Back to Wordpress again

Hi guys

I’m back to Wordpress again. Updates will be there:

http://zawan.wordpress.com

Twilight – Stephanie Meyer

Just to satisfy my curiosity, I finally got a copy of Twilight yesterday.

You probably know the plotline, but in a nutshell, Bella is a clumsy yet independent teenager who moves from sunny Arizona to cloudy Forks in order to live with her father. At her school, she spots a bizarre family at the cafeteria: The Cullens. She is drawn to Edward, the tall and handsome Cullen; but is shocked and angry at how repulsed he seems when next to her. She also finds his (also the other Cullens’) features out-of-the-ordinary: he has marble white, smooth skin; his eye color changes depending on his mood… And after he saves her life, which was practically impossible for any normal person, she urges him to tell her about himself and they fall in love, even though Edward warns her that they shouldn’t be friends because he could suddenly lose control and risk her life, or even kill her, putting in consideration the he is a blood-thirsty vampire. But Bella, who is so charmed by him, makes it clear that she will risk her life for him rather than stop loving him, which gravely endangers her life.

The story is pretty absorbing at the first 2 or 3 chapters, but after that, it just keeps dragging on monotonously. It is ridiculously repetitive and even after reaching more than half the 500-page book, nothing happens. What’s even worse is that in the middle of the story, there are many moments when your heart starts racing in excitement that something is going to happen, but nothing does, as a beguiling strategy from the author to keep you reading.

Bella is intrigued by Edward and his past, which he gives her in small portions throughout the story, but the rest of his family’s history wasn’t interesting. Sometimes it makes you want to skip lines or pages out of boredom.

On the whole, the plot was dull, hasty, and unimaginative. While reading, I would think back and wonder why I’m going through all this, and I’d remember that it is because an impulsive, conceited 17-year old decides to risk her life for an attractive, mysterious vampire. She loves him so much that she is actually willing to let him turn her into a monster - putting no regard for her family - just in order to be with him. The plot is not convincing at all.

And after long, unbearable hours of reading, comes the point when the villain appears, and my eyelids are still drooped. Also, the moment of action to protect Bella was so silly: “you get in the car; I’ll go with him; you got with her; you’re staying with him; we’ll take the jeep; you take the other car, etc”.

I couldn’t believe that Bella was actually tricked with the not-so-real voice of her mother with a VCR, then blackmailed and almost brutally killed. That happens in an action movie, like Bourne Ultimatum, not a classic vampire love-story. The plot was supposed to be clever.

Yet with all those terrible flaws, how come the novel’s so popular and successful? I’m thinking it’s because of the consistent dose of romance in the book, which is what high-school girls want, regardless of whether the plot is good or not. Twilight really can’t be more romantic or sensual that it already is. It’s also exaggerated, causing fans to crave for more of the irresistible, charming Edward Cullen, resulting in the other trail of books: New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn - plus another one on the way.

Twilight is a crappy novel. But after it sinks its venomous, you can’t put it down.

The Fray’s new single and album

The Fray will be releasing a new album called “The Fray” on February 3 (US).

The band has some very popular and good songs like How to Save a Life (2005).

Their single, You Found Me, is available on iTunes. I’d give it a rating of 10/10. It’s one of my favorite songs.

According to NME, the album track-listing is as follows:

'Syndicate'
'Absolute'
'You Found Me'
'Say When'
'Never Say Never'
'Where The Story Ends'
'Enough For Now'
'Ungodly Hour'
'We Build Then We Break'
'Happiness'

The Fray is a band from Denver. Most of their songs have been premiered on Grey’s Anatomy.

I like them because they don’t rely on popularity. They sing high-quality songs, which makes them a unique band.

WATCH “YOU FOUND ME” MUSIC VIDEO
lyrics

The Fray’s official website

The Dilemma of Wordpress and Blogger

http://www.thingstocome.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/Wordpress_vs_Blogger.gif

I’ve been switching between Blogger and Wordpress for a long time until I finally settled on Wordpress then went back to Blogger again! However, both of the blog services are very disappointing.

First of all, I like Blogger because it’s simple and easy-to-use. Adding and editing Page Elements like inserting pictures on your blog sidebar or making a list are straight-forward. Blogger also provides fun and useful widgets; you can also add your own html script.

But on Wordpress, in order to just simply add a picture to my sidebar I had to go through many complicated tutorials, and deal with html. That was very upsetting.

Although Blogger doesn’t provide many templates, I could change my template any time and activate any downloaded template from the web for free. Whereas on Wordpress (which has more templates), you have to upgrade your version in order to activate a downloaded template or change the color of the background of your blog. Thumbs-up for Blogger on this feature.

Many people have switched to Wordpress because it is more professional; it has a powerful blog-statistics and comment moderation feature which Blogger does not have.

Also, the Wordpress community is better connected and livelier than Blogger’s. On Wordpress, you can easily search and find other Wordpress blogs and know the most popular Wordpress posts. It’s a worthy chance to get to know other bloggers.

Wordpress’ dashboard is handier than Blogger’s: it has Support, Forums, and other.

Wordpress has a more advanced categorizing system for your posts. You can add categories which are narrowed down to tags. On blogger it’s just categories. On Wordpress, you could add a tag or category cloud.

I think the best feature on Wordpress is the ability to add pages. Blogger users cannot do that.

I found it effortless to create my first blogs on both Wordpress and Blogger.

Another thing I’ve realized is that most Blogger blogs are abandoned by their owners after writing just one or no posts. Some are dated back to 2006.
I’ve noticed that people who don’t write useful things for the community, like filling posts with family pictures or writing diaries in colloquial speech, lean towards Blogger.
Most Wordpress users are more serious with their posts, but I’m not saying that all Blogger posts aren’t useful.

Blogger has more image storage than Wordpress, but you could upgrade your storage on Wordpress.

My conclusion:
Wordpress definitely has more powerful features and options than Blogger, but things like cornering you to their plain templates unless you upgrade or making simple tasks difficult make you stop and appreciate Blogger.

Currently, it’s difficult to advise one between the two; it depends on how you blog and the services you prefer.

There is room for improvement for both of the blog providers.

If you’re concerned with how your blog looks, try Blogger. If you’re more into writing and don’t really mind the look of your blog, go for Wordpress.

But what if I want you want powerful features AND a pretty blog (like me)? That’s a sticky situation.

 

Another good comparison: http://rob.orangejack.com/2006/03/02/comparing-bloggercom-to-wordpresscom/