Update on me

Stealing idea from Nessima and others!


Books I've Been Reading:
- Dear America: With the Might of Angels
- Meet Cécile (American Girl)
- Ace Attorney manga (The Miles Edgeworth Files)

Music I've Been Listening To:
- Adrisaurus
- Video game related music, as usual

Videos I've been watching:
- Blimey Cow
- This Time Productions

Things I love and/or can't wait for:
- Musicals (I'm in one and this is our final weekend of shows!)
- Ace Attorney (finished the third game yesterday - the last case was awesome, as always)
- Friends
- Upcoming church events

Other thoughts:
- I was finally able to request a transcript so I can transfer my credits from dual-enrolling to the college I'll be going to this fall! That was tricky to get.
- Three more days of putting on a ton of makeup for stage, then back to looking normal, thankfully. Maybe I'll start wearing a bit on a regular basis, but chances are my laziness will win out and I won't.
- I haven't written a song parody in a while.
- I haven't written anything in a while.
- You're awesome for reading this.

And because some were adding pictures...

Off to practice some music and later put on makeup for the millionth time! Hope this post wasn't too lame - I have one possible post idea for the future, but probably won't have time to write for the next few days. Have a great weekend everyone, and may the Lord be with you!

Video Game Music Remixes

Isn't video game music just awesome? Here are some cool remixes my brother and I found (he probably found most) and enjoyed listening to. Hope you enjoy too!

I've never actually played any Legend of Zelda games, but I must say, Zelda + violin = beautiful. The visuals of this video are gorgeous too!

An a cappella version of the Bowser stage music from Super Mario 64. It's so true to the original song, and interpreted using only voices! Very cool.

Just feel yourself relax. This combines a jazz/soul version of "The Fragrance of Dark Coffee" (from Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations) with the sound of rain and a crackling fireplace. I'm listening to each song as I add it to this post, and I do not want to stop this one.

What if every time Mario died and returned with another "life," he had to come back as a baby and relive his life up to the place he died before? From the webcomic Brawl in the Family (an awesome Nintendo webcomic - check it out!) comes this idea, accompanied by a medley of Mario music from multiple games.

Now to take the reflective mood and utterly destroy it, here is the Bob-Omb Battlefield music from Super Mario 64 combined with the theme song from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. It fits. And yes, two songs related to Super Mario 64 in this post. Sue me. It's one of the best games ever. Arguably.

I usually shy away from remixes, but there are some really great ones out there! Do you have any favorite video game remixes, songs, or soundtracks?

The 11 Tag - part 2

A while ago I did a post on the 11 tag (click here for part one!), and promised answers to the others who tagged me. Well, the questions added up quickly (44!), so I picked five questions from each person that tagged me for this post. If there was a question I skipped that you'd like an answer to, let me know and I'll gladly add it!
 
Voronda's questions:

1. What you dream to be when you get older?
Well, putting aside all worries about majors and careers, I guess one dream I have is to be a better writer and artist, even if they're not things I would pursue as a career.

2. What was yesterday like?
Let's see, yesterday was Saturday (hopefully I'll get this posted before midnight so it will still be yesterday). I practiced some music, went out with my mom and brother (got a Qui-Gon action figure at Target!), came home and did practiced some more music and dancing to relax (for a musical - I don't really know how to dance otherwise!), and eventually went out again with dad for secret mission part one. Dad kept some flowers for Mom at a friend's house as a surprise for Mother's Day and he and I went to plant them in window boxes. I drove around a bit so we'd have a cover story (I got my permit a week or so ago), then came home. We went to church for a while to pray, came home again and eventually Mom went to bed. Dad took my brother and I back to the friend's house to pick up the window boxes for secret mission part two. When we came home we were about to put them in Mom's window, but her light was on! We met her, but she went back to bed soon and after waiting a while, we got the flowers in the window. And she was surprised this morning, which was great. So to make a long story short (too late) yesterday was a little tiring but good.

3. Dream House?
An older house, something kind of small and cozy with a front porch and window seats. And maybe yellow walls in the kitchen with lace curtains.

4. A place where you wished you lived it could be any where?
It used to be the Shire, but I'm not sure now. Maybe Minas Tirith or Naboo. Nope, no real places for me!

5. Would you rather give up music or reading/Writing for a year?
Ask me a couple months ago and it would easily be reading/writing, but now it's harder... Music is a big stress reliever for me (and can be lots of fun) and I've gone long periods of time without reading and writing, so I guess I'd give up reading/writing. Thankfully, though, I don't think I'll ever have to make this choice for real!


Alyianna's (from her main blog):

1. What songs are the most played on your iPod...or whatever you use to play music?
Mostly video game related songs and musicals (and video game musicals!).

2. What was the last movie you watched?
The Phantom Menace in 3D! It was a lot of fun. Oh, that was in March...I don't watch movies too much. I'd really like to re-watch Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva soon, as well as see Captain America and a few others.

3. What was the last blog you were on (besides your own and this one)?
What do you know, Alyianna's other blog - Password to Middle Earth!

4. What was the last thing you laughed at?
Not sure, but it might have been a video my brother showed me and our parents - an interview with Charles Martinet, the voice of Mario, Luigi, Wario, and Waluigi. He kept imitating Mario throughout the video and he seems like a cool guy.


5. Do you like writing stories? If so, what is the story you last worked on/you're working on right now?
I do! My last project was Script Frenzy, a challenge to write 100 pages of a script during the month of April. My script followed a minor character from Ace Attorney, and it was a lot of fun! I've been wanting to write more, but I don't have too many ideas right now.


Alyianna's (from her review blog):

1. Who are your three favourite music artists?
John Williams, The Tolkien Ensemble, and Disney, if they count (they're all listed under "artist" on iTunes, but I've always thought of that term only applying to an individual or band). This does not count a few awesome people on the internet that I've been listening to a lot lately.

2. How many blogs do you follow in total?
70 (oh my, I didn't know it was so many! I may have to clean it out soon), but one is a webcomic, not all of them update, and I don't read all the posts on my dashboard.

3. What type of videos do you watch the most on YouTube?
Mostly video game related ones. Videos where a different audio track is put to pictures or video from a game are a lot of fun. I've been watching some homemade movies lately too.

4. (I'm going to steal Bree's question as well. XD) What is true love to you?
Answer 1: Wanting the absolute best for another person, helping them to be their best, and willing to give yourself to achieve those things. Answer 2: Accepting and loving someone for who they are. Answer 3: From the gospel we read in church today, "No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends."

5. Who is your favourite actor/actress?
Ashley Eckstein and James Arnold Taylor! They seem like really nice people from their facebook pages and what I've heard about them.


And finally Nessima's:

1) You have a choice of being given any super-power; what is it?
Maybe telekinesis - it seems like a rather harmless power and it would be like using the Force! Flying would be cool as well, or maybe healing, but I don't think I actually want a super power.

2) What's your favorite musical instrument? What image comes to mind when you think of this instrument?
I love the piano and violin. I don't have a particular image for a piano, but the violin makes me think of Rohan.

3) Would you rather be divinely beautiful, angelically good, or dazzingly clever?
I might say dazzlingly clever. I don't want to be seen as "perfect," and as long as I look all right, I don't have a strong desire to be divinely beautiful. Maybe if I was dazzlingly clever, I could solve the super hard puzzles from the Professor Layton games (there's a few I haven't solved without help yet)!

4) If you could've been born in any time period (other than your own), what would it be?
The first thing that comes to mind is the 1940s. That's one of my favorite fashion eras, and I've always enjoyed reading about that time.

5) You hear about a new historical or fantasy movie that is coming out soon. You are:
a) Ecstatic: you're favorite dream-boat of an actor is in it!
b) Super-stoked: the book that it's based on is amazing!
c) Excited to see the costumes, of course!
d) Your favorite composer is doing the soundtrack. Need I say more?
e) Going just to see the horses which will undoubtedly be gorgeous.
f) Not going at all; there's a new sci-fi thriller out that begs to watched!
Mostly B, or I'll see a cool movie trailer and then read the book first. C and D would be smaller factors but still there, and F only applies if said sci-fi thriller has something to do with Star Wars.

There you go! Now you know a bit more about me. Thanks for tagging me, girls!

Sorry for once again abandoning this blog! Most of the things that have made me busy for the last few months are done now, so maybe I'll post a bit more often. If anyone is interested, I added a note to the first of Gollum's April Fool's Day posts so you can see what the blog looked like that day. Check it out here.

Have a great day everyone, and may the Lord be with you!

Gollum on The Clone Wars: Brothers

THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS. 
Gollum is a guide of the lands north and west of Mordor and an informant for multiple powers in Middle-Earth.  He is a fishing enthusiast and a skilled waterman, this feat being recognized by King Elessar himself.  When he is not fishing or searching for his precious, Gollum enjoys inventing riddles.

You didn't think we watched The Clone Wars, did you, precious?  Yes, yes, we watch it.  The wizard, the one who interrogates poor Sméagol [Gandalf], we heard that in some video games he is voiced by Tom Kane, who plays Yoda, yes?

What?  Noooo, don't hurt poor Sméagol for breaking the...hm?  The "fourth wall"?  What's the "fourth wall," eh?

The short blogger wanted us to write this before because the episode reminded her of us, precious.  Mmm, it reminds her very much of us.  But we are getting ahead of ourselves.

Sméagol had a nice time watching this episode.  It wasn't our favourite, but we likes it much better than watching the fat hobbit in our movies.

This episode finally has Darth Maul in it.  The short blogger doesn't understand why he is not dead.  Sméagol understands.  Where we come from, many come back to life, yes they do, precious.  Like Wraiths, and the Eye, and the wizard, yes, they all came back once.  But they have magic.  Does Darth Maul have magic, precious?  We doesn't know.  It could have come back with dark magic, or maybe it just doesn't need it's bottom half.

For so many long years, Darth Maul was living in this strange place.  We lived in a cave for a very long time too.  Much longer than it did.  But we are not as crazy, are we, precious?  We wonders what made it insane.  Hate?  Yes, yes, that may be.  It hates the Jedi who took Darth Maul's legs and its position.  Just like we hates Baggins.  He stole our precious!  We hates it!  Hates it!  Forever!  AHHHHH!

Mm, yes, we will go on.

We thought the episode would be good joined with the next one, mmm, or having more story included.  Many of the scenes added something, yes, but didn't amount to much.  But Sméagol is patient and still enjoys it.

Sméagol likes the snake.  It is funny.  We would like someone to bring us things to eat like it does.  Nice rabbits and crunchable birdses!  We are tired of orcses.  And we would like a friend.  Yes, Sméagol would like a friend.

The fat hobbit doesn't count.

That is all we have to say.  We liked the episode, but not as much as the Mon Calamari arc.  Lots of fishess in those, yes precious!  May the precioussss be with you!

The New Master of In Western Lands!

Yesssss!  Precious, precious, my precious, oh my precious!!!  We has it!  The Precious!  We has taken over In Western Lands!

We are now very strong!  We are the master!  Lord Sméagol!  Gollum the Great!  The Gollum!  Yes, we will be called The Gollum!

Fissh, now we has nice fish!  Look!  Look at the sidebar!  Nice, juicy, beautiful fissh!  All for ourselfs, precious!  We doesn't have to share it with the fat hobbit, no precious.  We takes the fish for ME!

But good Sméagol will keep the blog running.  Good Sméagol always helps.  He even has an episode review, yes, from The Clone Wars.  Soon it will be posted.  Later, but very soon, precious.

Hmm, what else can we talk about?  Does it like riddles?  Maybe we gives it a riddle to solve?

What has roots...no.

Alive without breath...no.

Ah!  We has it.

High to low, then back again,
In darkened forest, stuck in pen.
Out at last and finally free,
To get back what belongs to me.

I guide and wait while planning all,
That those I guide will soon befall.
I'll bide my time and then attack,
So I can get my treasure back.

But then a new pursuit I found,
An easy way to be renowned.
This very day I hold new weight,
And that is why I am now great.

Who am I?

Difficult, tricksy yes?  Think it can solve our riddle?  Guess!  Yes, guess in the comments!  We'll tell when someone has it right, so don't look if it doesn't want to be spoiled!

While it thinks we are going to have some fissh.  May the precioussss be with you!  Hee hee hee hee!

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Note from Arda: Thanks for bearing with my April Fool's Day silliness! If you weren't around the time or wish to relive the glory of Gollum's temporary reign, here's what my blog looked like:

click to see larger

The 11 Tag

Jamie, Shena, Alyianna, and Voronda tagged me!  Thanks so much girls!  I am going to answer Jamie's and Shena's questions in this post and do another with Voronda's and Alyianna's.

The Rules:

1) Post these rules.

2) Post 11 random things about yourself

3) Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post

4) Create 11 new questions for the people you tag to answer

5) Go to their blog and tell them they’ve been tagged

6) No cop-outs in the tagging section like, “If you are reading this” or “if you follow me”. You have to legitimately tag people!

11 random things about me:

1. I really enjoy room decorating and have done lots of reading and thinking for mine.  Next time I have a free week with no school I'm hoping to repaint the trim and make some other changes.

2. If I could, I would learn sign language, more Spanish, Japanese, German, and Latin but I'm not sure if I ever will.  I recently heard of a language learning program that seems really good and cheap - maybe I'll look into it sometime.  I could also take up Elvish (Sindarin) again sometime.

3. On the piano I mostly play video game music nowadays.  My brother and I have three binders filled with music we've printed off the internet.  I'm starting to lobby for a binder solely for Professor Layton and Ace Attorney music and I've been trying to transcribe some PL music myself - it's a fun challenge, but I'm a bit stuck at the moment.

4. I have been playing quite a bit of minesweeper lately.

5. I found my future wedding cake.

From Cake Central

Isn't that gorgeous?

6. My favorite colors are purple, blue, green, grey, and brown. Black and white are pretty nice too.

7. I usually go to the Star Wars Weather Forecast to check the temperature.

8. Firefox is my preferred browser, but since I downloaded Chrome for school I've been using that when I have problems with Firefox.  My theme on Firefox is Professor Layton and on Chrome it's Lord of the Rings.

9. When it's cold, I like wearing fuzzy socks.

10. My favorite foods are the oh-so-original pizza and pasta.

11. I think polar bears are really cute.

Here are Jamie's questions:

1. What famous movies have you not seen yet but would like too?
To Kill a Mockingbird, Mulan, and The King's Speech.

2. What is your opinion of Charlie Brown?
Love Charlie Brown!  So innocent and sweet and funny!  If you followed my blog around Christmas, Peanuts was mentioned about every other post.

3. Which of your favorite books would you love to see made into a film and why?
Hm...I love the Jedi Apprentice series but think that would make a good TV show...maybe The Princess Academy or one of Gail Carson Levine's books.  Oh, and John Paul II high!

4. What is one of your favorite pass-times?
Wasting time on the internet.  And reading, and different stuff with music, like piano and singing.

5. What type of vehicle would you love to own, from any film, book or even from reality?
I have never been too interested in vehicles, but maybe a Jedi starfighter, or an LotR horse if that counts.  Or a sandcrawler, just to be random.

6. What movie poster would you LOVE to own if you could have your pick?
This is weird, but I'm not that big on most of the posters of my favorite movies.  I'll go with Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva!

7. What is a minor thing you’d like to see in your future spouse?
It would be nice if he enjoyed singing.  And had an easy-to-spell-and-pronounce last name, but that would just be a bonus.

8. What is your opinion of snakes?
Snakes...why did it have to be snakes?  They creep me out.  Last time there was one in the front garden I was able to look at it without...dying or something, but I still do not care for them.

9. What is a pet peeve you’ve discovered from being on the blogosphere?
Blogger messes with formatting...sometimes there are big spaces, sometimes little spaces - annoying!

10. If you could dress up–without any difficulty or thought of cost–as any character, who would it be?
Oh gosh so many...A Jedi (which I hopefully will this year), Eowyn, Ahsoka, Miles Edgeworth (I wouldn't be the first girl to), Flora Reinhold, and...well, pretty much anyone.

11. Where would you like to go on vacation this year?
It would be nice to go the beach sometime.


And here are Shena's questions:

1: What is your favorite book?
The Lord of the Rings, specifically The Fellowship of the Ring with The Return of the King a close second.

2: Have you ever traveled to another country? If you haven't where would you like to go?
I went to Mexico when I was six or seven for my uncle's wedding (I got to hang out with my cousin a ton and see lots of cool Catholic stuff!).  I've also been in Canada but I don't really remember it.

3: What is your favorite genre of music?
*opens iTunes* Soundtrack, if you include musicals, video games, and Disney.

4: What is your favorite hair color?
Hmm...I think brown.  I do like my red hair, but I've always thought brown was pretty.

5: Do you like YouTube?
I do!  There is a lot of trash on there, but lots of fun stuff too.  I enjoy watching videos with clips from one thing put to the audio of a different movie trailer.

6: Which fictional characters have you had a crush on? If you haven't which character is your favorite?
A couple of my first crushes were Mario (yes, Super Mario) and a character from Paper Mario.  Kind of embarrassing... I have had a crush on Obi-Wan, but now he's kind of a friend, in a weird way (still totally love him but trying to keep it as "just friends") and right now I'm kind of in love with Miles Edgeworth from Ace Attorney.  So handsome and charming!

7: If you could have a lightsaber, what color would you want it to be?
Green!  It's often used by Jedi Consulars which I think fits me best.

8: What Jedi/Sith would you be in the Star Wars universe?
I would probably be Obi-Wan.  He is the character I think I'm most similar to.  Or maybe Bant or Darra.

9: Do you like anime? If so, which is your favorite?
Kind of - I have never watched an anime but am crazy about a couple video games I've heard called anime and got a book from the library on how to draw it.

10: What is your favorite thing to learn about?
I find psychology very interesting, so either that or maybe music or literature.

11: Who is your favorite superhero?
Everyone is excited about The Avengers and I feel like I'm the only one who never got in to superheroes!  Captain America looks kind of cool though, so I may try that sometime.  As of right now my favorite superhero is Patman!  Known as Patrick Madrid in real life, he's a Catholic apologist.  There is a magazine he works on called Envoy that once had a funny comic of him talking about apologetics.  So yes, Patman is my hero!


11 questions from me:

1. What is the first book you learned to read?
2. What is your favorite dessert?
3. What is your favorite book genre?
4. Where would you most like to visit in the world?
5. What is your current computer wallpaper?
6. What song is stuck in your head?
7. If you could have any animal as a pet, what would it be?
8. What is your favorite musical?
9. What fictional world would you most like to live in?
10. What is your favorite season?
11. What is your favorite comic?

Anyone who reads this and would like to answer the questions, feel free to take them!  Yes, I know I'm copping out and it's against the rules, but I don't think I know 11 people who haven't already been tagged.

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Sorry about the lack of activity here lately.  I've tried to write a few posts but they weren't interesting enough to finish.  Will keep trying though and maybe someday I'll be able to get back to posting regularly!  May the Lord be with you all!

The Irresistibly Sweet Blog Award

Thank you to Annika Elipton at Writing Beyond the Moon and Aayla Rain at Fangirl & Farmgirl for this award!

Rules:

1. Post seven random things about yourself.
2. Award this to 10 other bloggers!


Random things about me:

1. I like sticky notes
2. I enjoy putting on accents
3. I work on parodying entire musicals for fun
4. Obi-Wan is my BFFF (best fictional friend forever)
5. Flip flops are my favorite type of footwear
6. I like to think that some humans are evolving into hobbits and I am one of them
7. Singing almost always lightens my mood




I will tag...


1. Alyianna at Scribbles of a Catholic Teen
2. Jamie at Through Two Blue Eyes
3. Rebecca at Just me...
4. Shaak Ti at God's Jedi Girl
5. Atina at Atina the Jedi
6. Jedi Knight Autumn at An Autumn Day


And anyone else who has not gotten it yet!


Have a great weekend my friends, and may the Lord be with you!




P.S. Thank you to those who gave me the Dragon Appreciation Award and sorry I never got around to posting it!