It’s a basic quest story with the main character being completely oblivious and helpless most of the movie.
Score: 0
Characters
It’s nice to see a blind character who is self sufficiant and isn’t looking for a cure. It would have been better if he didn’t think his disability made him a monster.
The rest of the cast is mostly odd comic releif, a villain that didn’t sound right.
There was a princess character and she was the most disapointing. She was shown to be super compitant in the begining and by the time the villains attacked she was useless. I would have liked to see her actually do something.
Score: 0.5
Dialogue
There are a few funny lines but most of the humour is really dated. The vilain was menacing but not particularly interesting in his dialogue.
Score: 0.5
Visuals and Music
The animation was choppy and rough. It looked cheap and there were some consistency issues.
The music was good. Nothing stood out but it did it’s job.
Score: 0.5
Fun
This was okay. The kids kinda liked it and the adults kinda liked it. Not going to be a movie we rewatch very often.
Score: 0.5
Overall
This was an interesting concept that failed it’s celebrity cast and potential.
Chapter 3: My team finishes their pie and wanders the woods.
Wednesday the 11th of October, 2006 – Shields Crossing, Ontario
“Must have been a French Roast,” deadpanned Ursula, her deep voice never betraying the laughter I saw in her eyes.
Sylvie pulled the sword out of the puddle and asked, “Does this mean I’m King of England now?”
Clifford immediately quoted Monty Python, “‘Listen. Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.’”
“They based that on us and no, you’re not a king. You’re now a Gatekeeper, a balancing force of the world. We keep magic from going wild and when it does, we clean it up. We are the Knights of the Aether,” I said, trying to make her understand that this was serious.
Sylvie raised an eyebrow and asked, “Do I have to take a vow of celibacy?”
“No?” I replied, not understanding why she was asking.
“Oh. So that’s just a you thing, not a Gatekeeper thing. Great.” She smiled mischievously at me. She always liked to tease me. This was going to be a long mission.
Coming to my defence, Ursula said, “He has Annabel.”
“You received a sword during a quest, not after it. That means you need to see it through to gain your full knighthood.” I changed the subject.
She put her free hand on her hip and said, “This talk isn’t over. How come none of you have your swords?”
I held out my hand and willed my sword into it. “You can summon your sword and dismiss it with your will. It can take months of training and even then, some have issues with it.” As I let my sword disappear, I tried really hard not to glance at Clifford. He had the hardest time learning to call his sword. We’d been working on it.
Sylvie took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a moment and her sword vanished.
“Wow,” Clifford said, looking a little sad.
“I’m a cop in Westmeath. I’ve seen shit,” Sylvie said, sounding way too cool.
I scoffed and added, “She was in the military, Elmsley special forces, before quitting and joining the police force. She’s been trained to resist magic in multiple ways. It makes sense that her training would come in handy.”
“Actually, my Ronnie’s been training me to use magic items for defence,” Sylvie said, grinning as she mentioned her fiancée.
Looking really uncomfortable, Granny Pie asked, “Can I clean this up or is it religiously important?”
“No ma’am, it’s not holy and l can clean it up for you,” I said and she looked relieved.
I retrieved the mop and bucket from the shop’s storage closet and I started to mop up the coffee while Pie explained, “There’s been some strange things going on around here.” She leaned in and whispered, “Magical.” When no one looked surprised, she continued, “Normally, the Aether here is really thick, but it’s been thinning, and I can’t figure out why. Things have been bleeding through. Nothing sapient or dangerous, but with Halloween around the corner, I’m not sure that will last.”
“I guess we need to go check out the beach and see if there’s anything there,” Sylvie suggested.
At this point I was feeling old jealousies. She was only a few years older than me and lived in different parts of Ontario but I’d always been envious of her. She was better than me at everything, and I mean everything. I fought down the feeling and agreed.
We finished our coffees, paid, and thanked Pie for help. Shield’s Crossing was a small town, but it was long, squished between Highway 17 and Muskrat Lake.
We took the Volkswagen van. It was harder to drive than a minivan but easier to repair, as long as you could find the parts. It also allowed for more passengers. I guess we’re just a group of hippy knights. Who am I kidding? We were nerds at best.
We parked in the rowing club’s lot and walked to where the body had been found. Faught Beach was less of a beach and more of an opening in the woods that connected to the lake. No one with any sense would swim there.
We looked around and found nothing useful.
“I’m sure he died on the other side,” Robin said.
I looked up at the sky and then at my watch, “Let’s get going. We only have three hours before sunset, and we’re not ready to do a forest search in the dark.”
Sylvie looked confused and suggested, “We can get gear in town.”
I shook my head, “I’m not taking four inexperienced and one untrained knight into the wilderness in the dark.” I’d seen enough weird stuff in the cities. The woods brought out humanity’s weirdest fears and I wasn’t about to be killed by a yeti or killer duck.
The entirety of the other side of Muskrat Lake was thick forest. There were some homes on the shore but they were sparse. The roads were terrible but we made it to a lookout area with two hours to spare.
“We should split up to cover more ground,” Sylvie suggested.
“Never split the party,” Grant said quickly.
Rolling her eyes, Sylvie said, “That’s only in Dungeons and Dragons. In real life, time is more important. Take these.” She passed out black metal rings.
The ring felt warm and I could feel it was charged with magic. There was the symbol of a tree with a maple leaf on the trunk, the logo of Yggdrasil. “What are these?” I asked.
“Coms. They work like mindspeak but they’re completely secure.” When the others gave her a blank look, she added, “It’ll let us talk mind to mind.”
“Okay fine, we split into two groups,” I started. “Sylvie, take Clifford and Robin, and search south. I’ll take Grant and Ursula and go north. We meet back here in an hour and a half.”
“Yes sir,” said my knights and Sylvie gave me a half-hearted salute.
Searching the woods isn’t the most exciting thing to do. We saw several rabbits, a lot of squirrels, a coyote, and more crows than I’d expected. We also met every damned mosquito in the area. Damn the warm fall. It was normally close to freezing at this time of year, but it had been in the low teens the whole time we’d been here.
As we walked it got hotter until I was considering taking off my leather coat. “Something’s wrong,” I said at the same time I heard a scream in my head.
I was about to turn and run to help my friends when the trees parted and a large three-storey antebellum style mansion appeared. The heat was coming off of it, and there was a large sign in the front that read, “Luc’s House of the Rising Sun.”
The world is all kinds of scary and exhausting lately. For those of us that feel everything strongly it’s sometimes hard to function. So I have some advice for you:
It’s okay to rest and take care of yourself.
Seriously, sometimes you have to take a little moment to yourself for joy. If you worry and stress all the time you’ll feel like crap. I know it feels counter intuitive but you’ve got to do it and shut the little voice off. I know it’s easier said than done but try.
My current way of relaxing, other than reading and writing, is watching fun YouTube science stuff. Like this:
It’s hard not to smile and join in the sense of wonder.
Take care of yourself.
Stay safe and be kind (that includes being kind to yourself),
“Winging It” is a queer YA portal fantasy romance. A wedding and a summer camp that Tommy and Carter are never going to forget. The only way they, and their relationship, can survive is if they start Winging It!
The story is in the title and it’s very much an early 2000’s take on Cinderella. There’s an almost made-for-TV feel to it.
Score: 0
Characters
The characters are dated clichés from a bad take on a John Hughes movie. Although the actors manage to perform the roles with charm, they can’t overcome the script. The good characters are flawless (except that she’s too nice and he’s too popular. Oh, and both of them don’t want to confront their parents.) and the villains are reprehensible.
Score: 0.5
Dialogue
There’s some funny lines and some adorable flirting but the absolute industrial quantity of body and food shaming is disgusting.
Seriously? How did the early 2000’s think this was okay? How the hell did we go from Jennifer Coolidge being a sex symbol in 1999 to her being considered disgusting in this movie? The woman’s acting is perfect in both, but we don’t need the body and beauty shaming to show she’s ugly on the inside (as the character!).
Score: 0
Visuals and Music
The camera work was okay but everything felt very made-for-TV quality.
The music was a lot of fun and nostalgic.
Score: 1
Fun
I enjoyed the movie to a certain extent. I love the Cinderella archetype and it makes for fun movies, but this one doesn’t hold up well.
The kids enjoyed it, but not to the point of wanting to rewatch it later.
Score: 0.5
Overall
A dated take on Cinderella that is held together by the charm of the actors, but even their skill isn’t enough to save it.
Yesterday an election was called. We’re going to be voting for the Prime Minister on April 28th.
I swear I heard a deep voice scream, “Choose Your Fighter” followed by this song:
Choose Your Fighter
This election is about choosing who will fight for Canada, who will apply the policies to ensure our sovereignty and our best interests.
I honestly think what we need is an economist, not a career politician. Think of it this way:
Who do you want upgrading your computer? The salesman or the tech geek? We don’t need the CPC’s salesman, we need someone who understands economies and international trade. Especially when that salesmen is buddy-buddy with the backers of Trump.
Sell our Country or protect it? It’s your choice, and not voting is a vote to become an American territory. (There’s no way in hell that they’re giving us the ability to vote.)
In response to Bishop Mariann Budde urging Trump to show mercy and compassion at the inauguration, a deacon called Ben Garrett urged people not to “commit the sin of empathy”.
It was a weird, backward, way of talking, so I assumed they were a fringe idiot getting their ten minutes of mockery.
Ironically, he’s talking about using emotional manipulation to control how people react. I say ironically because he does this all the time.
Weaponizing empathy isn’t a new thing, it’s as old as humanity and it can be devastating. It’s used in a lot of charity scams where they show starving babies and then beg you to give money.
Now to go from saying that there are unscrupulous people preying on our empathy to saying that empathy is a weakness or even a sin, is a fundamental misunderstanding of what it means to be human.
Some days it’s hard to believe it, but empathy is as much part of humanity as fear. I believe that empathy is one of our species’ biggest strengths.
The real sin and the real weakness in all civilizations is the ability to convince ourselves that others aren’t human. The ability to dehumanize, or other, a group of people through language, action, and even laws is the reason for a lot of humanity’s problems.
Hate’s two favourite tools are fear and dehumanization.
When you’re choosing what or who to believe, idolize, or vote for; look at how they treat those that are different from them, especially those less powerful.
Being empathic and working at understanding others is never a weakness, and if God sees it as a sin then I’d rather be a sinner. We can only progress as a people if we treat each other with respect and not only accept but revel in our differences.
“Winging It” is a queer YA portal fantasy romance. A wedding and a summer camp that Tommy and Carter are never going to forget. The only way they, and their relationship, can survive is if they start Winging It! Cover artist: @pinkpiggy93 Universal book link: https://www.jeneric-designs.ca/UBL-WingingIt WingingIt original pinkpiggy93 artist book YA 2SLGBTQ+ LowStakes queer romance STEM music JenDesmarais author PressesRenaissancePress Canadian booktok
Every book utilizes tropes, even if it’s to subvert them, and Winging It is no exception. This book covers: Queer, Young Adult, STEM & music, portal fantasy, Hidden magical world, Dual POV, No angst romance, and Detailed worldbuilding.
Winging It by Jen Desmarais is available now! Cover Art by Pinkpiggy93
