My Twilight Opinion

My take on TWILIGHT

Note: Some spoilers!

The books

I was bored a few weeks ago, so I decided that I would give the Twilight series a shot. I’ve seen so many of my middle school students (mostly girls) reading the books, and some of my colleagues kept ranting and raving about how good the books were, so I ordered the 4 book set (hardcover of course) from Amazon because it was the cheapest place. I read each book in about 2 days, so about 8 or so days for the entire series. The things that kept me reading so quickly were:
1. The large font on the pages, so it wasn’t a tough read,
2. The sweet and innocent romance between Edward and Bella, and
3. The fact that Meyer is so good at ending a chapter with something interesting that it makes you want to keep reading to see what happens in the next chapter.

Ranking the books in order of my favorite to my least favorite, they are
1. Eclipse,
2. New Moon,
3. Twilight and
4. Breaking Dawn.

In Twilight, we are introduced to all of the characters important to Bella’s story (Edward, her sexy vampire) and of course there has to be some sort of important conflict, which made the story more interesting and compelling. It was a little much when Bella felt the need to describe Edward as the most beautiful creature that she’s ever seen, heard and smelt. She did this in nearly every paragraph!


Then in New Moon, Edward leaves Bella because he thinks she’s better off without him (in regards to her safety), and Bella falls into a deep depression which is a little hard to believe considering she had only known him for half a year. Fortunately, Bella develops a strong friendship with the wonderful Jacob Black (who turns out to be a shape shifter). It’s apparent that Jacob is in love with her, and at some point I began to wonder when she would admit that she was starting to have feelings for him as well even though she was still madly in love with the painfully beautiful Edward Cullen. Towards the end of the book Edward returns because Bella rescues him and he realizes that they need to be together no matter the difficulties that may arise because of them being together.


Eclipse was by far the best of the 4 books because Bella has to choose between Edward and Jacob, and whether she’s willing to lose so many of her human experiences if she decides to become a vampire to be with Edward forever. It was nice to see Jacob and Edward join forces to help rescue Bella (once again) from the dangers of another vampire coven.


I don’t think that Breaking Dawn was necessary. I think that Bella and Edward could have gotten married, had their baby and gone on to be happy forever, but instead Meyer goes on for over 700 pages about the struggles of the pregnancy, the struggles of Bella becoming a vampire and the struggles of someone witnessing Bella and Edward’s “immortal” baby Renesemee! So many new characters are introduced and talked about for a while, but it was completely unnecessary. I just wanted to see how it ended, and I had already read about 2000 pages of the saga, so I just wanted to finish it. I don’t know if others agree with me on this, but of the four books in the saga, I honestly feel that Breaking Dawn was the weakest and utterly unnecessary.

The Movie

Where do I start? The Twilight pandemonium if everywhere, and even people who have never read the books or seen the movie know that people are going crazy over Twilight. I waited to watch the movie until mid-week, so that I wouldn’t get stuck in a theatre full of 13 year old girls giggling every single time they saw Edward on screen or every time there heard the cheesy lines spoken by Edward and Bella’s characters. I must say that this was a good move on my part.

(This is Edward, the guy that everyone is falling in love with)

Going into the movie, I knew that it was a low budget film (only 30 million), it was simply okay, not great, and that the book is always better than the movie. Therefore, not having a high standard made me enjoy this movie more than I thought I would. There were a few times when I laughed out loud, a few times when I couldn’t stop staring at Bella’s teeth, and a few times when I agreed with others in the Edward looked good. All in all, I would see the movie again. I had fun and it was much better than I though it would be and let us not forget the wonderful eye candy (Edward! Jacob too, but not with long hair… and well, it’s somewhat weird to say that about him since he’s still a young boy of only 16 years of age).

The one pet peeve that I have is the audience rating that the movie is getting. It’s completely biased because so many young people rate it quite high because they love Robert Pattinson. Why do they love him? (Do they love him because he’s a singer too?). I don’t think they really know what they’re saying. Robert is such a dork (watch his interviews on Leno, Tyra, Ellen, Today, etc), he’s unkempt, and seems to be very lazy (“so if you weren’t acting, you would be homeless?” – Leno). I honestly believe that people are just “in love” with Edward and not Robert. Because of the makeup, the lighting, and the way Edward’s character is portrayed in the movie, the girls love Edward. I’m ranting a little because it gets tiring hearing so many people screaming and yelling “I love you Robert” when someone is trying to interview him. Geesh, just let the dude speak without deafening him with all the yelling and screaming. It’s getting old. Grow up!

(This is Robert Pattinson, the guy that plays Edward. This is the guy that women claim to love and therefore rate the movie with an A. They don't love him, they love Edward.)

Emotional Cheating or Physical Cheating?

Which is worse?

It turns out that Cynthia Rodriguez is accusing A-Rod of having an emotional affair with Madonna. News about this divorce is everywhere, but what I find interesting is that the media is polling the general audience about whether emotional cheating should be considered “cheating.” What do you guys think? If a significant other begins sharing private, emotional feelings and thoughts with another person but they do NOT share those feelings/thoughts with you anymore, would you feel like you were cheated on?

So many things can be considered cheating including having sex with someone else, kissing someone else, thinking about having an affair with someone else, having an affair, etc. Everybody decides what he or she consider cheating, but one thing that “experts” agree on is that emotional cheating is worse than having a sexual affair because if the intimacy is gone from the relationship, then the relationship is over or ruined. Why is it ruined? Well, I guess it could be because the “cheater” has an emotional connection with someone else, and this person no longer feels connected to his or her significant other, so even though the relationship still exists, it’s simply empty.

Let me know what you think. Personally, I think cheating is wrong and unforgivable, so with me saying that, I’m sure it’s easy to figure out what I consider cheating. Everything I listed above is cheating, and that’s what I think. If someone feels that need to cheat, then it’s time to move on…

Mi Papa Lupe (My Grandpa)

Wednesday, May 7th, 2008

I haven't had the time or money to travel in a very long time, until this winter break. Instead of going to Mexico to visit my grandpa (mi Papa Lupe), I decided to go to NY since I have always wanted to go there. Anyway, I've been putting off going to Mexico for quite a while, and my dad kept telling I should go visit my Papa Lupe especially since he's been ill for quite a while, so I was thinking about going to visit him this summer.

Sadly enough, my mom tells me today that my Papa Lupe passed away earlier today. I haven't seen my grandpa in a few years, but he was a great grandfather and I really loved him. I wish I could go with my dad to Mexico to see him one last time, but I don't think I can. I'm sure I wouldn't be missed at work, but I just don't think I could handle it emotionally.... I know my dad is really hurting right now since he had to grow up with just his dad since his mom passed away at a young age from cancer.

It really stresses me out to think about how my dad is at home right now packing his stuff.... so is my uncle that lives with us.... and my aunt that lives in Santa Ana.... all of my grandpa's kids are packing their stuff, and getting ready to go see their dad. I want to know how he died, but I don't have the courage to ask my mom or dad on the phone because I would start crying and I can't talk when I cry that hard. Last time I heard (on Saturday) he wasn't doing too well and he was supposed to undergo surgery yesterday.

I think we're all going to miss my grandpa so much because he was a great man and everyone really loved him.... He'd been suffering a great deal lately from Parkinson's disease, and his body wasn't responding to the medication anymore.

Hopefully he won't be too mad at me when I finally come visit him this summer.

New York City 2008

Flying with Delta
It's like I wasn't supposed to go to NYC! Due to weather and some guy having heart problems during the flight, I arrived super late (after 12 am) in NY. I spent the whole day in the airport/on the plane.

(NYC from the plane)

Then on the way home, my flight gets delayed again! My flight was supposed to leave at 5:45pm, but due to weather the flight was delayed until 7:30pm. What did this mean besides having to wait almost 2 hours to be on my way back home? Well, my connecting flight from Ohio was at 9pm, but because of the delay from LGA, I would miss it! Even worse, there were no flights leaving from Ohio to San Diego until Sunday evening.

This was a BIG PROBLEM!

So after a while, John changes our tickets to an 8:30pm flight from JFK to LAX. Great, we had to buy shuttle tickets to JFK from LGA. Not only this, we had the problem of arriving to Los Angeles instead of San Diego. Good thing we had a flexible driver (John's bro) who was willing to pick us up in LA. After this whole ordeal, we ended up arriving home around 4AM!

In New York
Wow, New York is busy, busy, busy!!!! People walking down the street, people strolling through Central Park, people getting in/out of the subway, etc.... everyone is always in such a hurry. I could never live that way. However, I did find Brooklyn much more relaxing and definitely my favorite places in NY. John and I took a lot of pictures, but I'll post the rest later. We had a lot of fun, and our vacation definitely seemed too short. Next time I go back to New York I plan on staying longer. :-)

(Times Square)

(Walking across the Brooklyn Bridge)

(Statue of Liberty)

What I learned from this trip
1. Don't fly with Delta or I'll spend all freakin' day in an airport/airplane (and that's NOT fun)
2. When asked what complimentary snack you want on the airplane: Always go for the peanuts!!
3. H & H bagels are delicious (the best bagels ever)
4. Grimaldi's was SO much better than Lombardi's
5. It's still super cold in New York in April
6. New Yorkers are nice
7. Buying a metro card is super convenient and a must when going to NY (I didn't have to ride a single taxi while there, so I saved lots of $$$$)