided that we were done at Disneyland, and hopped over to California Adventure.

The newest thing there was Carsland, which had been under construction the last time we went there. However, the main reason Gabe had made our mom buy park hopper tickets was so that he could go on the California Screamin Roller Coaster. He went on that, while I bought ice cream and watched the water show.

No, I am not scared of roller coasters. I just really really REALLY hate to go upside down on them.

After he had completed his mission, we went over to the famed Carsland.

I tried really hard to take a picture of Radiator Springs, but then all these people were in the way.

The racer ride had a two hour wait, which we would not stand for. So we went to Luigi's flying tires instead. Basically, it's bumper cars but you're on a giant air hockey floor. It's not very exciting, but the engineering and design that went into it is pretty remarkable.

It also had this 'Hold hands with tiny people, but definitely DO NOT DANCE ON THE TIRE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD' sign so that was fun.

There was only one thing that I really wanted to do at California Adventure, and that was go to the Animation Academy. I was really hoping that I could go to one of the classes, but they were over a half hour long and Gabe didn't want to sit through that. So instead, we went to the other exhibits in the building.

If I haven't said it on here yet, I really want to do something for Disney when I get older. Voice acting, animation, scriptwriting, directing. I just REALLY wanna make movies at Disney, so I was geeking out to the max here.

One of the big exhibits here was the Toy Story Zoetrope. Here's a video of it so you can see what I mean. Gabe thought it was totally the bee's knees, while I got sort of distracted thinking about how people with epilepsy would hate this thing.

The next room was a bunch more animation things that little kids really liked because they could spin a wheel and see the pictures move.

The whole room was decked out like this. It was GORGEOUS.

We dorked around in there for a little bit, and then went onto Beast's Library. In there, you get a personality quiz to see which Disney Character you are.

Since I love those sort of things, I took it and got Maleficent cus I'm a boss like that. Gabe got Marlin.............*snickers*

The next room didn't get any pictures cus it was dark, but it was Ursula's Grotto. You got to sing Disney songs, and it would put your voice in the animation. Now, I'm completely delusional and think that I have a good singing voice. Hearing me fail at Hakuna Matata and my brother laughing at me brought me down a couple dozen pegs. Luckily for me, he did even worse :)

Gabe wouldn't let me go see what Turtle Talks with Crush were, we left and went to the Farris Wheel.

We also saw this thing when we walked out:

It was for this dance thing called MadTParty, and I really wanted to check it out by Gabe wouldn't let me :(

 By that point it was late afternoon and we wanted to go back to the hotel, but were too stubborn to leave just yet.

I was hoping for a nice relaxing ride, and a good view of the park but Gabe wanted to be EXTREME and go on the sliding cars.

I didn't even get a good picture cus Marlin's fat face was blocking the shot.

After that, we were just about to go back to the hotel, when we remembered that we hadn't bought any of the crap at Downtown Disney yet!

THIS HAD TO BE CHANGED.

A half hour later, I walked out with a stylin' Nightmare Before Christmas hat, and some useless Alice and Wonderland Tea.

Gabe got a remote controlled car because reasons.

After that, we went back to the hotel, watched dumb TLC shows for a while, and then got a free fireworks show since our hotel was right behind California Adventure. I'm sure it was more spectacular in the park, but it was still pretty great.

Right after the fireworks, I realized it was Friday and that I had a blog post due. I was too tired to do what would've been this post then, so I wrote whatever came to my mind.

So there, that's your extended explanation as to why you got an incredibly crummy post last week.

A complete blah post that I'm actually turning in o_o

Unfortunately, I don't have the time, energy, or material to do an actual post.

The reason for this is that I'm in California for a Catholic conference and Disneyland adventure.

I'm gonna do a post about the trip, complete with fabulous pictures, but the computer I'm on at the moment is finicky and doesn't like my phone (which has the pictures).

Plus a post like that would take a super duper long time , which again, I DON'T HAVE THE TIME FOR.

From: en.wikipedia.org

Since I have to do an actual review post....I'll do something on......uh......frick I don't even know.

I'll do it on my hotel room! Ya, I'll do it on the room!

The coolest part about it is that we can see the tower of terror from the room.

Unfortunately, we don't get any free fireworks shows even though we can clearly see both parks. I don't even know if they're doing fireworks this time of year. I don't know why they wouldn't, but they apparently are not.

The t.v really really sucks. The remote is fritzy, and doesn't work even 1/3 of the time. However, this is not a problem for my brother Gabe, since he only wants to watch comedy central anyway.

Seriously, it's constant Kay and Pele. It's horrible.

There's one really amazing part of the hotel though.

There are (is?) Starbucks EVERYWHERE. EV-RY-WHERE.

In the lobby. In the rooms. In the other hotels. California is apparently made of frappechinos.

There are also pictures of palm trees everywhere, because apparently real palm trees are not enough for the tourist experience. They need to amp up the palm trees to OVER 9000.
So I guess the room is nice....maybe. It's good enough, considering we're RIGHT NEXT TO DISNEYLAND.

Since I still need to put a link, I'll just stick a poem that I like right here.

I'll tell you ALL about the trip next time, I promise.

Oh Captain, My Captain

That title sure got your attention, huh Mr. P?

You thought this was gonna be about Walt Whitman?

You're only sort of mistaken.

BEHOLD!!

DEAD POETS SOCIETY!!!

You came to the wrong neighborhood
from: www.huffingtonpost.com

Short teaser thing:
So we've got all these boys that go to this really elite boarding school called Welton Academy. All of their parents want them to grow up to be doctors and lawyers and go to Ivy league colleges and stuff. These boys have been stuck in boring but 'useful' classes like Latin and trigonometry all their lives. Suddenly, they find themselves in a poetry class taught by a notoriously nutty teacher named Mr. Keating.
Keating was a student at Welton Academy, and was a member of the long forgotten Dead Poets Society. The Dead Poets Society was basically a club that would sneak out of the school at night, go to a cave in the woods, read poetry, and try to get girls to join them. The boys reconvene the Dead Poets Society, and start their arpe diem fueled adventures.

Characters:
((I'm doing spoilers here since a lot of the big stuff is with each character, so as the usual warning: Spoilerific from here on out))

Neil Perry: Neil is the perfect son. His dad REALLY wants him to become a doctor, and is determined to do anything to get him there. He justifies his actions like making Neil take extra math classes instead of working on the school paper, as 'giving you more opportunities than I had'(but honestly it borders on emotional abuse).  In Keating's class, he finds out that he loves poetry, and it becomes his gateway to self expression. He is the one that revitalizes the Dead Poets Society, and embraces the carpe diem philosophy by trying out for A Midsummer Nights Dream, and getting the part as Puck. Of course, he couldn't tell his dad, as his dad would freak the freak out. He completely and totally rocks the role (even while wearing atrocious twig gloves), but his father is obviously not happy about it when he finds out about it the day before the play. His dad immediately takes him out of Welton as soon as the play is over, and says he'll send him to military school, which will put a stop to this 'nonsense'. Seeing no other way out of his dads controlling ways, Neil kills himself.

Todd Anderson: Todd is the new kid at school. His brother was a top student at Welton, and Todd has no chance of coming out of his brothers shadow, as Todd is very shy and awkward. He's Neil's roommate, which is how he gets into the group in the first place, and is also part of Keating's poetry class. At first, he refuses to speak to pretty much everyone except for a few close people. One day, he has to recite a poem that he wrote for class, and with a BARBARIC YOP, he overcomes his anxiety, and is more confident. He's very loyal to his friends.

Knox Overstreet: Knox is the romantic. While he's at dinner with his parent's friends, he meets their daughter Chris, who he falls head over heels for. He writes poetry for here, gives her flowers, and sort of half stalks her(?). Unfortunately, she's dating a big football player who goes to her school, so dorky Knox doesn't have much of a chance. One night, he's at a party that she invited him to, and he's kind of drunk, and tries to put 'the moves' on a sleeping Chris (note for any guys that read this: DON'T DO THAT. I DON'T CARE HOW DRUNK YOU ARE, THAT IS CREEPY AS FRICK), and gets beat up by her boyfriend. Knox goes to her school the next day, gives her flowers and reads her a poem, and then gets kicked out. However, it apparently worked since they go to watch Neil's play together, and presumably live happily ever after.

Charlie Dalton: He's the clown. He's pretty much there just for comic relief, and honestly I can't remember anything that would add depth to his character besides his jokes.

John Keating: This guy is the freaky poetry teacher everyone is talking about. In Christian boarding school terms, he's very eccentric. He has his students rip up their textbooks, stands on his desk a lot, has his students call him 'captain', and encourages underground clubs that breaks nearly every school rule. He really emphasizes free thinking, and creativity. His motto is carpe diem, which is latin for sieze the day. Basically he's the cool English teacher that everyone loves. Unfortunately, he's also very irresponsible. Though he has good intentions, he is extremely irresponsible. I think he was really in love with the idea of his students having a freedom that he never got, and was too carried away with it to see the repercussions of his actions. Neil's death wasn't entirely his fault (not even mostly his fault), but it was partially his fault, and he got fired because of it (in the scene which is pictured above, and butchered with a pathetic joke :). He's also played by Robin Williams, which automatically makes him a great character.

There are a bunch of other students, but I can't really remember much about them to constitute a long enough bio, so you're just gonna have to watch the movie if you're curious about them.

Reaction:
Besides the atrocious 80's music and Neil Perry's weird as shit Puck gloves, this movie is absolute cinematic GOLD.
The weird thing about this movie, is that I'd seen the beginning of it twice in different classes, but we never got much farther than when Niel throws Todd's desk set off the bridge. So basically, I never saw the end.
OH GOSH THE END MADE ME SO SAD.
BUT IT'S TOTALLY WORTH IT, and if you read the spoilerific parts (which you shouldn't if you want to watch the movie), don't let anything sad deter you from watching the movie.
I'm at a point where I can really relate to a lot of things in this movie, like wanting to go against what your parents want, and having really awesome friends to help and help you through stuff, and how awesome poetry is and a bunch of the other major themes. I'm sure that any of the teens that read this can find something in that movie that reaches out to them.
This movie is really worth it guys. Watch it, and you're sure to love it.


((Quick side note. I don't think I've ever apologized for my atrocious run on sentences. I am truly sorry, but the ranty breathless feeling you get from them is what I'm trying to convey)).
(((Quick side note 2: I don't think Mr. P made it this far, but if he did (or anyone in Honors English did), then you should watch this neat little video about The Odyssey))).