New on the Brick Wall: Dream Journal Page!

Hello everyone! This is Quidditch_Turtle with some breaking news (breaking news meaning about-mmm, lets just say- 4 hours ago)! The Brick Wall hosts would like to introduce you to the Dream Journal page! This page is where we post about all of those crazy, wacko dreams that we have. You know, the ones that are so unrealistic that you can't even... you know... you just can't even! (haha Banana_elephant :P) So, without further ado, I'd like to introduce you to the new Dream Journal! *whisper screams*

Quidditch_Turtle :)

Travel Tuesday with Quidditch_Turtle #1 (and probably the last)

Hey everyone!

Sorry I haven't posted for months, I was going to post last week, but was too busy with birthday stuff. Anyway, I'm going to write about our family vacation to Arizona over Christmas break last year.

We found out that we were going on Christmas Day, and had three days to pack. We left on December 28th, and boarded a train. It took us two days to get to Flagstaff, AZ. We stayed there for two days, and traveled two days back to our home town. We spent New Year's in a hotel sleeping because we had to get up early to board the train in the morning! Here are some photos:

Here is our seats on the train!

 I'm pretty sure these were taken from my seat of the train in Colorado.

These two were taken from the train when we were in New Mexico.

This one was in Albequerque later that day.

First day in Arizona!

Subway, pueblo style :)

It was fun driving on Route 66 because we were comparing what we actually saw with what was in the movie Cars. We all laughed when we passed a tire shop (AKA Guido and Luigi's)

Another mountainous view from the rental car

This was in a state park that we went to.

Some lava rock formations in the state park

An icy lava rock formation

I just thought this was so cool.

A view of the Painted Desert from a big pebble-hill-thing.

Another view of the Painted Desert from the road

Some Native American ruins that we explored

Another lot of ruins

Day two of our Arizona adventure!

The Grand Canyon

*sigh* 

Another amazing view

I cannot believe that these people would put their trust in an animal... a donkey, to be more specific.

Funny-looking rock face

Just another view of the canyon

A little surprise we came across while hiking; gives it character, don't you think?

This is where we hiked down to; we went back up from here.

This  is a little blue bird that kept flying around Ooh Aah Point.

Met this guy at Ooh Aah Point... he stole our pretzels.

Took this picture at a rest stop on the side of the road a few miles from Grand Canyon National Park, which is where we were hiking

This picture, and the next few, were taken at the same rest stop. I had a setting on my camera where it enhances the color of the photo.

You can see the Colorado river in this one

Another rest stop photo

A pretty sunset taken from the train on the way back. I don't remember where this was.

Well, that's what we did in Arizona! I had A TON of fun! Hope you liked the pictures!

Quidditch_Turtle   ^  ^

                                U

Fandom Friday with not_luna_lovegood #1

Hello, it's me, not_luna_lovegood, and I am so sorry that I haven't posted in a while! It's just that I'm busy with school and volleyball and I just can't find the time to post. I haven't left the blog, I'm just busy. So without further ado, I've decided that for my triumphant return, I am going to do a Book Bucket List like Quidditch_Turtle did, because there are a lot of books that I want to read.

1. The Selection series by Kiera Cass



I've heard a lot of good things about this series from both Banana_Elephant and one of my other friends who isn't on the blog. I hear that it's a cross between Cinderella and The Hunger Games, and I think it sounds pretty interesting!

2. The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare



This is another series I have heard a lot about, but haven't gotten the chance to read yet. A lot of people I know from other sites have recommended this for me because I love books like Divergent and The Hunger Games. Banana_Elephant said I should never read this, but what can I say? I'm a bit of a rebel, so I think I'm going to read it soon.

3. Isla and the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins



I recently read the other two books in this series, Anna and the French Kiss (aka the book where Banana_Elephant got her nickname from!) and Lola and the Boy Next Door, and I loved them. I really want to read the next book to see how the series ends.

4. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell



I really want to read this book since I'm a fangirl at heart. I recently finished Eleanor & Park, which is also by Rainbow Rowell, and I thought it was AMAZING. I'm probably going to read Fangirl after I'm done reading The Giver by Lois Lowry.

5. If I Stay by Gayle Forman



One thing you should know is that I am a sucker for a tearjerker (The Fault In Our Stars is one of my favorites) and this one looks really good. Though if I do end up reading it, I'm likely going to need some tissues...

6. Paper Towns by John Green




The main reason why I want to read this book is because it's by John Green. Despite the fact that I have only read one of his books (The Fault In Our Stars), he is still one of my favorite authors because I love the way he writes and I think he's hilarious. I think this book looks like a pretty good one!

7. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card



My dad read this book when he was younger and he liked it a lot. He recommended it for me since he knows I love dystopian fiction. I might read this sometime in the future.

8. Inkheart by Cornelia Funke



I saw the movie based off of this book and I thought it was really good. I almost always prefer the book to the movie, and since I liked the movie so much, I think I'm going to read the book.

9. The Spiderwick Chronicles by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black




See what I said about Inkheart. I would write about why I want to read this series, but I would pretty much be repeating myself, so just look above.

10. Matched by Ally Condie



I read a little bit of the first book and it was good. I didn't stop because I didn't like it, I stopped because I had gotten Divergent and I wanted to read that more. I still really liked the book, though, and I want to finish it.

So those are 10 books I want to read! There are probably a lot more, I just couldn't think of any more. I'm not_luna_lovegood, and I will write again soon!

not_luna_lovegood

Update 11/3/14:  I finished Fangirl recently and it's now one of my all-time favorites. I think I relate to Cath, the main character, a lot and it's just a great read overall. Right now, I am reading City of Bones, the first book in the Mortal Instruments series. I haven't really been able to get into it yet, but Chuckles said it was a pretty hard book to get into. I'm not giving up on it yet.

I THINK IT'S TIME TO FREAK OUT

Banana_elephant here, and right now the Percy Jackson fandom is FREAKING OUT. Why? Well, it is most certainly time. We should have been freaking out like this weeks ago.
Silly me, some of you guys probably have no idea what I'm talking about. For those of you who don't know, the last Percy Jackson book, The Blood of Olympus is coming out on October 7th. That's less than two weeks from now. In less than two weeks, we will never go on an official Percy Jackson adventure ever again. Sure, there will be the Percy Jackson/Kane Chronicles crossovers, but it's just not the same.
Okay, enough with the crying and fangirling (lol just kidding, we must never stop the fangirling). Uncle Rick has announced the title of his new series, set to launch in Fall of 2015. It's going to be called Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard. Personally I'm excited because I love Norse Myths. I spent an entire summer researching the culture, learning Old Norse (which I have mostly forgotten), and reading a few of the myths that I could find online. My personal favorite website for info and some good reading is here. It's kind of a long story of how I got into the mythology and culture, so I'll save it for another day.
There's a new Big Hero 6 trailer coming out this Friday and I cannot wait! I'm so excited for this movie, it looks AWESOME. Everything about it looks great. Here's a link to the first trailer (here) and a hilarious clip.
Speaking of trailers, the new Mockinjay Part 1 first official trailer launched a little while ago. Let me just say that I am so excited for this movie. These books were the first ever to make me cry, and they're very special to me. Jen obviously did amazing in this movie from what I've seen, but I wouldn't really expect anything else. Watch the trailer here.
There's so much I want to talk about, but I've got a report to start. I just really wanted to make a post (and it also started up my writing brain). I'll see you guys whenever I post next, but I'll be back!

Banana_elephant here with some new....

Hey everyone, it's Banana_elephant here with some semi-bad, semi-good news. You're all probably wondering why none of us posted this past week, and that's what this post is about. Together as a group we decided to only post twice a month due to the loss of time in our schedule. As you may know, we started our blog at the end of the school year, which for some reason lead us to believe we could get everything done and do our posts, but we just weren't exactly right. Hang in there everyone, we're all still here and will still be posting. Sometimes we may post more than twice a month, but who knows. Banana_elephant, out.

Throwback Thursday with not_luna_lovegood #2

I have noticed that a lot of books, movies, and TV shows have rebellions in them. A few I can name off the top of my head are The Hunger Games, Divergent, Harry Potter (somewhat), and I'm sure there are more, I just can't think of them at the moment. Well, I have been a part of a little rebellion myself. Granted, it's not as extravagant as planning to overthrow the government or the Dark Lord or anything like that, but it's a rebellion nonetheless. This rebellion happened when I was in 5th grade (which explains why I am doing it for Throwback Thursday) back when we had a couple of recess supervisors who were very anti-manners if I do say so myself. So without further ado, I, not_luna_lovegood, present to you, THE THANK YOU REBELLION.

Back when I was in 5th grade and on my final year of elementary school, I had recess, like most elementary school kids do. And when we would go inside, Banana_Elephant, being nice, polite Banana_Elephant, would hold the door open for our class. The polite thing to do when someone holds the door open for you is to say "Thank you". Common sense, right? So we said "Thank you" while Banana_Elephant held the door for us. Well, you are never going to believe what happened!

At our school, if you do something bad, the recess supervisors put you on the wall for five minutes. And saying "Thank you" when someone holds the door open for you is not, and never will be, something bad. So here's what may be the greatest plot twist in history, the holy grail of shocking things: THE SUPERVISORS STARTED PUTTING US ON THE WALL FOR SAYING "THANK YOU", FOR USING OUR FREAKING MANNERS, FOR DOING WHAT WE WERE SUPPOSED TO DO AND ALWAYS HAD BEEN. Un-freaking-believable!

They said it was because we were supposedly being loud. When in reality, we were being quiet. I can remember somebody saying "Thank you" somewhat loudly only once, and even then, it was as a joke and it was still using good manners. They said that we were supposed to just walk inside without saying anything, which strikes me as 1. COMPLETELY and TOTALLY rude, and 2. Making no sense whatsoever! Isn't using your manners supposed to be a good thing? 

So my fifth grade class banded together to begin The "Thank You" rebellion. As a person who almost always plays by the rules, I must admit that showing off my rebellious side was pretty fun! We rebelled by doing the most edgy and daring thing ever known to man (maybe): SAYING "THANK YOU". We didn't care if we got put on the wall, as long as we kept on doing what we knew was the right thing. It may not seem like much, but my 5th grade self thought it was the coolest thing ever. 

Banana_Elephant and I played a part in the rebellion by telling kids in other classes about our rebellion and inviting them to join us by saying "Thank you" and telling their friends about it. To this day, I'm still shocked by how unfair it was. I cannot comprehend how using our manners, which our parents and teachers have told us to do for our entire lives, could be a bad thing. It was dumb.

So we told our teacher, who was just as shocked as we were. We asked her if she could talk to the supervisors and make things right. Our teacher talked to them and we had won the rebellion! Years later, we can say "Thank you" to the people who hold the door open for us as much as we want. Hooray for good manners! 

That was the story of the "Thank You" Rebellion. Okay, maybe I exaggerated a little at some parts, but I couldn't help myself! I hope you enjoyed this little story! I'm not_luna_lovegood, and I'll be back next week for another Throwback Thursday!

not_luna_lovegood

Throwback Thursday with not_luna_lovegood #1

Hey, hey, hey! It's me, not_luna_lovegood, and welcome to Throwback Thursday! One thing you should know before I get started, school for all of us Brick Wall-ers started on September 2nd. All of us are involved in extracurricular activities as well, so some of our posts will be coming a little later in the day. We apologize in advance for these inconveniences and hope that you still enjoy the blog nonetheless! So with that being said, for my first Throwback Thursday topic, I am going to be talking about the #1 song of the summer over the past 10 years The reason I'm talking about this because Billboard has recently announced that the song of the summer is...(drumroll please) "Fancy" by Iggy Azalea! Whether you like it or not, you can't deny that no song better represents Summer 2014 (Except for maybe "Rude" by Magic! or "Problem" by Ariana Grande, which are at #2 and #3 on the Summer Songs chart, respectively.) I found this information on the following link, where you can see the rest of the chart and listen to and buy the songs:

Songs of the Summer 2014

So here are the Songs of the Summer of the last 10 years (2004-2014), and where I found this information and you can also listen to the songs there:

Summer Songs 2004-2014

-2004's top summer hit was "Confessions Pt. 2", by Usher.

-The song of the summer for 2005 was Mariah Carey's "We Belong Together".

-"Promiscuous" by Nelly Furtado ft. Timbaland was the dominant song of Summer 2006.

-In 2007, the top song of the summer was "Umbrella" by Rihanna ft. Jay-Z.

-Katy Perry's "I Kissed A Girl" was the #1 song of the summer for 2008.

-Summer 2009 was dominated by "I Gotta Feeling" by The Black Eyed Peas.

-The biggest song of Summer 2010 was "California Gurls" by Katy Perry ft. Snoop Dogg.

-2011's summer anthem was LMFAO's "Party Rock Anthem.

-Carly Rae Jepsen had the top song of Summer 2012 with "Call Me Maybe"

-The song that dominated Summer 2013 was "Blurred Lines" by Robin Thicke.

-Finally, as I said before, Iggy Azalea's "Fancy" was the hit for Summer 2014.

I'm sorry that this is kind of short and also a little late, but I hope that doesn't stop you from enjoying the post! I'm not_luna_lovegood (aka Looney) and I will be back next Thursday for another throwback!

not_luna_lovegood