5 Animated Movies That Won't Annoy The Crap Out Of You

I'm a stay-at-home mom. My oldest is six and then there's the three year old. We don't have television because we can't afford it. It's not so bad seeing as I don't have America's Top Model or reruns of CSI to distract me, but I also don't have Nick Jr. to distract the monkey-boy. The littlest is pretty good about keeping himself entertained, but sometimes I have to just put on some eye candy to keep him out of trouble (and to retain my sanity). In other words, I've seen a lot, A LOT, of animated movies. And I've narrowed it down to the least annoying, the ones that I actually enjoy and can handle watching multiple times (because as most people know, children can watch the same movie twelve times in one day and still say, "Again, again!"). So, here they are for those of you who might be in the same position as me.

1. CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS 

Based on the children's book written by Judi Barrett, this is our family's go to movie. We even have a nickname for it: Steve. The voice acting includes Bill Hader, Anna Faris, Andy Samberg, Mr. T, Neil Patrick Harris, and the always brilliant, Bruce Campbell. The animation is fun, the story is great, and my husband and I are constantly repeating some of the hilarious one liners. I'm pretty sure a day doesn't go by that we don't watch this movie, and oddly enough, that's alright with me.

2. TANGLED

Remember when you were a little girl and you had crushes on animated characters? Yeah, apparently I never grew out of that. I just love Flynn Rider played by Zachary Levi in this one. My husband says the horse, Maximus, is the best part of the movie. And my 3yo has "Mother Knows Best" stuck in his head practically day and night. Laugh out loud moments combined with great songs make this one a classic Disney flick.

3. MEGAMIND

You can see all the big names in this one. I'm particularly impressed with the story. There's a great anti-hero thing going on plus a strong female character. And the animation is really quite pretty.

4. GNOMEO & JULIET

All Elton John, all movie long. Emily Blunt and James McAvoy do the main voices in this retelling of Romeo and Juliet. I'm a sucker for retellings and I love Shakespeare so this is a no-brainer for me. Also, there is nothing sweeter than listening to the boys sing along with "Love Builds a Garden." Makes me tear up every time.

5. HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON

This is a recent addition to our regular viewing list. The 6yo especially loves this one. There are lots of Scottish accents which I could listen to all day. The story reminds me of a boy and his dog kind of story. And who wouldn't want their own Toothless?

So, there you have it! I'm always looking for new kids' movies to add to our list. Do you have any that don't make you want to pull your hair out?

And now that I've finally done a new blog post, I think I deserve a break!

Fangirl Friday!

Happy birthday to Zach Braff (a.k.a JD on Scrubs, a.k.a. Stefanie's alter-ego), Paul Rudd, and John Ratzenberger!

So, lots of news on the superhero movies front.

The Captain America sequel will be released on April 4, 2014! YAY and BOO! I have to wait two freaking years to see more of this:

The X-Men: First Class sequel will start shooting in January which means we'll have to wait even longer for more McAvoy and Fassbender. It's kinda easier for me to deal with this since I'm loving the X-Men titles from Marvel. AND I'm only up to 2010 in those. I was on a comic binge the other day and realized I was missing a couple of issues because the next one in line was this:

*RECORD SCRATCH!* Right! To put it simply, I was astonished (nudge, nudge, get it?!).

Anyway, that's enough of that. Let's continue with what I started last week. Today, I'm discussing:

The Best Time-Suck: TV 101, Part 1

Fangirl Friday!

Happy Birthday to Robbie Coltrane, Warren Beatty, and John Astin!!!

So, I'm still coming down from the awesomeness of The Hunger Games. Despite the fact that I had to sit in the third row, all the way to the right, and in front of two chatterboxes (at least the girl was asking her guy questions about the story which led me to believe he had read the book), I still loved the movie! I only have two small criticisms, but they're not really worth mentioning.

I'd like to try something a little different today. I usually talk about up and coming fangirl events like new movies or books, but today I'd like to talk about some things that I feel every nerdgirl should know about. I wouldn't judge you if you didn't know about these things, of course. This article, On the Fake Geek Girl, from The Mary Sue got me to thinking about how wrong it is to look down on someone who calls themselves a geek, but doesn't seem to know the things they should. Geekdom is an all inclusive club! Anyone can join!

So, let's start with:

The Classics: Movies 101

Shufflin' Saturday

I've been on a Dave Matthews kick here recently which I attribute to Phillip Phillips on American Idol.

He reminds me soooo much of Dave Matthews, it's eerie. Anyway, my Dave Matthews Pandora station keeps playing nineties rock which just sends me back to Junior and Senior year of high school. So, let's look at that.

Shufflin' Saturday

Music is definitely inspirational for me when starting a new WIP. Sometimes I feel like the vibe I'm going for in a book can't be fully realized unless I find a theme song. This is why, last night, I asked my Facebook friends to suggest music. And I got a wide range of recommendations.

Commence the deluge of Youtube videos, Mr. Chekov!

Shufflin' Saturday

I love music! I mean, who doesn't, right?  So, I thought I'd start a new series of posts where I just talk about the music I'm diggin' at the moment.

Quickie

I wanted to do this quick post about yWriter5. It's a free program for writers and, um, I'm kinda in love with it. It's basically an outlining program where you can keep track of characters, locations, scenes, chapters, word counts of chapters, notes, descriptions of all these things, and you can even upload the pictures you might use for inspiration. But, my favorite feature is the reading feature. Just put your cursor at the beginning of your content and press the little play button and the computer lady reads your book to you. Of course, she's not perfect, but I've caught so many little errors and other problems so far that my eyes just didn't see. Plus, it's just plain fun to hear someone else, even if it is a non-sentient being, read my book.

Inspiration for Writers

So, we all know about the normal resources for writers. There are awesome blogs done by everyone in the business from authors to agents to editors. Plus, there are certain books that every writer should have on their shelf like Self-Editing for the Fiction Writer by Browne & King. But, today, I'd like to talk about some of the unsung resources. Or, at least, I consider them resources, because without them I wouldn't be able to be as creative as I like to think I am.

I'm talking about inspiration, people. We, as writers, are in the business of creating. What we do is basically an art form. Heck, there's no "basically" about it, it IS an art form. So, here are some of the things that are must-haves for me as a writer.

1. Music - I like to figure out what type of music my characters would listen to or what type of soundtrack my book would have if it were a movie. With my last novel, it was mostly dreamy, quirky, pretty stuff like Ellie Goulding, Imogen Heap, and Jonsi. But my new book has a completely different feel. I went on Facebook and asked my friends for recommendations that had a certain vibe. People are always willing to share their taste in music. Pandora.com is a wonderful site for this. Just put in a couple of artists or songs and Pandora will play things similar to them.

2. Art - Deviantart.com, people, check it out. Especially if you're writing fantasy or sci-fi, the pieces on that site are so inspiring, it's ridiculous.

3. Tumblr - You must walk a tightrope with this one, folks, because it will suck you in. Music, art, gifs, videos, it's all there.

4. Favorite things - This one might just be me and my weirdo self, but I find that if I have a box of my favorite candy or a tall glass of cherry coke sitting on my desk, I'm happy. And, I don't know about you but, a happy writer makes for a happy word count. I don't know how many times just putting on my fuzzy socks got me through a writer's block.

5. Friends & Family - For me, this is the most important. Sure, my husband might suggest a gem of an idea for that scene I'm stuck on, but that's not the real reason I need him and all the rest of my wonderful circle of people. I need their support, plain and simple. I need them to stroke my ego when I've just written a (IMO) beautiful sentence. I need their "It'll be okay"s and "You'll figure it out"s when I'm deadlocked. I need my kids to be cute for those times when I need a distraction.

So, that's it. The five things that are essential to my process. What kind of crazy things or not-so-crazy things are important to your writing? Let me know in the comments!

Day 64: Sundays Rock!

Sunday is quickly becoming my favorite day of the week, because of our literary club. It feels insanely good for Melissa to read my work and hear her giggle or make an "Uh-oh" sound. Makes me feel like I'm on the right track. Her WIP is also coming along nicely. I read a scene of her's yesterday that was definitely heart wrenching. We have a lot of fun discussing different aspects of writing. What we could do better? "Is this character too over the top?" Etc... We talked about everything from the pros and cons of e-publishing to why we love Twilight so much. It just warms my heart!

Amazingly, she asked me if I had any romance novels. Now, I'm a firm believer in a well written Romance. I love regency romance, paranormal, and a few contemporary ones (Cruisie's Bet Me being one of my favorites). I don't have many actual books anymore because I kinda made the switch to ebooks a few years ago and took like two or three big boxes full of paperbacks to the local used book store. I have so much credit there, I don't think I'll ever buy something from there at the full price.

So, I decided to give her my old Sony E-Reader. That thing was my best friend for like two years, but it felt good to pass it on to someone I knew will take care of it. I loaded it up with some stuff I think she'll like: a couple of series from Mary Balogh (my fav. regency writer), some of Charlaine Harris's series (Mel liked the Sookie books), the Aisling Grey series, the House of Night series, and The Hunger Games (soooo good!), among others.

So, there you have it. Our literary club is a definite success even if it is just the two of us.

In other writing news, I hit 40,000 words on Saturday!!!!! I was so proud of myself that I had a few beers and got into a Princess Bride quote battle on Twitter with @thatwritergirl7. Go follow her because anyone who knows as much as I do about The Princess Bride has got to be awesome!

So, I'm about to start the third act, if you will, of my book today and I'm extremely excited! LET THE EPICNESS BEGIN!

YA Highway's Road Trip Wednesday

YA Highway's Road Trip Wednesday question is:

It's Groundhog Day! Pretend you're Bill Murray in the 1993 movie-- what book would you read over & over forever?

For me there were only 3 choices. And my pick is:

This book has EVERYTHING! An epic story, triumph of spirit, characters that will live on in your heart, frightening scenes that will haunt your dreams. Seriously, I could read this book forever! 

First runner-up was:

How could I not pick a Harry Potter book. This is not my favorite in the series (that would be PoA) but it is one of the longest. Is it THE longest? And if I would have a HP book to read, I would want as much as I could get. 

Second runner-up was:

Mr. Gaiman is a master at his craft and this book is proof. The characters are quirky and well written. The story is unique and memorable. Love this book!