Updates

First things first, happy holidays! It's me, not_luna_lovegood, and I'm just going to do an update thing just so you can see what I've been up to.

First, an update about the state of the blog and who's on it. CHUCKLES, Banana_Elephant, Quidditch_Turtle, and not_luna_lovegood (aka me) are all still with the blog, even if we haven't posted in a while. We are getting a new member! His name on here is doglover, and I don't know exactly when he will start posting. As for Mr. Rainbow, I'm not sure if he is still with the Brick Wall. If he still is, he will be posting on weekends. 

Okay, now an update on my personal life (but I won't get too personal, because of the policy). I don't know about you, but  I celebrate Christmas, and I have gotten a lot of great presents. My favorite present is probably a TV for my room. I haven't used it as much as I'd like to, just because I don't watch much TV. My grandma said she wants to get me a DVD player for my birthday (in March) so then I will use my TV the most. 

Another one of my favorite presents I got is the new Just Dance game, Just Dance 2015. I love playing all of the Just Dance games, and I think this one is pretty awesome. I'm not sure what my favorite song to dance to on the game is yet. I highly recommend Just Dance 2015 as a game for a party or something like that.

I also received the entire Harry Potter series on DVD. I'm a pretty big Harry Potter fan (but you already knew that) and have read all the books, but I haven't seen all the movies. I can't wait to watch them all! Speaking of Harry Potter, I got the second book, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (which I already own but I don't really care) and the fifth book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Other than the stuff I mentioned, I got lots of clothes, a four-leaf clover necklace (my family is very Irish), a volleyball net, gift cards for Amazon and Barnes and Noble, and some money. I'm very thankful for everything I got.

Now, I will recap 2014 just because I can. When I think of 2014 in the future, I will remember it as the year I officially became addicted to the Internet. Far, far too much of my year has been spent with a screen in front of my face. From YouTube and Instagram (that counts, right?) to Pinterest and the Brick Wall, I spent much of 2014 on either my iPod touch, Kindle Fire, or computer. I have a problem, and my New Year's resolution should probably be to cut down on Internet usage. But why would I do that? The Internet is awesome!

I also joined my first organized sport in 2014, which is volleyball! During the month of September and about half of October, I spent my days on the volleyball court. I made lots of memories and some new friends. I already know I want to do volleyball again next year.

Lastly, one of my favorite memories of 2014 was joining the Brick Wall! I've had such a fun time writing on here and I will continue to do so in 2015! I'd like to thank Banana_Elephant, Quidditch_Turtle, CHUCKLES, Mr. Rainbow, and doglover (I really think you guys are going to like him) for being awesome friends, as well as my Brick Wall co-hosts. I would also like to thank my readers for supporting us and just being awesome in general. THANK YOU!

I'm not_luna_lovegood signing out for 2014! I promise that 2015 will be full of awesome posts from all of us, though I don't know what they will be about yet. Goodbye, 2014. I will miss you!

not_luna_lovegood

No Need to Fear, Banana_elephant is Here!

I know it's Sunday, but due to the fact that I will have little to no time for this tomorrow and I'm feeling inspired, today is this post's day. It's been awhile since I've posted, since any of us have posted for that matter, but we're still here. Miss us?
As most people know, Mockingjay Part 1 came out a few weeks ago in America, as well as its soundtrack. Jennifer Lawrence sang Hanging Tree, and let me tell you, it is THE most powerful song I have ever heard. It's just so amazing and symbolizes such strong unity and willpower that the districts had in the books. This truly is something that will ring out throughout the years in movie soundtracks.
There was another movie that came out at the beginning of November, Big Hero 6, and not only was it an amazing animated film (GAHHHHH it's my new favorite movie, sorry National Treasure), but it has an awesome soundtrack. Fall Out Boy sang a song for the film, and it's my new jam. It's name is Immortals, and it's powerful like Hanging Tree, just in a different way. It really makes you want to get up and dance, beat up some super-villains, save the world, stuff like that.
Let's not forget the song from the Big Hero 6 soundtrack that.... more or less broke my heart into three million pieces. It wasn't really the song itself that broke me, more like the title. I Am Satisfied With My Care is the title of the song. Yeah. I am not okay with that. Literally, when I saw the title, I yelled out loud, "COULD YOU NOT?!?!?!?!" After seeing that movie and nearly being brought to tears over that scene, I will never be emotionally okay will them calling it that on any such level. Whenever I'm listening to my movie soundtrack radio on iTunes and this song comes on, I always go "Seriously??????" under my breath. You could say I have a little grudge against Disney at the moment. Just for that little thing. Yeah. Besides that though, it's a fantastic song. Just that one tiny problem.
....
Eh, I can never have a grudge against anything for very long anymore. All my grudge-energy (what.... is that even a thing?) is always being used up on a certain author who has terrible sentence fluency. I will never get over that, and reading a certain someone's books makes me want to take a pen to the book. I'd never do that though, it's a book (come on).
Well, I'll be back sometime in the future (as well as the rest of the Brick Wall Bloggers, hopefully), but for the time being, Banana_elephant out.

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.