Honorable [much-needed] mention

This blog will be brief, but I had to take a little time after a long day at NYC (that I may choose to write about tomorrow when I'm wider awake) to type up a little something that has to be mentioned for today. Though for a couple reasons I cannot reveal who these words are for (his privacy & protection), December 13th is significant enough that I have to post them.

Ten years ago on December 13 1999, I fell in love with someone that I had spent quite some time with during my recovery from surgery. He came into my life that August, but we'd become nearly inseparable since I had a dream about him. We'd been growing close in the weeks before that because school wasn't keeping us apart, but never had as much a connection as we did after that dream.
In the dream, I only had a few clues about what was happening. He was extremely ill, nobody knew why, I came to be there either watching the scene as on a screen or I was actually there. Using the things I already knew about it, I spent the following day to paint a picture that would explain that dream to me. Two short stories followed and the third one was the charm. I don't remember exactly how it happened, but I may have penned it on the 13th when I realized there was something special between us.
In these 10 years, both of us have changed in a lot of different ways. He even more than I and with my college schedule the past few years, we were starting to drift apart.

But the truth is... you never really do forgot your first love. And I still feel that same way about the person I got to know through my writing and outside of it. Part of me always will, but once I find my true soulmate, that will take away nearly every reason I needed him in my life to begin with.

Coming soon:
A comparison blog on Backstreet Boys & *NSYNC (who's oddly winning the fight right now )
A little on the trip to NYC today (some of the events made me wish I had thought to bring a notebook to write them down)
A couple of Christmas blogs whether in the present or nostaglic about the past

Prince at yesterday's Vikings game

I may have considered the possibility when I started watching the Vikings shortly after getting into Prince's music, but I don't think I'd ever see it happen. It's funny how he can be the last thing on my mind and show up completely out of nowhere.

It's hard to tell if he was enjoying himself, though there was good reason to with the Vikings dominating the game. But you never know with him.
The commentors made a comment that he changes his name more than his expressions. Funny yes, but not exactly true. Only had two name changes. To O(+> and back from O(+>. At least they gave him the respect he deserves (not to mention, showed him in the VIP box not once, but twice).

On the note of an avid football fan, yesterday was probably one of the best days of football I'd ever seen.
Sure, the Eagles won, the Colts are still undefeated and the Vikings had an awesome game, but winning wasn't necessarily what blew me away about yesterday (though part of it).

I got to see Brett Favre really play. It'd been quite a while since I'd watched him and there's no denying that he is still one of the greatest there ever was. There's just something about the way he throws, the way he knows which way to throw the ball. He fits in really well with this Viking team who probably just needed a strong leader to get them to the next step.
When you compare this team to, say, the Patriots, Colts and even the Saints, would they be able to stand up to them? These powerhouses with several weapons (I hate the Patriots with a passion, but can't deny the whole team is to be reckoned with, not just Tom Brady). Would the Vikings with Brett Favre at the helm be able to make it to the Super Bowl or better yet, win?
Against the Colts, I'd say they have a good chance. But against the Patriots, its hard to say. Very few can beat the Patriots (though there have been several this year). What you need to beat them comes down to have just as strong a leader as Tom Brady, if not stronger, a team with enough perservence and endurance to force the game into overtime or even a final two minutes where even a field goal could make all the difference.

The reason Peyton Manning managed to beat the Patriots a couple weeks ago came down to his endurance, giving him the ability to come back from a huge deficit. But of course, you can't ignore the fact that the Patriot's head coach made a judgement error and used up his final timeout, leaving him unable to challenge a play on 4th down with 2:05 to go.

After being treated a great showing of Brett Favre's mad skills, I was paying extra attention to some of the plays during the last game of the night between the Ravens and Steelers. None of the quarterbacks that day had the same calibar as Favre, but Joe Flacco did make some great passes. He has that killer instinct as well and that's saying a lot for a relative newbie to his team.

Every year I've watched football since 1995, I've learned something new about the game and taken a new part into account. This year, I think I'll be keeping an extra good eye on all of the quarterbacks and the way the team moves in response to him. Now that I know what the best of the best looks like in action, I can compare the rest of the quarterbacks to him. Tonight should be a great opportunity for that, to see if Tom Brady can be toppled by up-and-coming star, Drew Brees. I'm not huge on the Saints and actually want to see them loss so the Colts can be the only undefeated team left, but it'd be interesting to see if Drew Brees can be put in the same class as Brady and even if Brady can one day be considered in the same class with Brett Favre.

Now if Brady played with another team, I might not hate him as much, but he makes the Patriots look too good. So much that its an impossibility. There's no such thing as that kind of perfection in the NFL.

Naturally after seeing Prince at the Vikings game, I had to listen to a couple of his songs before retiring last night. The first three songs of 3121, followed by Love, Fury, The Word & The Dance.

I find myself listening to the little things, especially in the first two songs. Been doing so all week whenever I play the album in the car. The synthesizer he's using for "Lolita" and "3121" is actually the same as the one he's used in his music for years. It makes the same sounds and everything, but its just a different key that makes it sound like an organ at a baseball game (sorry for the lame refererence, but I've got nothing else). The big thing missing from a lot of the songs, especially early on in the album is multiple instruments. Prince is only relying on synthesizers to set the beat and its just something that repeats itself over and over with a couple additions here and there.
That reminds me a little of some of the hip-hop songs I've been coming across on the radio the past couple years and I'm actually talking about ones that I like. I can't believe I'm saying it either.

I won't go as far to say that I'll invest in any of these hip-hop artists regarding albums, but they do have some good songs on the radio. What makes a hip-hop song listenable in my opinion comes down to one of two things.
The beat has to be catchy
and/or
The artist has to be able to sing and the melody is something that requires fluctuating notes

Jay Sean's "Down" is one of them. I know Lil' Wayne is featured in it for one verse, but other than that, the song is catchy as hell.
Then there's a song I just heard for the first time a couple weeks ago on "So you think you can dance." But the funny thing was that I heard it on the radio the next day and didn't know where I'd heard it before... then connected it to the show after some thought.
Jason Derulo's "Whatcha Say" has a nice beat that repeats, but there's a melody that goes along with it that sounds really nice. Even with the voice modifier and his back-up singers are using.

There's also a duet between Ne-Yo and another artist I can't remember. Might have been Kanye for all I know. I think it was called "Phone call" or something like that. Something I gotta google, lol. I've only heard it a couple times, but it sounds nice. I already like Ne-Yo's stuff, but have yet to invest in any album. He's not hip-hop, rather R&B, but one of the best songwriters of this up and coming generation.
"Excuse me little mama if I make. Take this.... and send it your way. If you don't like that, then send it right back. I just gotta say..." [and the three dots simply mean I don't know the rest of the words]

Coming Soon...

Yesterday, I could only take along one CD for a car ride. I chose a mix I burned a couple years ago with songs from all three *NSYNC albums. Really does take me back. And I've been checking into a lot of music I listened to 10 years ago. Back when I could describe my taste in music as "mainstream pop". Now, I can only call it bubblegum pop, a mixture between BSB, *NSYNC and Britney Spears.

But now that I'm actually starting to see the differences between the music of The Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC, that might be my next blog project. Should be very interesting :D

Finishing what I started... and much frustration

That's the main problem a lot of people have. I'm sure that every person has had this problem at one time or another. And all for a number of reasons.

Myself, I have trouble finishing reading books more often than not. Either I slowly lose interest, which can be compared to a slow, agonizing death, or something else comes up that is twice as interesting and I forget the other completely.

I'll try not to let that happen to "Wuthering Heights" just because its already pretty interesting. But with Twilight hysteria bigger than ever with the arrival of "New Moon," I'm becoming more interested in not only reading "Twilight" for probably the 7th time, but also going to be picking up "Breaking Dawn" for the first time since the first time I read it.
I had the same problem with "Interview with a Vampire," but we're comparing two different kinds of vampires here. A lot of die-hard vamp fans might have me burned at the stake for saying this, but I prefer my kind of vampires. The ones that seem just like regular teenagers, but with supernatural powers. I've tried two other series of vampires outside of Twilight & The House of Night, both have left me a bit disappointed so I'm not going to be picking up the sequals anytime soon.

The strangest thing is with some of the books I've picked up: they don't have many pages. I checked recently and found that "Twilight" nearly has 500 pages. The Harry Potter books range from 300-870 pages and I've read every single one of them. What is the difference between those and anything else I hadn't gotten around to finishing?

I'm a sucker for the fantasy genre. There's no other way about it.
Well, that's not completely true. I've read through "Angels & Demons" and "The DaVinci Code," both aren't fantasy, but have some sci-fi elements to them. And I found "The DaVinci Code" incredibly interesting. Unlike anything else I'd read before. It's 592 pages (just checked) and it wasn't all that hard to get through.

Last I checked, I have three books now that I have read at least half way through and haven't bothered to finish. "Memoirs of a Geisha" I'll now probably have to read from the beginning because I stopped more than halfway through when all other stuff started coming up. "Wuthering Heights" I'll have to get a move on, but I've got a lot more interests right now. When I'm done reading "Twilight" again,  I'll probably start back on "Wuthering Heights" which I'll bring to work with me. Then I'll read "Breaking Dawn" after the sun goes down at night for some reason, that was a habit I picked up when I read it the first time. But it was more of a concidence. I was so busy with classes during the day that I had no choice but to give it an hour or two every night. And that worked for me pretty well.

"Interview with a Vampire" I'll have to get through the next 200 pages at some point, but just don't have the feel for it right now.

All this Twilight hysteria has gotten me more interested in looking over something I wrote while I was getting off the high of reading that series. Bits and pieces are based on the world of Twilight.

The story begins when my heroine's dad dies in a car accident and she has no other choice but to live with her mom in Alaska. Her parents separated years ago when her mom, being the free-spirit she is, couldn't stay in the bonds of marriage any longer and spent the past several years living in different parts of the country. This particular move is more permanent.
For years my heroine has harbored something of a grudge towards her mom mostly on behalf of her dad, who never quite got over his first love.
Anyone who doesn't know Alaska is under the impression that its a desolete wasteland when it is growing more and more accustomed to the modern era. There's maybe one or two areas in my fictional version of the place where times are changing. The high school and the outdoor shopping center I called Nanook.
At the same time, I'm trying to work out somewhat of a love triangle between the heroine, her jock boyfriend back home (who is starting to remind me of Zoey Redbird's old boyfriend Heath in the House of Night series) and the somewhat mysterious Inuit youth she meets her first day at Nanook's resident Starbucks. I gave myself very little time at the end of the book to write the character of her soon-to-be ex Andrew and the break-up was a little too easy. I'm not sure if its even believable. It makes a reference to an Ibsen play, but it sounds almost cliche, an easy way out rather than there being a real conflict. The conflict I only make note of through the book when Hallie talks to Joey about Andrew. How she's a different person with the two different guys.
What separates this a little from what I did before is that the scenes between Hallie & Joey when they got more involved with one another are getting beyond PG and going into PG-13, maybe slightly beyond that at the very end. I'll just call it second-base. And I also make a couple Siberian huskies and a wolf secondary characters. They don't speak, but their expressions are described as if they were human. Ultimately, the wolf is the embodiment of Hallie's dad's spirit and shows up throughout the book to either save her life in the harsh Alaskan wilderness or just to help fill void within her that formed from her dad's death.

Mostly I wanted to read some parts again because another character, Trevor has become Hallie's "Jacob Black" but the two aren't involved romantically ever. She considers it briefly, but he ends up with her female friend, Alicia.
In some ways, though, Joey is a mixture of Edward & Jacob. He's got the mysterious thing going on, but because he's Inuit, he has strong feelings about his family and his roots. And he wants to stay true to his family's ways, not very into how times are changing in the world around him. Then in other ways, he's very close to my character, Jonas, one of my more beloved characters that I'd ever created. They have the mysterious thing going on, but Jonas is probably even more mysterious and a bit of an oddball in comparison. But anyone who's a reincarnated angel would be an oddball.

I started this entry with the following thing in mind:
I have trouble finishing what I start and it's not just reading books from start to finish.

Writing novels from start to finish are another thing completely on their own. 80% of the time, I finish one of my stories. The trick comes in the editing phase and I find that to be more difficult than anything else.
It's odd to say this, but when I write my stuff, it's like I'm writing about an event that happened to me personally. Something that actually happened to me. It can't embellish true events, just like I can't rewrite an old passage as if it happened that same day. I'm a different person now than I was when I wrote whatever it is I'm working on. It's impossible to write it in the same tone, the same voice as I did back then. And I'm having an even more difficult time trying to explain what that means.
When I write something from start to finish, I believe the story is finished and there's not much else I can do to it. Editing is something you have to do as a writer, but sometimes there just isn't anything else I dread more than having to edit something. I'll have an idea of what I can do, but I rarely follow through with it completely. I feel the need to work on something else and that's what's happening now. The only editing I can do with success is adding more dialogue or even writing a chapter completely over from scratch.

I consider "What if's" and "What could have been's" a lot. And my story about Jonas has one very big what-if. When I was writing one particular chapter, the power went out and I lost it completely. So when the power came back on, I had to write it all over again from the vision I had in my head. It wasn't exactly the same as what I had before the power outage. And I think I'd even written it all over again, yet again. The first time I printed it out and had someone read it, I found one chapter in particular to be difficult to understand. So I went back and rewrote it from scratch and it turned out better than I could have imagined.
Now I wonder what would have happened to that chapter if the power hadn't gone out.

It's great to have a lot of different things I've written. But I find a few problems with that all the time. One I'm starting to find is that a lot of my characters blend together. I write the same types of characters all the time. The male lead is mysterious and the best is brought out in them because of their love interest/girlfriend.

Then when I'm looking over my writing, I know for sure that I have a definite style that I've literally bred into myself. It's something I can't get rid of and sometimes my repeated phrases annoy the hell out of me because they span across all of the books I've written. The one main difference I did with my story in Alaska that I hadn't done anywhere is is description. In the settings and also in the ways my characters speak and relate to each other.

More than ever, I wish I had someone to talk to about this.

And I'm getting to thinking that there's no way I alone can edit my own works. Almost if I feel I have to hire someone to read my stories and tell me what works and doesn't. Someone who knows what they're doing. I suppose that's one of the things an agent does, but I've had little success with that as well. I think that none of my stories are good enough to publish because there's a lot of editing to be done. I wrote on my story on Jonas over six years ago and I've went through it and edited the whole story on two different occasions. The first time, I was sending it to Vantage Press and got rejected (I got a lucky break with that one because they'd been noted for counts of fraud). The second time, I sent it to publishamerica.com, only to find from prince.org of all places that that place is no good. Clearly I don't know what I'm looking for.

Then the only other thing I can think to do is shop around for an agent. If they look my story, they'll put in a good word for me with any of the publishers that are most likely to accept my manuscript. They say that if you want to publish, go with a company that has published stories that are close to yours. The ones that do that all require agents or "solicitied writers".
Perhaps the biggest problem I have is the fact I'm not writing a series of books. My characters are all independant of each other, with maybe two exceptions that share common destinies. The one thing they all have in common is that they're young adult fiction with elements of romance and fantasy.

I'd go shop around for an agent now if I had anything finished and that I think is good enough to put in book stores. I always that that my story on Jonas would be my first one, but I don't know if that's even ready to be shown around to agents. I'd written a lot of different things since then and I'm not that person anymore. There's little more I can do to it before it deviates completely from the original story.

The biggest challenge I have is writing a synopsis for it with a word/sentence limit. You're asking the wrong girl for that job, lol. That's why Twitter would be a huge mistake for me. I can't limit myself to 140 characters when I write, just not possible.

It's great that I have a large catalogue of work already, but the one problem with that is that I have a large catalogue of work. I can compare it to digging my own grave or bottomless pit that I can never climb out of with all the work I have to do. Or, I can be a purpleheaded geek and compare it to Prince's number of vaults with unreleased music. The way I write my stories can be compared to the songs he writes. He's in a particular state of mind with some of them and once that mood passes, that's it. He's onto the next thing and there's no such thing as second chances.

Perhaps the worst of it is that nobody has read my work. Ok, almost nobody. Some is published on various websites. Members of my family have seen some of my works. But none of it has reached anyone of substantial standing that can help me do anything with it.
Time I'm finding is my biggest enemy. Because I have a real job, there's not much time left for my writing. But I've mentioned this several times before.

I always have an itch to write something new, but to be realistic, I can't do that right now when I have so much in front of me. My number one problem for getting started is the money issue. Anything that's going to help me require I pay for a subscription. Because someone else sees and pays my credit card balance, its out of the question right now. That's the only downside from living at home with my parents, them providing the basic necessities. Sure, I'm legal and technically an adult, but I still have to follow the rules of the house. And getting such a subscription will only lead to a lecture. My dad seems to be the only person in my life who disapproves of me as a writer, thinking I have better things to do and that writing is just a hobby.

Now I ask: how can you say that writing 100-page stories is a hobby? It'd say that's something extremely serious and not to be taken lightly. Who writes something of that length in their spare time? Someone serious about writing. My seriousness can be critiqued a bit on the grounds that I'm no closer to being published than I was a year ago.

Nothing is in this world comes for free and that's a sentiment that nothing in this world sucks anymore than. Just doesn't. Even shopping for an agent requires a damn subscription fee.

This is starting to feel like being in show biz. You have to know somebody to get where you want to go.

OMG, I'm completely screwed, aren't I?
[resting head on computer desk with hands over head, groaning]

On a lighter night, I think I may be done with Musicology. The next thing I can do is watch Prince's performance on the NAACP awards when he received the Vanuguard award. Then it'll be 3121 for the next couple weeks. Oh boy, can't wait for that.

"New Moon" review *Spoilers Included*

With this entry, I'm going to include my original assumptions about the movie and what lived up to what and what surpassed what.

In a nutshell, my expectations were completely surpassed in almost every area and I can't think of the area right now where it wasn't.

The critics didn't like this movie very much and I think it can all be summed up with a sentence.

THEY DIDN'T READ THE BOOK

Seriously, you can't understand the movie's context unless you've read the books. Let's just say that if I hadn't read the book (and it's been at least four times), I would have been miserable through the whole thing.
A lot of blame was put on Bella's character who was "painful to be around."
Read the book to get a clue, loser critics. You may know a thing or two about what makes a good movie, but you obviously don't know anything about how it works in the Twilight universe.
Several people on webook.com and a couple other places have nagged on Stephenie Meyer's writing. Saying that her work is hard to get through and very boring because nothing happens. These people are used to vampire fiction where vampires are killers instead of beings with human emotions. While I'm on the subject, there was a preview for a movie called "Daybreakers" that takes place in a world of vampires and their "blood supply" is running out with the slow decline of the human population. The concept looks great, but the way the true vampires are shown in the movie, I don't think I could still through it in the theater without running out screaming or even hyperventialing/vomiting at some point. I found the trailer hard to watch in some parts because it was just too intense.

I've gotten through the first 100 pages of "Interview with a Vampire" and stopped because I wanted to read about my kind of vampires. The ones Twilight introduced me to. So they're the Diet Coke or even Coke Zero of all vampires. That being the case, maybe Coke Zero because the Coke people are convinced that Coke Zero "stole their taste".
I've been contemplating writing my own vampire novel, but anything I come up with is going to be far too close to Twilight no matter how I bite or slice it. But now I'm starting to think more about rereading the story I wrote shortly after Twilight became part of my personal library. Especially later on because there's a character who becomes something of a Jacob Black. A little protective of my heroine and believes that my "Edward" is the reason for what happens to her.
This whole matter takes place at the aftermath of a dogsled race, so I doubt there was a way for Joey to keep an eye on Hallie while he was busy winning the race. Long story, I know. I'm disappointed that its not even 200 pages. I went through a lot of notebook paper writing it. For that matter, Stephenie said that she started writing Twilight from a dream and when she finished, it was the length of a book. I cannot even begin to fathom how she wrote a near 500-page novel when she hadn't written a thing in her life. I wish I could get past the 200 page mark.

Now onto the movie. I put a great bit of my overally positive reception on the new director. The way he shot it and showed the different character was exactly what I wanted from the book. What I think Twilight should have been when it made it to the big screen. And as I might have said at some point, Kirsten Stewart is brilliant at teen angst and if there was going to be a shining moment for her as an actress in the series, it would be this movie.

And she did the job I expected she would. ;)

I'm going to list all of my assumptions and in bold/italtics, I'll put what really happened and then some.

So the following are my predicted scenes/non-scenes that will appear in "New Moon."

1. There will be only two minutes to focus on Bella's birthday when she's at school (maybe not at all). The movie will probably start with chapter 1, with the dream and go right to the scene at the Cullens

The dream was somewhat different than what it was in the book. It takes place in Edward's meadow and slowly backs away until Bella "becomes" her grandmother at the end of the dream. And there are a good 7 minutes just on Bella's birthday, including a scene with Charlie, her human friends, and a bonus, Jacob Black with a dreamcatcher. Oddly, Edward makes a comment that Jacob can give Bella gifts but he can't... something that isn't said until the next book. Jasper's gift is exploited with the scene where Alice invites her over for a party, which is also a bonus and it makes up for what he doesn't do in the first book.

1. She and Edward will not be watching Romeo & Juliet and there won't be that scene where he is critical of Romeo (there is much to debate as to whether or not he will allude to killing himself or any such introduction of the Volturi)

They didn't watch it at her house as it was in the book. In fact, Charlie and Edward had no scenes together at all. If so it would have been extremely awkward. They are actually watching this in class and there is the discussion about souls, being damned, and the Volturi. The funny part is the teacher asks Edward to quote a line from the play to make sure he was paying attention. Which he did. I can't help but wonder if he knew that or he was reading the teacher's mind

1. The dramatic scene at the Cullens' house will be a quick climax. The only present shown is the airplane tickets (possibly, still don't know if that trip will be included in the next film). All will last only three minutes (adding two maybe for the confrontation between Edward and Jasper)

Takes a good couple of minutes and all of the gifts are mentioned except for the tickets because that's where the paper cut happens. The climax with Jasper was almost in the blink of an eye the way it was written in the book.

1. There won't be a scene on her getting stitches, but a return to Charlie's house with a loose explanation of the newfound injury [actually, I was completely wrong and the reverse is what happens, ending this scene with a goodbye kiss outside of the Swan residence.]
2. Only a minute or two will go by in montage before the scene where Edward takes Bella into the woods  [I was right about this, though barely can be considered a montage. None of the Cullens are in school the following day]

1. The "goodbye" in the woods will only last as long as the hospital scene between them in the first film

I was right about this and it was a good chunk of time. The break-up scene lasts five pages in the book (supposedly, according to Robert Pattinson in one interview) and it feels like it lasts that long. Throughout the whole movie, I was thinking that my heart was going to take a toll from beating so fast in anticipation and anxiety. This scene took a good amount of that because I knew what was inevitable and I waited in pain as Bella rushes through the woods to find Edward when he leaves. So true to the book and well done.

1. the last scene where Bella's awake will be Sam Uley and Charlie finding her in the woods

There's actually a large Quilette search party outside of the Bella house waiting for an update. Charlie tries to locate Carlisle and the Cullens and finds that they've completely left town. And Jacob is actually part of the search party. Again, I was right about this.

There will be a lot of debate about how we get from mid-September to mid-January. Perhaps a montage will take place where Bella's catatonic. Then several dream sequences where she wakes up screaming, with Charlie rushing in to check on her less and less. My best guess is that the scene where she wakes up and gets into a huge fight with Charlie, who wants to send her off to Florida. Charlie told Alice later in the book about her throwing a tantrum (as well as clothes) all over her bedroom... I get the feeling that that scene won't take place so late in the film since we're not going exclusively from Bella's POV.

Just as I thought: a montage. I doubt there was a better way to do it, but I can't think of anything better. The names of the months are on the screen and it shows Bella looking out her bedroom window, sitting completely still and catontic as the seasons change outside. After a while, I'm thinking, almost saying out loud: "I'm getting dizzy" because the room was just spun around in circles very slowly as the seasons change and Bella doesn't.
Charlie gives his two cents to Bella, telling her at her truck before she goes to school that he wants to send her down to Jacksonville, but she doesn't want to. She's very subtle in her responses. Then there's some funny dialogue when she says she's going shopping with Jess and Charlie's awkward because he's not in his element with girls and shopping. And I was right about the times where Bella's screaming in her sleep and Charlie comes in. I would be more than willing to see this movie more times if not for those scenes because I find them scary. I could see myself in her place all too easily. I feel that pain. Which is why I found the book hard to read the first time. I was miserable right along with her.
And another interesting thing they did. Bella's narration in the book was shown in emails she sent to Alice, though they're all returned "Unknown Sender". It's a good way to get through the pain.

1. Bella asks Jessica to go to Port Angeles with her when she returns to school for the next scene and it will be brief (if it is shown at all) [true, though the invitation takes place over a phone call]
2. The scene at Port Angeles will be of very good length, including flashbacks from the previous film and a shadow of Edward will appear, telling her not to get mixed up with the mysterious men. [true, true, though Bella takes a ride on the back of a stranger's motorcycle and that doesn't happen in the book. And Jessica is actually as she is in the book.]
3. Several scenes will show Bella with her arm around her chest, trying to hold herself together and keep the hole from getting bigger [a few scenes, but present]
4. How she obtains the motorcycles will be shown very differently in the movie, may be very brief [Just going off to La Push with the motorcycles, randomly, no mention of how she got them]

1. There will be a short scene with her and Jake when she brings the motorcycles to his house in La Push. [Actually, its a very decent scene/montage. Great length and relationship building. And Quil and Embry show up to rag on Jake, something I wasn't expecting them to keep in the movie. Even better, they kept the whole "age contest" in the movie, though they didn't quite make a conclusion about who was the oldest based on their crazy little system that only they understand]

1. The scene on the actual motorcycle, on the other hand, will be a lot longer and will probably take place over several montages with Edward's face passing her as she rides by. Judging from one of the trailers, Jessica finds out about it and she asks if Bella's an adrenaline junkie now  [No montage, there's only one scene with the motorcycle and after Bella crashes, Jake tells her never again. And Jess makes that comment after she takes the ride from the stranger on the motorcycle... never did see Jake's completed Rabbit]
2. Bella will see some of the La Push kids cliff-diving and freak out and Jake explains it to her, as well as there being a brief introduction to Sam Uley's "gang" [yes, yes]
3. The "date" with Mike and Jake won't be taking place most likely [actually scene was added at the last minute].  Bella tries to call Jake and can't get a hold of him for several days. One scene will have her talking with Charlie, trying to see what's going on... might be a mention of the virus going around, but not 100% sure

According to Mike when Bella returns to their lunch table, "Bella's back." He asks her to the movies and she agrees if they see "Face Punch". She then makes it a group date. Of course everyone else bails because of the flu going around. Another thing, Eric & Angela are still together whereas Angela is dating Ben now instead of Eric. This scene was definitely one of the best in the entire movie because the rivalry between Mike & Jake is hilarious :D They include a scene where Jake tries to confront Bella about what Edward did to her. Ends with both of them feeling sick and/or burning up. This is followed by a montage of phone messages Bella leaves Jake. Around this point, Bella wakes up screaming from a nightmare and Charlie makes a comment that Jake has helped keep the dreams away (unlike the dream catcher he gave her for her birthday)

1. Bella next sees Jake at his house in La Push with Embry, Jared, Paul and Sam. They're secretive, whispering to each other and Jake gives her the downlow "we can't be friends anymore." She throws a fit, which Charlie sees, but doesn't make the call to Billy.

Dramatically this break-up scene takes place in the rain, but it does in the book. Just been Jake and Bella and the other werewolves are in the distance waiting for him. This scene, I was mostly mourning the loss of Jake's long locks of shiny black hair. It's a wig, true, but it made him work for me.

1. When Jake comes into Bella's bedroom to explain himself, it will be a decent sized scene, soon to follow with the dream where Edward and Jake go after each other.

It is what happens, though the dream isn't quite what I was expecting. It wasn't the confrontation they show in the commercials. They show a scene with Jake & Edward, following with narration from Jake about the story he told Bella in the last book

1. It's hard to tell when the scene at the Meadow will take place. Somewhere before Jake comes into her bedroom and tells her they can't be friends. There will also be a couple of mentions of giant bears or wolves attacking hikers (mostly from Charlie)

Takes place after Jake "breaks up" with Bella. Eric and Angela are having a bet about whether she was right about the "bears" in the woods and Bella says Charlie has gotten reports about them. It's a good sized scene right out of the book and the confrontation of Laurent and Bella is really good. The werewolves go after him and Jake's wolf looks at Bella before he runs with the rest of the pack. The scene ends with her talking to Charlie and Harry, saying that she saw the "bears" and that they're giant wolves.

1. This all follows with Bella and Jake walking on La Push beach. Also brings Victoria back into the picture

Bella goes to Jake's house, finds Jake asleep and confronts Sam and the other werewolves when she next sees them. After slapping Jared, he transforms and Jake comes running out of the house and transforms to fight with him. Great CGI action here. I don't think this is how it happened in the book, but I don't even remember anymore. After going to Emily's for a short scene and Jared apologizes as if nothing happens, Jake and Bella walk down the beach to talk about Laurent and Victoria.

1. The next big scene will take place at Emily's house with all of the oversized La Push boys pigging out. Jared and Jake's fight may or may not take place beforehand, somewhat of a confrontation between Bella and Sam before the fight

As I said early, the fight does take place, but the scene at Emily's is barely a minute long. They accomplished all the important points (Emily's face, "you're the wolf/vampire girl", way for Jake to get around the rules and the shared mind)

The scenes that transpire between now and Alice's reapperance are anybody's guess. I can't remember what happens between then and there in the book. Alice returns the scene after Bella cliff-dives and is rescued. (with Edward's voice and face there, Victoria's red hair but not her face, and Edward's face is replaced by Jake's when he saves her)

Mostly a bunch of montages. Harry and Charlie are looking for the wolves in the woods and don't find anything. Victoria tries to come after Charlie, but Harry gets in her way. Charlie's unaware of this of course and she's the reason he has the heart attack and dies. We don't realy find out why he has the heart attack in the book, but this could be a good reason for it. Bella then chooses now to go cliff-diving and its a lengthy scene with her seeing Victoria coming after her, Jake rescuing her and taking her back home.

1. There will be no mention of Harry's death and if any, it will be very brief. Alice shows up in Bella's kitchen and tells Bella that Edward thinks she's dead and he's going to the Volturi to ask for them to kill him. She says (and/or Edward's voice is heard) "You don't provoke the Volturi unless you want to die"... not sure whether Charlie appears and talks to Alice

Very brief mention of Harry's death and that Charlie is over at the Clearwater's place. Jake tries to keep Bella out of the house when he senses Alice's prescene, but she refuses to listen to him. He doesn't seem happy at all to let her in the house. Alice asks her why she's still alive because she saw her jump off the cliff. Bella explains. Then Alice says that Edward is spending a lot of time on his own and only calls in once in a while. She then smells the werewolf on her and Jake comes in to make sure she's safe. The two have a very close moment that is ruined by Edward's phone call. When Bella asks him who it was, Alice races in, saying that Edward thinks Bella's dead. And as a bonus, they show Edward on the other side of the phone and him breaking it in his hand.

1. This quickly follows with a scene between Jake and Bella, him telling her not to go because Edward had hurt her before and there's no telling if he'll do it again. [true, true, and I definitely would have shoved him for what he did over the phone]
2. May or may not be a scene on the airplane where Alice is trying to see whether or not the Volturi accept Edward's offer. [just shows the plane flying and Alice tells her about the vision in the car]
3. The scene quickly accelerates to Alice racing through Rome in a yellow Porsche (for their sake, I hope they get the car right) and Bella running to stop Edward from exposing himself

Very lengthy scene. And they got the car right :D The race through Italy on foot feels like it takes forever, especially in the slow motion part when she runs into Edward to force him back into the darkness

1. "Carlisle was right" will be his first reaction to Bella knocking him down [they have a very touching reunion scene where they're kissing in each other's arms. Much longer than I thought it would be]
2. The Volturi quickly take the trio underground to the heads of their organization. [the tunnels don't look very old and they actually have an elevator. they don't get to them very quickly and actually give them a few moments of making out before breaking things up.]
3. The scene underground showing the powers of Jane, Aro and Caius will take a good part of the film, 10-15 at best. Big fight scene [yes and yes. Aro's character was exactly as he was in the book, couldn't have been done better. They all try to demonstrate their gifts on Bella with no success. Edward and Felix fight and Edward is about to be killed by him when Bella asks for them to kill her instead. Aro is very entertained with her and at seeing what Alice sees (very cheesy scene with Bella and Edward running through the woods in slow motion, sparkling in the sun)]
4. Once out of the headquarters, the next scene will be Edward and Bella reuniting with the Cullens at the airport. Rosalie being overgrateful will be a huge inclusion. [doesn't happen. The next scene is Bella having a nightmare after hearing the incoming tourists screaming and Felix coming after Edward, and Edward's there when she wakes up. This scene is very short where they are talking about where they stand or rather Edward talking about where they stand. Bella doesn't say it, but she seems to feel like she's afraid he's going to leave again. And I feel the same]
5. Edward carries Bella back inside with Charlie being extremely furious and wanting to throw him out. The two of them then have a good amount of time to talk in the bedroom (a little longer than the hospital scene but shorter than the "goodbye" scene) [neither are true. Though Charlie comes into her bedroom and says she's grounded for the rest of her life for leaving for three days without a word. No mention of the cliffdiving adventure or Edward going to kill himself.]
6. Bella and Edward may or may not go to the Cullens' mansion and have the vote on whether or not to make her one of them.

It's a very good scene. The interaction between the characters is hilarious. Edward is acting as he does in the book, almost being a brat about the whole thing. Jasper's comment was funny "it would be great not wanting to kill you all the time" as was Emmett's "hell yeah". At Carlisle's answer, Edward looks ready to throw a tantrum, but doesn't. I actually wouldn't mind seeing that

1. The last scene will be Jake bringing the motorcycle to Charlie's house and Charlie yelling from the house. Jake and Edward have a short confrontation (but longer than their scene together at prom). The screen fades to black as Edward and Bella walk to the house to face the wrath of Charlie

They're in the woods again and the confrontation with Jake happens. The two don't seem very pleased with one another, though Edward is extremly grateful to Jake. Jake tells Edward that he'll violate the treaty if he changes Bella and he'd have to kill her with the treaty being null & void. She asks Edward to read his mind to see that he would never kill her. What I don't agree with is the fact Bella tells Jake she loves him when she doesn't come close to saying that until the next book. Then he transforms and Bella gets between them, saying that hurting each other would hurt her. At that, Jake runs off in wolf form. I could swore that this scene happens as a dream sequence, but apparently not. The movie then ends with Edward's ultimatum. He says his only condition for changing her into a vampire is that she marries him first. And like that, the screen goes blank. It couldn't have ended on a better note or we'd be hanging forever.

Overall film should be 10-15 minutes longer than the original. [7 minutes, actually]

Final grade: A- (drags on one or two points, and some scenes were hard to watch)