NOVEMBER FAVORITES ♥

Here we go with round two of my monthly favorites! :D

This time I’ll begin with a movie, Thor: The Dark World.  I’ll admit that it was incredibly difficult for me not to go to the midnight showing, or even during opening weekend.  I had previously promised to take my brother out to see it for his birthday, so I ended up waiting 2 WHOLE WEEKS!  That aside…it was well worth it.  I’ll be brief and without spoilers.  Asgard was beautiful.  The landscape shots, the architecture, the costumes.  I wasn't as impressed with Malekith as I would've liked/expected to be, but I'm blaming General Zod in Man of Steel for that one.  He was the last movie supervillian that I experienced, and yeah.  Wow.  But I digress. 

 

Thor x Jane = love.  Loki was amazing, in every way imaginable.  The ending of the film certainly made me curious about the God of Mischief’s future role in the Marvel universe!  My second favorite character was Darcy.  She was hilarious!  And reminded me of myself in a few scenes…

 

…Here is the trailer!

 

 

 

 

The local radio stations have started playing Christmas music…DUN DUN DUN.  So it begins.  I live for this time of the year!  I’m super excited to finish up this term and start decorating, shopping, and baking to my heart’s content. ♥ But I’m going a little off-topic (again) here.  As for my favorite music during the month of November, it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise when I say that I’m still addicted to k-pop.  Now that I’ve officially immersed myself in the world of Super Junior (in particular; I listen to other k-pop, too, I promise), I’ve come across some of their lesser known/less popular tunes, a few of which I’ve been absolutely loving.  Promise You by their subgroup Super Junior-K.R.Y. is one such song.   Also, Sorry Sorry (Answer Vers.).  How—no, WHY—does this video have less than a million views? o__o

 

I’d say that my absolute favorite for this past month has been Daydream.  Such a beautiful song!

 

 

 

Other (non-Korean, ha ha) music picks for November are Waiting for Superman by Daughtry, Honestly by Kelly Clarkson, and Strong by One Direction.

Lots of ramen and chocolate pocky have been consumed by me as of late.  Neither of these is particularly new to my diet, so I’m not sure if they count as a “monthly favorite,” but it doesn’t hurt anything to mention them here.  :)

 

 

As the weather gets colder and colder, our summer tans fade away, and we’d all look like Noh masks if it weren’t for makeup.  One look that I’m particularly fond of for myself during fall and winter is blush.  I don’t wear blush during the summer because all the sun exposure usually causes it to melt into my foundation and…yuck.  Besides that, blush doesn’t really show up well under summer’s rays, at least against my skin tone.  I like blush when it’s cold because it provides subtle color and an overall warmer look to the face.  It’s like a holiday glow! ^_^ My favorite everyday blush right now is one from e.l.f.’s Studio Line.  The color is called “Tickled Pink.”  It’s a perfect dark pink that isn’t too faint or too vivid.  It stays on quite well for up to 8 hours.  And you can’t argue with the $3 price tag!

 

 

 

Video games were pretty much non-existent in my life during the month of October, but I’ve been slowly easing them back into my schedule lately, because truthfully, I really miss gaming. ;__;  Back in June I received a bunch of 3DS games for my birthday, so I’ve been playing those.  I absolutely love Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance.  This is the first KH game that I’ve owned.  I played the original game years ago, but to be honest I don’t remember much about it.  This installment is just so.  Much.  Fun.  The characters and storyline are fantastic, and I love the suspense of not knowing which Square Enix or Disney element is going to pop up next.  I’ve also been playing Tales of the Abyss and Fire Emblem Awakening.  I just started those two, so I’m not going to comment on them right at this moment.

 

I’ll end this month’s favorites with an accessory.  Ya’ll know that I am a huge Lord of the Rings nerd.  I’ve been wanting an Evenstar pendant for as long as I can remember.  Ever since the Noble Collection came out with their rather pricey replica, it’s been near the top of my materialistic wishlist.  For a while it seemed like a bleak dream, because I’m a poor student and starving artist.  (Ha ha ha)  Just recently I found another, wayyyy cheaper replica on Amazon.  I bought it without hesitation!  Because it shipped from China, it took a while to get here, but!  It’s quite a lovely thing.  I wear it often, and am looking forward to wearing it with my Arwen look for The Hobbit premiere!

 

 

…And that’s all, folks!  I hope you enjoyed reading this post.  As always, if any of you have any questions about anything I’ve said here, please don’t hesitate to drop me a line!

 

Within the next couple of weeks, I will finally be posting either my ocarina review for Songbird Ocarinas, or my contact lens review for EyeCandy’s.  Or maybe both.  Who knows!  Christmas break is on the way, after all! :D

 

‘Til then!

A SCRIBBLENAUTICAL blog post! (Random Randomness 1/31/2013)

If any of you have read my latest deviantART journal, you would know that I received a Wii U for Christmas.  You can read about my initial thoughts on the system and the game Nintendoland in the aforementioned journal entry.

Relating to the title, I bought Scribblenauts Unlimited two weeks ago, and it has quickly become my latest video game addiction.  One thing I have to mention is that Wii U games are quite spendy!  My wallet was $60 lighter after I bought Scribblenauts.  I understand why they’re so expensive, but good grief, I’m not at all wealthy!  So not looking forward to that inevitable moment when I have to choose between two games that come out within the same time frame…

Back to the point, Scribblenauts Unlimited is basically a game where you use a magical notebook to spawn virtually whatever you want to help people and solve puzzles.  I fell in love after spawning a “Kind Giant Fast Flying Fire-Breathing Purple Dragon”.  Yeah, you can add adjectives, too.  Some of the cool features of the Wii U version of the game (it’s also for Nintendo 3DS and PC) are object editor, in which you can make your own objects, co-op multiplayer mode, backpack storage for your favorite items, AND, there are Mario and Zelda cameos!  I must have tried every word in the Zelda dictionary to see what I could spawn. So far I’ve found Link, Zelda, Sheik, Ganondorf, Ganon, rupee, Goron, Tingle, Triforce, Master Sword, Hylian Shield, ocarina…it was very amusing to me how Link would fight with Ganondorf, Zelda dissappears when you spawn Sheik or vice versa, and such.

Another cool feature is a location in the game called “Punctuation Plaza”, where players can search for items via WiFi, download their favorites, and upload their own creations to share with others.  I recently got Slenderman and have been having some fun with him. Mwahahaha.

           All and all, it’s a super fun and addicting game. After you have gone through the game one time, you have the option to reset levels or reset your whole game for even more fun.  I think I still have one or two more levels to complete.


I have to admit that one of the driving forces to me buying the game was watching videos of people playing it on YouTube.  Despite his sometimes frequent anatomical jokes, Pewdiepie's videos were the most compelling.  He just looked like he was having way too much fun!

That being said, I have been watching a lot of gaming YouTubers lately.  Well, YouTubers in general.  So, I thought I’d share some of my favorites with all of you.  I’ve chosen 4 categories: Music, Vlog, Gaming, and Other.

Most of my time on YouTube is spent listening to music or watching lyric videos.  But there are also a few cover artists who I really enjoy listening to/watching, namely Peter Hollens (who happens to live in my city, just btw), Tanner Patrick, Christina Grimmie and the amazing Lindsey Stirling.  My favorite though?  Definitely Boyce Avenue.  Alejandro’s voice melts my heart.

Take a listen:

[Boyce Avenue’s cover of Backstreet Boys' I Want It That Way]

 

I’ve watched a few vloggers here and there, and generally, I find them boring, awkward, repetitive, annoying, or all of the above.  The only vloggers I watch regularly are Dan Howell (danisnotonfire) and his friend Phil Lester (AmazingPhil).  Both of them are ridiculously funny, and we were born in the same time frame so I feel like we have a lot in common.

 

Here’s a video featuring both of them:

[Phil Is Not On Fire 4 (just look at those faces...d'aww)]

 

I watch a lot of gaming videos.  Mostly because watching people flip out when they see Slenderman for the first time is freaking hilarious.  I’ve watched craploads of Pewdiepie, Smosh Games, Captain Sparklez, The Syndicate Project, and others.  Some I liked, others, not so much. And I have yet to find a female gamer that I enjoy watching.  Any suggestions?  I kind of had a difficult time deciding which YouTube gamer I like best, because I am very partial to both Markiplier and Yamimash.  Two things that really annoy me about gamers, though, is that they are constantly making inappropriate jokes and swearing, and I am in no way promoting any that.  These two, however, I’ve come to love so much that I still enjoy watching their videos.  I’ve learned to just tune out all the swearing. LIKE A BOSS. 

I just wish that people like Mark and Aaron would play Nintendo games, which is something I really like about Smosh's gaming channel.

 

Yamimash’s first Slender reaction is quite possibly the funniest I've seen:

[Scary Games - Slender Game w/Reactions & Facecam]

 

            I nearly forgot the “Other” category.  I just kind of tacked that on there because there is one other channel that I await weekly episodes from, and that is the FineBros’ channel.  The Fine Bros’ videos feature Kids, Teens, Elders, or YouTubers reacting to various subjects such as viral videos, memes, and more.  Very entertaining stuff.

 

Check it out:

 

[Teens React to My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic]

 

…aaaand, that’s all, folks!  I hope you enjoyed this loooong bit of randomness.  I’ll try my hardest to post more often!
 

‘Til then!

Random Randomness 6/28/12

First off I would like to thank everyone who sent me e-mails, messages, etc. wishing me Happy Birthday.  I had a wonderful day, the celebration going on into the weekend.  Thank you for thinking of me!

Among the gifts I receive was this gorgeous piece of technology…

…my brand-new Nintendo 3DS in “Midnight Purple”! *swoon* I love this system to bits. Everything runs so smoothly and the 3D is incredible. With it I received The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D.  It certainly made me quite happy to play OoT again, this time with stunning new gameplay and beautiful graphics.

I can’t wait to expand my library of DS titles. Next on my list? I’m thinking Mario Kart 7, or maybe Harvest Moon: A Tale of Two Towns.  Those games are always so darn addicting.

Let’s move on with some updates.  I finished two important pieces of writing last week, Chapter Seven of Felicity, and Part One of my brand-new short story, Eighteen.  I’m quite proud of both of them! Please read them and let me know what you think.  They are available for you to read at both Writers' Cafe and Figment. Enjoy!

I may have my PayPal account fixed soon. Yes.

Still working on art projects, slowly but surely. Many birthday gifts and a load of fanart. We musn’t lose hope that new art will come forth from me. Always hope.

Ah! One more thing! Adam Young (Owl City) released his new single Good Time ft. Carly Rae Jepsen this past week. I have dubbed this song my official song for Summer 2012. Listen!

I'm super excited for Adam's new album, The Midsummer Station, which releases on August 21st.

‘Til my next post. Ciao!

Random Randomness 11/19/11

Yeah I’m notorious for it, so why not some randomness?  First on the list today is that I would like to introduce my personal YouTube account, LyricLuminosa.  As my screen name suggests, I will be uploading mostly lyric videos that I have made.  Here is my first-ever lyric video, O Sanctissima by the boys’ choir that I’ve been rambling about so often lately, Libera.

Such a relaxing, absolutely beautiful song.  It was the first one I heard of Libera, so it has a very special place in my heart!

Alrighty then, enough about that.  Honestly, I could go on forever about them London boys.  (Oh, wait! They have a new video for a song I absolutely LOVE, Eternal Light: [link] Btw, I’m currently at work on an Exsultate lyric vid!) Anyhow, next, THE HUNGER GAMES TRAILER!  It made its debut on Good Morning America this past Monday.  I watched it with lingering weight in the pit of my stomach, telling me that it wasn’t going to be as awesome as I have been hoping.

I liked it.  Um, yeah.  I really, really want to see this movie.

Finally, I pre-ordered the Skyward Sword Remote/CD bundle.  I got an e-mail earlier this week saying it had been shipped.  INDESCRIBABLE HAPPINESS.   I AM SO UTTERLY EXCITED FOR THIS GAME IT’S NOT EVEN FUNNY.  Oops, sorry, caps lock.  Yes.  Link and Zelda love each other in this game!  OMG LOVE LOVE LOVE—darn that caps lock!—JUST WATCH THIS VIDEO.

DEAR NINTENDO, PLEASE STOP TEASING US.

LOVE,
ASHLEY


(P.S. Like the font + color change? Let me know what you think!)

Just something that I found.....

Lately I have tapped back into my inner Zelda-nerd.  Fanart and other Farore's Melody (remember this?? :P) may very well be a reality in the near future.  Keep checking my deviantART. :]

I am not a frequent YouTuber, I just go there to look up lyric videos occasionally.  But last week I was watching some Zelda-related vids and found a full-length fan-film called The Legend of Zelda: The Triforce Prophecy.  A dude by the name of Scotty Whitehurst heads the project as director, writer, and also stars as Link.  And yes, he is a lot hotter than the guy from IGN.com’s 2008 EPICLY FAKE movie trailer (*deep, agonizingly slow breath*…AUGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!! …Ahem.  Ok.  Frustration out.)

So, is this fan movie worth watching?  I watched all thirteen parts (each is roughly 8 minutes; the entire movie is about 120 minutes long) plus the blooper reel and “making of” vids.  And yeah, I think it’s pretty good.  It has a lot of humor, a developing relationship between Link and Zelda (here you can see some inspiration from the old cartoon—Well excuuuuuuse me, Princess!  I laughed so hard.), and the music selection is spot-on.  The special effects are great, considering that’s it IS a fan film.  The acting is good; I wasn’t expecting to be impressed there.

Yeah, I think it’s worth watching.  You’ll at least get a laugh out of it, I promise you that.  Go check it out.

Here’s the link (HA I almost capitalized “link” there XD) to the videos at Scotty’s YouTube channel: “The Legend of Zelda: The Triforce Prophecy” on YouTube

…Aaaaaand, if you’re really that lazy: here, just click the play button below to watch Part One.  You’re welcome.