LIBRARY!

I went to the library today! Yes, this means I finally have a plethora of new reading material. I've been beaming all day.

I discovered a fantastic webcomic last week called "The Dreamer", available here: http://thedreamercomic.com

In brief, it's a gorgeously drawn and very well-written story about a 21st c. era girl who seesaws between living a normal high school life in the 21st century, and living during the American Revolution. The conceit is that whenever she falls asleep, she dreams vividly of her Revolution-era existence, but when she is awake, she is in modern times. Of course, the question is, are they really just dreams? Both lives seem very real, and are both filled with compelling characters, not the least of which is an American soldier who claims he has known her since childhood and who is in love with her. I really like the story's style: the cameos by historical figures like Alexander Hamilton, the complicated but sweet romance, the deftly alternating moments of humor and pathos and action. I'd really recommend it. The author/illustrator's name is Lora Innes, and she is obviously in love with history, for her illustrations are lively and accurate and her characters are all very endearing but appropriate to their respective times. I have a banner link to her site on the right hand sidebar of this blog now. Check it out!

As a person who really likes learning about Revolutionary War/Civil War history myself--and who likes the clothing styles of those times, too--this has really restoked my own interest in the time period and the people who lived then. This is reflected in the reading material I picked up at the library today.

So, complete list of books I have to read now:

• "The Dreamer: The Consequence of Nathan Hale", by Lora Innes (the first issues of her webcomic have been combined into a print copy, so I'm more re-reading this!)
• "The Fortune of War"
• "The Surgeon's Mate"
• "The Ionian Mission"
• "Treason's Harbor"
• "Desolation Island"
• "The Mauritius Command"
• "HMS Surprise", by Patrick O'Brian (not in that order. I'm returning to the Aubrey-Maturin series in a big way, folks!)
• "The American Revolution", by Bruce Lancaster
• "Voices of the American Revolution", by Kendall Haven (I prefer reading about history from contemporary sources whenever possible, hence my liking for Rousseau and the Federalist Papers)
• "Nathan Hale", by M. William Phelps (Biographies! I also love reading good, thick biographies)
• "Alexander Hamilton", by Ron Chernow (Hamilton has fascinated me ever since I was small, so it's about time I read a book entirely devoted to him, even if it's . . . *checks* . . . 700+ pages long!)

I also borrowed "The Amulet of Samarkand" audiobook, since I've been wanting to give it a listen for years. I'm currently listening to Chapter 6, and the reading is very good so far.

At last I have more reading material! I've been floating on air all day because of it. I even have proof:
See? That is my happy library face being happy.

So if you don't hear from me for a few days, it's not because I'm in trouble; I'm just reading and reading and reading. Oh, and "Fringe" and "Supernatural" both return next week, so that might have something to do with it too ^_^

Ta!

Spring Break Days 5 & 6: I'm I'll

I did go to I'olani Palace on Wednesday. It was a very interesting place, and very beautiful, although something about it felt a bit too cold for me--There wasn't any life left in the place, not like I felt at, say, The Hermitage in Tennessee. The Palace was just kind of sad. Most of the furniture and decorations are gone, because they were sold by the conspirators who overthrew the Hawaiian monarchy and have not yet been recovered. It felt rather empty. Then too, so much has changed around it since its glory days. When it was first built, one could stand on the second floor and look out in one direction to see the ocean right there in the bay, and look in the opposite direction to see nothing but sweeps of jungle and green and then the mountains. Now, there's skyscrapers all around blocking the ocean and government buildings and more skyscrapers and development taking the place of the jungle, not to mention all the houses that now dot the mountainsides. I suppose that was part of the problem. The Palace was built to be grand, impressive, and beautiful, and although it is still beautiful, it now feels somewhat dwarfed, no longer living quarters for anybody, no longer the tallest building on the island. It's like it fell out of time into the wrong century and place.

That's not to say it wasn't interesting to tour the rooms, but nothing felt natural. All the rooms felt a bit too sparse and staged for my liking. Though the King's library was (of course!) delightful.

Since I walked to the Palace and back, I stopped off at St. Andrew's Cathedral and got my picture taken. Usually I don't like posting photographs of myself online, but I can't resist this time, because it's just too cool. Remember this scene from "The Constant"? (Or, well, not this exact scene perhaps, but the whole Desmond-meeting-Faraday-in-1996 deal. The student is unimportant. This just happens to be the best pic of the background I could find):


Well check this out:

Same hallway, peoples! I made it to Oxford University at last! ^_^

Except the little Physics Dept. placard is mysteriously missing and the lighting is a lot poorer, but, you know. I've been suspecting the episode filmed at this cathedral for a while now, so I decided to check it out, and I managed to find the spot. Which, since "The Constant" is absolutely my favorite episode of the show ever (although "Ab Aeterno" is awful close now), is a big deal, haha.

I double-checked online later, and apparently this church is used for basically every single 'old building/church in England' scene in the show. So Charlie came here to confess, Eko came here, and Desmond meeting Penny for the first time? Happened right here, peeps. The cathedral was built by a Hawaiian queen, using stone imported from England and built after the design of a British cathedral, so it really is a nice place.

It was a pretty fair day. But then I woke up yesterday with a full-fledged head-congesting, hacking-cough, sneezing cold attacking me, and Spring Break has kind of gone downhill from there. I'd been having a little bit of throat trouble all week, but at least the cold waited to hit me until after I had done my sightseeing.

Of course, that means that I now have to study for two midterms and write four papers while battling a horrific head-cold, but whatever. I'll manage somehow.

"Lost" Premiere! (Full Album)

Here's the public web-link to my facebook album of photographs I got at the premiere. Unfortunately facebook is acting bizarrely recently and uploaded all my photographs pretty small, which is annoying, but I'll try to fix that ASAP.

In other news, I have my first real exam of the semester coming up on Friday. Nutrition class. I keep thanking my lucky stars that I watched "The Magic School Bus" as a kid, because that one strange episode where the class has a fieldtrip inside Arnold(?)'s digestive system is really helping me remember all my terminologies and things for this class!

"Lost" Premiere!

So I discovered last week that the premiere of the first episode of the last season of "Lost" was to be held at Queen's beach here on Oahu, during a "Sunset on the Beach" screening. I was instantly interested, but unsure if I would be able to go, or if I wanted to put aside my homework for one day so that I could go.

Well, I ultimately went, and thank goodness I did! It was amazing.

If you're looking for spoilers about the episode, I have to tell you now that you aren't going to find any here. I don't want to ruin anything for you. I CAN say, however, that I enjoyed it. And that the "Lost" recap shown right beforehand was hilarious. It didn't do much to help my grandmother (who came along but has never watched the show) understand what was going on, but it got a lot of appreciative laughs and cheers from the crowd.

That's an important aspect of the day, too: Pretty much everyone I met was really friendly and nice. A large amount of people were dressed up in "Lost in Hawaii" shirts, or shirts sporting the Dharma logo or the Numbers, but I didn't see any outrageous costumes. Which doesn't mean there wasn't any, of course. The crowd was enormous--supposedly 20,000 people were expected to show up.

I managed to position myself and my camera right up against one of the railings by the walkway where the cast members who were attending the screening would walk by on their way to the stage. This meant I had to arrive about five hours before the actual screening time, but it was worth it. The weather was mildly warm, the ocean waves were rhythmic and hypnotic, and there was just enough cloud-cover to provide shelter from the sun without being gloomy. I mostly just read a library book while I waited, although I also walked along the shoreline and ventured knee-deep into the water a few times.

When the cast members started arriving, I and people around me would be alerted by screaming away by where the limos drew up, and eventually I got to see every member of the cast who arrived, and get photos too--some good, some not so good. Unfortunately my camera was feeling tempermental and sometimes refused to focus at the worst possible times. So it is that I missed out on getting a photograph of John Locke--I mean Terry O'Quinn, of course!--pulling a goofy face and giving me "thumbs up". Oh, well. That's what old-fashioned memories are for.

After the cast had all stopped doing rounds and the sky was much darker, I left my spot by the railing and managed to thread my way between towels and beach chairs to reach where my Grandmother was sitting, which was only about seven feet away from the VIP section, a bit to the right of the 30-ft projector screen. It was from here that I watched the episode itself (or, rather, the first hour of the episode, as that was all that was premiered).

The experience was unforgettable. Looking up, I could see almost impossibly clear stars; close upon my right, the waves rushed and ebbed, rushed and ebbed, the sand was cool, and the air smelled like salt brine. The best atmosphere, I suppose, for watching "Lost", as it's about an island and all :)

So, here's some of my 300 photographs!

1. Michael Emerson.

One of the two people I was really hoping would be there, and he was first of all the cast members to arrive! He has a really nice smile, which I found slightly funny, because he gets so little chance to show it on the show. He was pretty friendly, and posed for the cameras in my section of the crowd, but again--camera refused to take the picture. I don't know why. He also thanked us for coming--in that awesome voice of his--and told us very sincerely that he hoped we would enjoy the episode, which I thought was nice of him.

2. Ken Leung.
Second to arrive. This was the only smile I caught him at the entire evening. I'm not that big a fan of his character on the show, but it was neat seeing him anyway. He still had the persona of Miles going, perhaps he's just like that naturally? Haha.


3. Daniel Dae Kim
I love Jin's character, so it was awesome to see Kim. He was one of the most chatty of the stars, as he'd call back replies when people in the crowd yelled 'JIIIIIIIIN', and seemed to be having a great time. I got a good picture of him shrugging and grinning when he apologized to us for having to leave to go to the stage ("Sorry, I gotta go!"), and yeah, it was weird hearing him speak without the accent ^_^


4. Jeff Fahey
I wasn't expecting Lapidus to show up! Love him on the show, but he seemed to have little time for the crowd by the time he reached my section. I don't know how many autographs he signed further back. He walked by pretty quickly, and though he did flash a smile once, my photo was blurry. Sigh.


5. Harold Perrineau
The guy standing next to me bellowed 'MICHAEL!' loud enough to startle Perrineau into looking in our direction. This happened multiple times, but he took it in good grace, and even seemed amused. Again, I wasn't expecting him to be there, and he isn't my favorite character on the show, but he seemed nice enough.


6. Jorge Garcia
It'd be pretty hard to miss Jorge. He also really interacted with fans, and even stopped to pet one fan's dog, haha, and to write a reply to a note that got flung at him before tossing it back into the crowd. I got more photos of him than practically any other cast member.


7. Naveen Andrews
Naveen was a bit confusing--one minute he'd be walking towards my section, the next he'd turn back, or turn aside, and vanish, and then he'd appear again, and then he'd vanish again. Eventually some people even started chanting 'Say-id' until he reappeared. He was really great, though, when he was around. Eventually he stopped doing the rounds and pulled out a cigarette right in front of my section, so I got to breathe Sayid's second-hand smoke, y'all! Woo-hoo!

8. Terry O'Quinn
The crowd went crazy for O'Quinn. It was pretty awesome to see him in person, and he went back and forth along the railings a few times, so I got a few good shots. Although not the one aforementioned. He had a nifty dress-shirt on--black and neon green.

9. Yunjin Kim
I hardly saw her, she went by so fast, and unlike many of the other cast members, she didn't reappear. Still, she somehow managed to appear so gracious in the three seconds that she whizzed past, that I couldn't feel that slighted. She's even prettier in person than she is on the show.

10. Henry Ian Cusick
Henry Ian Cusick is the main reason why I attended the premiere. I love this guy. Or, to be precise, I love Desmond Hume! Desmond's been my favorite character ever since his first appearance on the show, and he's just been getting better and better. I mean, he's practically Doctor Who now, all he needs is a police box to do his time traveling in. He's already got the super long scarf and the beautiful accent . . . But I'm sure Cusick's a marvelous fellow too. I was desperately hoping he'd be one of the stars to show up, but the ironic thing is, I was so busy trying to get a good picture of Naveen, I nearly missed noticing him when he did walk by, leading to shoddy photography >.< But it was still an epic moment!!! He's got a positively radiant smile, and is just as charismatic in person as he is as Desmond. And isn't that shade of blue familiar?

11. Evangeline Lilly
I can't honestly say that I like the character of Kate very much. So I wasn't as excited as I could have been about seeing Lilly. The crowd as a whole, however, was almost as excited as it had been when O'Quinn went by. Lilly's outfit was gorgeous, but she, like Yunjin Kim, went past pretty quickly.


12. Matthew Fox
He went past even faster than Kim and Lilly did. He seemed to reconsider and did pause to smile for photographs, but that was unfortunately after he had passed my section of the crowd. So I got very few pictures of him, and most of those are distant profiles.


13. Josh Holloway
Of course all my photographs of Holloway turned out blurry. Aaaaagh! Still, I can report that he was extremely friendly, seemed to be having a blast, and has a great laugh. His outfit was pretty awesome too. While most of the stars seemed to be really enjoying themselves, he seemed the most excited, like a kid in a candy store, but not arrogant at all. Just a really pleasant guy.


14. Nestor Carbonell
Out of all the stars, Nestor wins the pure awesomeness award. He actually arrived before half the cast did, and spent a long time signing autographs and posing for pictures further up the line, and then was called away for press duties right before he reached my section, which made everyone moan with disappointment. When he returned, people were screaming for him to come over, but he replied by waving and saying apologetically 'I've got to go over there [pointing to other side of the grass], but I'll come back later.' And though it took a while, he kept his word, and not only kept it, but went one better. You see, where I was standing there were two railings set up between crowd and stars, so we were too far away to get autographs. He, seeing this, simply vaulted over the taller-than-waist-high railings and signed autographs, posed for pictures, and chatted for over five minutes. He, like Emerson, thanked us all for coming, and was just really nice. Not to mention he's RICHARD ALPERT . . . I didn't manage to get an autograph, but I got a lot of fantastic photos, and really just him caring enough to make sure we poor double-barred fans were able to spend some time in closer quarters with a star was better than any autograph. Thanks, Nestor, you're fantastic!

That's it for the cast! Damon Lindelof, Carlton Cuse, and Jack Bender were also there, as was the woman who's playing that new character, what's her name? The mysterious woman from the Russian hospital. Anyway. There was so much more, but I don't want to post photos here. I'm going to post all my photos in a Facebook album, so if you're interested, come by and visit!

I'm exhausted, sunburned, and had to take medicine for a massive headache I had afterwards, caused either by tiredness or sunstroke or a bit of both. But it was all very worth it. Thanks to everyone who helped me talk myself into going, and here's to the final season!