The question of all questions. Okay, so maybe just a good conversation starter.

Alright, I came upon this question years ago when watching one of my favorite shows. Here it is:

A building is on fire, and you have a chance to save either five strangers, or one sibling. Who do you save?

This question can say a lot about people, depending on what they answer. For instance, if someone who does not have a sibling answers "the five strangers", you can not really take their word for it, because they don't know what it is like to have a brother or sister, therefore they could not truly give an honest answer on the matter.
I have asked several people this question, and I usually get the same answer: Five strangers. I can't tell if this is because it is the right answer, or if they truly believe that the lives of five people versus one is more important in the long-run. I will be running a poll at the bottom of my page to see what you all think of this question. I ask that you tell the truth when answering, even if you think your answer may be "morally wrong". I will not be able to see who it was who voted, so there will be no judgment involved. Also, I am asking that if you select "loophole" in the poll, you leave a comment on this post describing the loophole you found. If I find it viable, I will post a comment back telling you so, if not, I will also post a comment telling you why that wouldn't work.
I love head-games, and this is one of my favorites. If you're smart, you can find a loophole in the wording, possibly saving the five strangers and the sibling.
Good luck, and blog ya later, Miss Eccentric.

Wife tries to kill husband

Okay, so I don't know if you saw this on the news a little while back (a week or two tops), but there was this woman who actually hired a man to kill her husband. Now, this might not sound very surprising, considering the fact that things like that happen all the time, but get this: The man she hired was an undercover cop. After she paid the cop to kill her husband, the police actually staged her husbands death, and then revealed to her that he was not dead after all. She acted like she hadn't known about hiring a man to kill him, and was all, "come here, please..." to her husband, crying and acting as though she loved him and was glad he wasn't dead. Turns out though, that she had tried to kill him another time as well: She put antifreeze in his drink once. I honestly do not get why on earth someone would do this. I mean, if she didn't want to be married to that man, then why didn't she just leave him? Or, why did she marry him in the first place? If I were this man, and my wife had tried to poison me with antifreeze, I would have left the crazy woman, after calling the police and having her arrested, of course.
Now, I was going to blog about this earlier (like when it first happened), but I got caught-up in the Thanksgiving crap and just didn't really feel like it at the time. But even though this is not a full post in which I get all worked up and paranoid, I just had to post something about this crazy woman. Thus, the short-and-to-the-point post.
Blog ya later, Miss Eccentric.

Guitar Hero

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
Okay, so like, a week ago, we got the game Guitar Hero for the Wii. Now, I always thought that I would be really bad at it, because I played it at a game store once, and I sucked, but now that I've tried it again, I'm pretty good! Well, I suck sometimes, but I can play at least one song on Expert and get almost the whole thing done perfectly. That song would be "What I've Done" by Linkin Park, and I actually memorized how to play it. So anyway, I know this subject may not be fun, but I just wanted to announce that I have finally joined every other teenager in the world by learning how to play Guitar Hero, and now I understand the attraction. The only thing that gets to me about that game, is when the song stops, and you look away from the screen, the whole room moves. It's weird, and I guess I now know why the package says not to play it in case of Seizure. 'Cuase damn, that can make you dizzy and give you a killer headache.
Okay, that's it...
Blog ya later, Miss Eccentric.
P.S. How was your Thanksgiving?

New Moon

Okay, so I just got back from seeing New Moon the movie a little bit ago, and I had to talk about it. When going into this movie, I was fully expecting to come back out with a head full of blog-able complaints, but I honestly can not think of any. This movie lived up to all my book-crazy-expectations of what I wanted, and I am pleasantly surprised. The last movie was somewhat disappointing in the fact that they left out several things that I would have wanted to see (for instance, when they have a blood-type test at their school, and Bella gets sick and Edward shows up to save the day, and he finds it so interesting that she can smell blood so well as a human. You would have to read it of course, to understand it fully, but I wanted to see that in the movie), but in this one, they did an extraordinarily good job keeping it true to the book. I could not find anything that I was disappointed about, except for maybe the audience, who screamed every time Edward walked into the room, and every time Jacob took off his shirt. That was a bit annoying, especially since I don't like Jacob at all, and can't stand all those team Jacob people. I mean, if they all had read the books and known what that Mutt had done, they might not be all team-Jacob-y (yeah, I know that is not a word in the slightest), would they? No. But whatever, they will all see that Edward wins in the next two movies. Anyway, I have created a poll at the bottom of my blog to see how you all feel about the movie, so don't forget to vote!
Blog ya later, Miss Eccentric.

The written word is a dying thing...

Sadly, it's true. Yes, books are very popular with some people, but most people don't like to actually read a proper book bound with paper and ink and everything, they just want to see a movie, or use an electronic device to read with. They even made an electronic book that can hold thousands of books in it. Now, yeah, I guess the concept of having thousands of books available to you with the touch of a button sounds cool, but I'd rather have a huge library filled to the brim with thousands of books that I can hold in my hands, that I can touch, see, smell (yes, smell. Have you ever smelled a book before? They all have a unique paper and glue smell to them). And I love all of that, the feel of a brand new book, versus the feel of a worn book, the smell of the paper and glue in the pages, even the fact that you have to weigh down a paperback with a paper weight so the front page doesn't turn up. But not many people enjoy the simple pleasures of reading like I do anymore, especially people around my age group. The only people you see now days who really like reading are "nerds" (hey, not teasing, just saying. And you could say that I'm kind of nerdy myself), and even then, they most likely prefer the electronic stuff that they can use to read.
Now, I hope to some day become a published writer, so this aversion to books is not in my favor. What am I going to do if no one wants to read novels anymore? When all society wants is a shortcut through life, and books are not included in these shortcuts?
Maybe it's a conspiracy. And yeah, I know. You've heard this one from me a lot. The "Oh, no! It's a big conspiracy to take over the world and torture and kill us all!", thing, but hey. You never know. What if they are trying to kill the old ways of reading from a bound book? What if they want all of us to use electronics for everything? What if they want us to turn out like that movie Wall-E, where all the humans sit in their hovering chairs and talk to each other on big screen thingies even though their friends are right next to them? What if they want us all to be lazy blobs who don't pay attention to anything around us so we don't notice that they are taking over the world? Or, better yet: what if they are trying to brainwash us with their electronic crap so we will be robot zombies who do anything they want us to do, and then we have to listen to everything they say mindlessly, and then they will send us after all the people like me who like things like paper or hardbound or leather bound books and try to turn me to the dark side, and if I don't follow I get tortured and killed? That could happen, you know. Since I don't like all that electronic stuff they might just come after me and lock me up in a nasty holding cell and electrocute me until I either give in or go crazy or die! They would do that, too. Electrocute me, I mean. Because that would be perfect irony right there. I refuse to give in to the electronic zombie crap so they electrocute me to death.
...Irony...Don't you love it?
Crap, now that I think about it, they might just come after me if I post this blog...But I must get the word out there! I must tell everyone to resist the elec-
Wait, what was that? Sorry, I thought I heard something on the roof...
Anyway, I must tell everyone to resist the electronic lures that the-
Wow, I heard a crash in the kitchen, and foot steps...I think they're coming! I better finish the message!
Resist the electronic lures that the government has been casting out to catch us all! We must not give in, we must fight against the electronic zombie army that threatens to invade!!! Carry this message forward to the next person, and we can keep the written word alive...!
Blog ya later, Miss Ec............................................................
P.S. I also wanted to make a shout-out to my friend Henatay, who has followed my blog and has just the other day created his own blog, which I will be posting a link to on my sidebar. Hey Henatay! Thanks for following me, and good luck in the future with your blog! Crap, they found my hiding sp...............................

The human mind is a wonderful thing

See if you can understand this:

My Anut Mray snet me an eamil not too lnog ago, and tihs was in it. It siad taht the hmaun mnid dnseo't hvae to see the ceorcrt silneplg of a wrod to raed it, taht all you nedeed to do was to put the fsrit and lsat ltetres in a wrod in the rgiht pacle, and yuor mnid wlil raed it jsut fnie. Seiduts sohw taht olny 55 plepoe in 100 can raed tihs. If you can raed and usdnernatd tihs you hvae a sgtrane mnid as wlel as I.

Ins't taht cool? If you can usdnernatd tihs, vtoe YES at the btotom of my bolg.
If you can not understand any of this, vote NO at the bottom of my blog.
Bolg ya ltear, Msis Enicectrc.

A new beginning

Hello, just wanted to announce that I have made a new blog, just for my book reviews and whatnot. Here's a link, it's called The Power of the Word.
This blog was getting a bit on the cluttered side, so thought it would be cool if I could leave this blog for griping about stuff, and use the other one for book related things, which saves room on both. Please follow one or both of my blogs!
Blog ya later, Miss Eccentric.
P.S. Don't forget to start checking both blogs for new stuff from M.E.!

The Faerie Path

This is a book review of the book The Faerie Path by Frewin Jones. Sorry it took so long, but it is not the speed of my reading that is at fault here. There were at least four to five days where I didn't read at all (I got too busy, and by the time a got in bed I was too tired), and technically speaking, it only took me six days to finish this book. So here it is...

Warning: spoiler alert!

The Faerie Path starts out with a girl named Anita Palmer, and her boyfriend Evan. It's the eve of her sixteenth birthday, and Evan has taken Anita on a boat ride on the Thames to show her a surprise. Anita thinks he's going to confess his love for her, but she couldn't be more wrong. Evan gives Anita an amber necklace as a gift, and then says he needs to tell her something. But just then something goes terribly wrong: there's something in the water that is coming after them, and their boat crashes into a bridge. Anita wakes in the hospital, her head banged up, and Evan in the bed across the room from her. But Evan won't wake up, and the Doctors don't know why. They know it's not a comma, so the nurse just tells Anita that he'll be fine, and he could wake up at any moment. Anita's parents come by that night to give her an early present to cheer her up. They assume it's from Evan, because there is no return address, and when Anita opens it, it's a book. A big leather bound book, with blank pages inside. That night Anita wakes up late, and can't sleep. She looks at the book again to find writing in it, a story of a Faerie princess named Tania, the seventh daughter of the King of Faerie. This Princess Tania has a special gift: she can walk between the Mortal world and the world of Faerie, whereas no one else can. Anita's back begins to itch and burn, and she swears she can feel some kind of nubs back there, so she goes to the bathroom to check it out. When she gets in there the strangest thing happens: she sprouts Faerie wings and flies out the window, enjoying every moment of it. She wakes back up just as her wings give out, and she's on the bathroom floor with a nurse at her side. She thinks it was just a dream, so she doesn't worry too much. But things get stranger: she finds that her boyfriend Evan disappeared the next day, and next thing she knows a strange man is calling out to her. She follows the strange voice, and finds him on a balcony. She reaches for his hand, and-
She lands in a strange new world. The world of Faerie. This man tells her that she is the missing Princess Tania, and that she has been gone for five hundred years. Upon her return the King of Faerie is so pleased that he lifts the spell that has been cast on their land and that left it in eternal darkness, and the land is once more lit by the sunshine of daylight. The whole of Faerie goes into celebration and Anita gets to meet her sisters: at least, five of them. The last one, Eden, banished herself to a tower after their mother, the Queen, died in a drowning accident, and she hasn't come out since. At first Anita believes this all to be a wonderful dream, fabricated from the story she read in the book. But that soon changes, and after she sees the memorial of her mother (the Queen, who looks just like Anita), she finally realizes that everything is true: she is Princess Tania of Faerie. Everything goes all haywire from there: Gabriel (the strange man who "rescued" her from the Mortal world) was once her fiance, and is trying to woo her once more, Evan (her boyfriend) is actually Edric, Gabriel's servant (who was sent to the Mortal world by his master to retrieve her), tricked her and she is now angry with him, and Tania misses her family back in the Mortal world. She wants to go back, just once, so she can say goodbye, but she doesn't know how to work her strange new powers. She tries to ask for help from Gabriel, but he makes it very clear that he does not want her going back to that place, and has even revealed that the necklace Evan (or Edric) gave her as a gift was actually from him, and that it was a sort of tracking device, therefore she couldn't go without him knowing. Tania decides to go to her sister Eden, the one locked up in the tower, because she was said to be very skilled in the Mystic Arts, the Faerie's word for "magic". Eden does not help her though, instead throwing her out of her tower quite rudely and slamming the door behind her. Next Tania is betrayed by her sister Rathina (whom she thought was a good friend), who leads her into a trap by Edric, who desperately needs to speak with her. She has no other choice but to hear out the man who broke her heart, and is very surprised indeed to hear that when Gabriel sent him to the Mortal world it was to lure her in, but he fell in love with her in the process, and tried to save her from Gabriel. See, Gabriel had one thing on his mind, and one thing only: power. And to get it he set up a plan to marry Tania and use her power to walk between worlds so he could kill the King and take over. But as the truth hits Tania, Gabriel shows up and imprisons Edric in an eternal and unbreakable prison, telling Tania that he is a liar and locking her up in her own room with Rathina. Rathina confesses to having told Gabriel about Edric and her's little meeting, and claims she did not know what he intended to do. She then tries to convince Tania to just do her duty and marry Gabriel, but Tania has a plan to save Edric: she will go to the Mortal world and get the most deadly thing for Faeries, Isenmort, or more commonly known as metal, and break him out of prison. But to do this she needs to control her power. Just when she is about to give up on trying to walk between worlds, she makes it, and finds what she is looking for: a metal sword. But for some reason she can't take it with her back to Faerie, and she gets caught by a security guard in the Mortal world as she is trying to figure out how to take it with her. She runs away from the guard and is rescued at the last second by her sister Eden, who created a powerful portal between the world of Faerie and the Mortal one. As she dove through the portal, Tania realized that the sword had come with her. She and Eden set off into the dungeons to find Edric, Eden waiting outside the gate as a lookout, and Tania going on ahead by herself with her hand wrapped in cloth to protect her from the deadly weapon in her hand. She finally finds Edric, and breaks the spell with a swing of her sword, and helps him out of the dungeons. When they finally make it out (Edric leaning heavily on her for support) they find that Eden has gone, and Rathina is there instead. She helps them back to Eden's tower, but wait a sec, it's not her tower at all, it's the big room Gabriel showed Tania in a vision of a traditional wedding ceremony. Rathina locks Tania and Edric in (betraying her once more), and Tania finds Gabriel at the alter, waiting to be wed. Tania hears a voice (her mother, she realizes), and it reminds her of the poem in her book, the one talking about how she can walk both worlds, and a plan forms in her mind. She goes along with the first part of the ceremony, the hand fasting, and tries to walk between the worlds with Gabriel. But he can't go with her, and she is victorious. See, the poem says she can walk both worlds with her true love in hand, and Gabriel does not truly love her, therefore he can not walk with her. She goes back to the Faerie world to find Gabriel in a rage. He comes after her and is about to imprison her in the same prison as Edric was in, but just then Oberon (her father the King) and Eden show up to save her. Eden had run off to retrieve their father from his trip, and he had come immediately. Gabriel is banished for eternity from their land, and the Kingdom is saved, except for one thing: Eden confessed earlier on that she had killed their mother, that the Queen had begged her for help to get to the Mortal world, and had never come back after going through the portal. But Tania believes her to be alive still, for she did not know who had sent her the book yet, and after all, hadn't she been reincarnated after she died upon coming into the Mortal world five hundred years ago? Why couldn't that have happened with her mother as well? So she decides to go looking in the Mortal world for her lost mother, making Edric believe she is going alone. But just as she's about to disappear, she grabs hold of Edric's hand and brings him with her, proving that their love is true.
The story basically ends there, leaving out all the little details, of course. Frewin Jones did a great job with this story. It is a good mix of love, adventure, and fantasy, all of which I dearly love to read about. If I had to compare this to something, I would have to say maybe something like Tithe, by Holly Black, because of the secret world of Faerie that is concealed from the main characters, who find out later that they are part of that world. Only this is not as dark, for sure. I give this book four stars for the quality of writing, four for the originality of the story line (or "plot"), and three for the speed in which I read it. Overall a three star read, and quite enjoyable, really. I'm pretty sure I'll be buying the sequels to this book.
Blog ya later, Miss Eccentric.

Eating Bones

Alright, so I know this might sound kind of like it is coming out of nowhere, and if so, you're right. Well, maybe not nowhere, but close. We just bought Bones season four, so that's what got me thinking of this. "This" being that every time we watch the show Bones, we are always eating. Now, I don't know if you have watched or even heard of this show, but if you have, you would know that it can be kind of gruesome at times. Well, it is a show about a Forensic Anthropologist who helps an FBI Agent solve murders, but whatever. Anyway, we don't know why we do this, but it has become a tradition in our house to have something to eat every time we watch Bones. And if you think about that, that's kind of gross. 'Cause we're watching Temperance (the main character) examine dead bodies, and some of them (hell, most of them) are all slimy and gruesome, and not very appetizing. And yeah, it's all fake, but really. Isn't it kind of weird that we sit there eating while they show dead bodies on the TV? Even if they're fake? Ugh, we're all going to need therapy some day...Anyway, on another note: I wonder when Bones is coming back on? I miss it...Also, when is House coming back? I heard it was going to be like, this next Monday, but I don't know. I hope it is. 'Cause I love that show.
Okay, so I know this post is not very exciting or funny, but that's because I couldn't think of anything else to write about. You know what? I think I'm just going to have to read the news and see what I can think up. Maybe then I'll have an exceptional blog post once more...
Blog ya later (hopefully), Miss Eccentric.

African crack creates ocean!

Okay, so the ocean hasn't arrived yet, but scientists say "A 35-mile rift in the desert of Ethiopia will likely become a new ocean eventually". Yeah, eventually. This "crack" or "rift" was opened in 2005, by a volcano erupting and ripping open the crack. They say that the process that is undergoing to open this rift is nearly identical to what goes on at the bottom of oceans, therefore Africa has a new ocean in it's future. Now, I don't know about you, but this sounds quite strange to me. I mean, I'm no scientist, but if there is going to be a whole new ocean in our future, doesn't that contradict the whole "global warming" thing? I mean, think about it: If there is going to be a ocean in the barren lands of Africa, where it is hot as hell, then wouldn't that cool the place down? At least the region close to the ocean? And if so, wouldn't that be a good thing? Also, does that mean that global warming is a load of crap? Because if a whole new ocean can be added on to our world to help cool it, doesn't that mean that Mother Nature has a handle on this, and that our earth can take care of itself, and prevent something like global warming without us freaking-out?

Ugh...This is pissing me off...

Okay, so according to scientists, the world will warm, then a new ocean will appear, but then because of the warming, there will be a new ice-age, which will freeze the new ocean? Wait, no. That can't be right, it doesn't make any sense...Maybe it starts with the new ocean, then the global warming will evaporate all the water in said ocean, then the water will rain down from the clouds, then it will cool us down too much and create an ice-age. There, that sounds reasonable, right? Hey, I should be a scientist, I'm smarter than all of them. I mean, no one else has made the connection that I have.

...Or have they...?

Maybe they're trying to keep this from us on purpose, maybe they want to keep this all to themselves, so they can be prepared while we aren't! Maybe they'll make a whole enclosed community for themselves that can resist hot weather, rain and ice! Maybe they'll just leave us out here to melt, and then be frozen into little people puddles, and then they can come out and scoop us up and use us as food, or fertilizer! That way they can rule the world! And who knows, maybe they have a machine that can work as a giant heater so they can melt the ice-age away, and then they have the whole world to themselves! Oh!!! Or maybe they have a machine that can create oceans, and another one that can create global warming, and then another one that can make evaporated water turn into rain and snow, and therefore a new ice-age! That's it!!! The scientists of the world are all evil! All they want to do is freeze us all with their fancy machines and take over the world for themselves!!!

*sigh*

...Or maybe I'm just too paranoid...
Blog ya later, Miss Eccentric.

The Summoning

This is a book review for the book The Summoning, by Kelley Armstrong. I really finished this book the day before Halloween (the 30th), but I didn't really have enough time to write a review for it then, so I just put it off till today. Hell, I didn't even get to start a new book when I was done with the last one. But I'll get to start a new one today, which will be fun. So anyway, here we go...

Warning: spoiler alert!

So the story starts off with a girl named Chloe Saunders. She is just a little girl in the beginning, and she sees people in her basement, and they scare her. Her mom said that she wouldn't have to go in the basement anymore, but when she hears her babysitter calling her into the basement, she knows she has to go. So she reluctantly goes into the basement to find her babysitter, only to find out that it was not her babysitter who was calling her down there. It was an evil spirit that she is terrified of. The story trails off into the next chapter here, and she's fifteen, in her bed, and that had all been a nightmare. She shakes it off and goes to school, only things are different, weird. On the way to school she sees a man go in the middle of the street, only the man who was driving her to school didn't see anything. When she gets to school, she thinks this is just another day, but is very surprised when she finally and unexpectedly hits puberty (she starts her period, if you must know). While she's in the bathroom, she hears things: a girl crying in the next stall. But there is no one there. When she exits the bathroom, a man in a custodian's uniform calls her to him. But his face is all wrong, burned looking and gruesome. The man chases her around the school, shouting that he just wants to talk, but she's scared and keeps running, even when she hears a teacher yelling at her to stop. She finds herself at a dead end, with nowhere else to go. She opens a window, but realizes that she is too high up to jump out. Just then the principal catches up to her and sees her by the window. He thinks she is going to jump, and a teacher decides to tackle her down, so she can't jump. She squirms and lashes out at the teacher, because the man with the burnt face is there, in her face, yelling that he just wants to talk, and the teacher holds her down until an ambulance arrives and sedates her. She wakes up in the hospital, where her aunt is waiting for her to wake. Her mother died when she was little, so her aunt was like a mother to her. Her aunt proceeds to tell her that the school has ordered her to get help, and that she will be staying at Lyle House, a group home for troubled teens, for two weeks. Once there, the Psychiatrist who is a evaluating her decides that she is Schizophrenic, and needs to take medication to treat it. But weird things are happening at Lyle House: her roommate thinks she has a poltergeist, and when Chloe tries to tell her that she can't really see ghosts (Liz wanted her to get rid of her poltergeist for her), she gets angry and things start falling and being thrown all around her, without Liz even moving a muscle. Liz gets "transferred" that night, because the nurse in the home caught her "throwing" things. But her roommate Liz isn't the only weird thing going on in Lyle House: there are two brothers who aren't blood related, one was there because of a violent incident in which he protected his brother, and the other didn't even have a file, was only there to be with his brother. There was a girl named Tori who had dangerous mood-swings and tries to kill Chloe, and also a girl named Rae who claimed the ability to burn people with her bare hands. Chloe at first is convinced that she is Schizophrenic, but Derek (the brother with the violent background) lets her in on the supernatural world, and she learns that she is a Necromancer, someone who can communicate with, and raise the dead. Simon (the other brother) wants to run away to find his missing father, but doesn't want to leave his brother Derek alone, and Chloe convinces him that she and Rae would run away with him, and Derek would join them later if he were to be in danger, so they scout-out a plan to escape. But something is wrong with Derek: he wasn't there when the big escape arrives. So Chloe instructs Simon and Rae to go without her, and that she would meet up with them once she finds Derek and makes sure he's alright. But when she finds him, he's squirming on the ground and changing in ways she thought not possible. He is a werewolf. They finally make their escape, but things get even weirder: the nurses from Lyle House are after them, and shooting at them with tranquilizer guns. Chloe from then-on-out is separated from the brothers, betrayed by someone she loved, and captured by the strange people of Lyle House, and has to call the help of a friend she hoped she was wrong about: her old roommate Liz, who is dead. The story ends there, the perfect cliff-hanger. What I want to know, is how did Liz die exactly? Or better-yet, why was she killed? What happened to Derek and Simon? What is Tori's supernatural "power"? Is Rae really supernatural at all? Why were the people of Lyle House collecting supernatural kids and how were they getting away with it? And most importantly, how was Chloe going to escape and find her new friends? Guess I'll just have to wait till I can get my hands on the second book, The Awakening...
This book is good for young-adults and up, and a pretty good scary-story. I can't really compare this book to anything I've read so far, for it is a pretty unique read. I give this book five stars for the quality of writing, five for the originality of the story-line, and two for the number of days it took me to read it. Overall it was a four star read.
Blog ya later, Miss Eccentric.