The Word Asylum

Well, I have only just returned from sleepaway camp a few days ago, and already I’m on the move again. In a few hours, I embark on a journey to the airport to board an airplane for a few hours to get to upperstate New York to see some family. Unfortunately, this means traveling late at night, with nothing to do, fatigued, with no internet. I don’t really trust myself to be productive anyway, but hey, a two-week straight withdrawal can be a little hard for a night owl/blogger/general nerd.

On the bright side, I believe that I will be staying with an aunt in her house without the rest of my family, who will be staying with another family member several miles away, so I’ll get to actually blog at some point, because I’m usually allowed to stay up as late as I like at her house. (These updates, these are all filler stuff. It leaves a foul taste in my mouth.)

On the bright side, I have just fixed my iTunes (by hand, for two hours) by replacing each of the missing songs it refused to transfer from my iPod, and I was able to download the rest of the How to Train Your Dragon movie soundtrack album, so at least I will not be without musical inspiration. John Powell works wonders for stimulating my brain status.

Also, since I haven’t really made it clear here, the last book in the Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer just came out recently, and although I am in possession of the book itself, I have not had a chance to finish it yet. Part of it is I haven’t had the time. The other part is really fear to continue forward, since the reactions of the other fans have not been promising. (I’ve been told that the last fifty pages, without doubt, will make the average Fowl fan sob hysterically. THIS I AM NOT PREPARED FOR.) So, if I seem a little angst-y later in the week, do me a favor and just blame Eoin Colfer. Whatever happens in the book itself will be his fault anyway.

Oh, and speaking of Mr. Colfer–I recently took part in writing up a ‘confession’ to contribute to a fan-made gift for the author, in the spirit of the ending of a series. The gift itself is a scrapbook filled with 300-word max letters to Eoin about how Artemis Fowl changed their lives, and how they respect him for his wonderful writing, and so on. Well, my confession along with everyone else who submitted was recently read by Mr. Colfer himself after a fan handed it off to him at one of his tour sites:

The lovely person who put this together is also the owner of the blog darvityeahartemisfowl, which is a Tumblr blog dedicated to the series. She did a wonderful job putting it all together, and the finished product was wonderful. Seeing Eoin go through it in the pictures people took made me a little more excited than was necessary (I think I may have awoken a few of the dead), but it is wonderful to think that he will read what his fans wrote to him any time he likes. Mr. Colfer mentioned to the fan who presented the scrapbook to him that he would look through it any time he was feeling down about his writing.

That is pretty cool.

I must finish preparations to leave for four o’clock, but I will be back to post later. I hope everyone is having a relatively good day so far!

“Hello? Is anyone out there?” she cried, her voice bouncing off the walls of the cavernous abyss in which she stood.

It was empty. Totally empty. 

The only thing to be heard was her own voice, echoing back at her, springing back from the endless vertical surface on her either side, chattering spookily in the air above her and whooshing past her ears.

It’s all left you, the echoes chided, cackling nastily. It’s all left you, and there’s no way to get it back.

She clutched her head, feeling the words gnawing at the edges of her brain. They don’t mean anything they don’t mean anything they don’t mean anything said the chant in the back of her mind. It was once protective, a shield from insanity. Now it felt hollow. Plastic. Unreal.

“Hello?” she cried again. A last, desperate plea. “HELLO?”

This time, instead of repeating, looping against themselves, her words disappeared, vaporized, and became one with the air she breathed.

There was a moment of complete silence, in which her backbone melted to useless, and then a chorus of laughter began–

IT’S GONE, said the voices. IT’S GONE FOREVER. AND WON’T COME BACK.

She clutched at her head, but she knew it was futile; the cruel chortling was dissolving her mind. She could feel herself becoming lighter, lighter–

they don’t mean anything they don’t mean anything they don’t mean anything

–she no long felt human; she felt strange, foreign, parting with herself–

they don’t mean anything they don’t mean anything they

Oh, said the voices, having ceased their laughter. But they do.

For a second, images flashed before her eyes, pictures, words, people–

life–

and then it was gone,

and the silence was absolute;

not even an echo.

~::~

Hi.

How has everyone’s summer been? Did you know it’s already August 1st? Yeah. Crazy, right?

I hope that, anyway, summer has been treating me better than it has you. It’s been sort of a relentless battle against my inspiration–just like that, it turned on itself, became something to fight instead of something to harness–these past few months. It’s erased most of my momentum to write from me. I’m not sure how, when, or why it happens, but all I know is that it’s been slowing me down, almost to the point where I was once at a sprint, and now I’ve been reduced a crawl.

The intro to this post might have been a little much, I know. But to be honest, it was good for my creativity. I haven’t had so much as an abstract drabble to show for in weeks. (I apologize for it’s crappiness. The intro, I mean.)

And let’s take a look at that to-do list, shall we? So far, I have to

-Finish writing the ending to the first book in my trilogy (working title Beyond)

-Totally and completely rewrite the ending to the second book in my trilogy (it’s far too rushed)

-Plan for the third book in my trilogy, although I have a vague idea

-Revise the first two books, which probably means putting aside the completion of the third on for a few months

-Planning what to write for NaNoWriMo 2012 (I could use my third book, but it would most likely entail a shaky approach)

-Get started on a fanfiction idea I have (the fandom being How to Train Your Dragon); aka, rewriting an idea I had a year ago

-Revive this gosh darn blog, because I’ve been neglecting it for I don’t know how long, and it’s ridiculous

-[Read] and review the final book in the Artemis Fowl series (because that’s inescapable)

-Finish reading The Catcher in the Rye, even though the book in question is sucking the life out of me because of its dullness

-Figure out how I’m going to survive high school and write novels in the same lifetime

-Eat a tub of ice cream and cry over The Last Guardian and How to Train Your Dragon, because irrational emotions that’s why

-Be really annoyed at the fact I have this much work to do at this point in my life.

So, you see now why a loss in writing momentum would be catastrophic for my writing career I’m currently trying to build, right? That means months and months of work and planning gone completely to waste, and months and months of guilt to make up for it. Summer is generally the time that writers seem to get most of their work done in, or look forward to, because of the lack in school work, but really, it just leaves an eternity of space for procrastination. And that’s where people like me get caught in a web of confusion, and laziness, and strangeness, and never get anything done.

My dearest viewers, if there are any of you still out there, know that I am struggling to harness whatever creativity I have and put it to good use. If it means neglecting my blog for a little bit, then that’s what I’ll have to do, because it is only now that I have realized how dire the situation has become. But overlong holidays (like summer) do make it difficult for me to focus on important and productive things (like writing) if I have nearly unlimited time to do anything but. Not that I’m complaining about the break–I can always appreciate school holidays–but it’s thrown me off my course. I just have to learn how to not let it do that.

So I ask for your patience in rebuilding my words, and old Pheris (and her sanity) should be back soon.

And with that,

good afternoon.

(ACK SORRY THIS SUMMER IS SUCKING THE LIFE OUT OF ME. I CAN NO LONGER FOCUS ON PRIORITIES.)

As you may or may not know, I happen to be a fan of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. I am part of it’s fast-growing fanbase called “Bronies” (though sometimes the female fans are called “pegasisters”), which is, believe it or not, mostly made up of boys and young men. To give you a quick background, the show itself is centered around six ponies (or else the Mane 6); Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack, and (especially) Twilight Sparkle. They live in Equestria, and help protect it with the aid of powerful and elusive elements of magic that go by the name of the Elements of Harmony. During the course of the season, they learn new lessons on friendship daily, and become better at becoming the petter person/pony in every situation through the magic of friendship.

It wasn’t long before I discovered that, through watching the show, keeping up with fandom news, and interacting with the other fans, that I found BronyCon, the pony convention created and organized by the fans themselves.

I missed the one in January, but as a birthday present, I was allowed to buy tickets for Summer.

This was to be my first ever convention, so I thought I would share it with you, since I have plans to go back, as well as sign up for a few other conventions (such as BEA).

This is how pony fans like to come together.

Believe it or not, we were able to get four or five of the voice actors to attend (included John DeLancie and Tara Strong), several of the writers, and the original creator/producer herself, Lauren Faust (who is also the creator of Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends and Powerpuff Girls). This was the first thing that drew me to it; I still feel nervous thinking about what I would say once I met them, several of my role models.

Turns out it was crazier than I expected.

I mean, guys, what would you expect from a crowd of over 4,000 young people (and some older ones) all in a pony craze, surrounded by the people who make it happen, a few microphones, and a few speakers? Crazy. Crazy and loud. But awesome.

The venue itself is the Meadowlands Expo Center in Secaucus, NJ, which was a bit of a drive. I had paid for both days of the convention, Saturday and Sunday.

When I got there, this is what I saw:

There was also a truck (that red thing in the left corner) that was broadcasting images of events and different pony organizations on a large screen. We were sort of blasting pony music the whole time.

Once we got our passes, we were clear to go through to the Mane Hall, which was divided into two parts. The first part was a marketplace-style vendor section, where artists and merchandise sellers set up their tables in aisles, and you could buy or order custom-made merch. Seriously, some of this stuff was pretty cool.

(This is what one of the aisles looked like. Multiply that by seven to the right of the image–that’s what it looked like.)

I did buy a lot of stuff here; it was hard not to spend everything I had on this stuff. There were plushies, hats, shirts, posters, pins, trading cards, decals, candles, nail polish, and just about anything you can think of, all themed pony. My mom was the adult who came with me, and even she had a hard time not buying everything in sight. And that’s coming from an adult who doesn’t really understand the point of it all anyway.

The second part of the Mane Hall was the panel area, where either fan organizations would hold a Q & A session, or the voice actors, writers, or producers would take questions from the crowd and give a sneak peek into some of their future plans for the show, or share their experiences with the fans. (At one point, Mrs. Faust apparently got so touched, she started to cry.)

This was about half the panel audience section. Like I said. There were a lot of people there.

The voucher line to get autographs was pretty ridiculously long, so what we ended up doing was leaving a friend on line (he had no where else to go that day) and spending a lot of time in the vendor area. I ended up missing the PonyPalooza (the nighttime dance party with some of the Brony musicians), since we had to go home and pack and the thing took place at nine at night, but I plan on going next year. Apparently it was pretty crazy.

It was the second day that I finally got to meet and get an autograph from Tara Strong, John DeLancie, and Lauren Faust, and spend more time in the vendor area, which, believe it or not, can take a while.

At one point, actually, one of the light fixtures caught fire, and we had to evacuate for a little while while the fire department solved the problem, but it didn’t take long. People were mostly just amused an starting taking videos.

As an experience on the whole? Exhilarating. It was just an amazing feeling being surrounded by so many people as excited about the same thing as I was, where it could be discussed and cosplayed and drawn and sold and roleplayed without so much as a hesitation. I met so many cool people there just by commenting on their cosplay or artwork. And seeing the people that make it happen? This is the show that practically keeps me sane during stressful school year for whatever reason. I felt empowered. I guess this is what it’s like to be at a convention; and if that’s the case, I will be back.

Pony on, everyone!

Right, so, a quick explanation.

You know that feeling where you have this last-minute work mountain frenzy before school ends? And then you wake up the first day of summer and forget the date, time, and your name because you have to get used to doing nothing all day? Yep. That’s yours truly right here.

I just…I hate summer. As in the season. It totally throws me off. I have no sense of time or productivity, since the heat puts a sudden eternity and haze to everything, and I can’t get stuff done. Also, by way of update, I just got myself a Tumblr account and saw Avengers for the fourth time yesterday. I can’t focus with this awesome crap all over the place!

It’s Dress Like Your Character Week again, which as you know is a blog chain put together by myself, Lily, and Sarah. The title practically explains itself. Just to give you all a recap on the rules, here they are:

• To participate, all you have to do is create a post saying so, linking back to one of the three host posts–mine, Lily’s, or Sarah’s.
• Please refrain from nudity, inappropriate captions and poses in your photos.
• In one of the three (or all of the three) host posts, don’t forget to leave a link to your post/blog, so we know where to find you.
• You do not have to show your face if you don’t want to (Sarah’s host post has a link to a website where you can pixelate or blur out your face. You can find that site here).
• Make sure you tell us what character you are dressing as and what story they are from! All forms of stories are accepted.
• Feel free to invite other participants privately to ensure they are comfortable with participation (i.e., email them or leave a comment on their blogs). This should be subject to change as long as things go as planned, so make sure to check.
• In your post, tell us how you think your writing was changed or inspired when you dressed up. Also (or instead), did you try something else daring to add to the costume? (Did you use an accent? Walk around a certain way? We’d love to know!)
• Spread the word! Tell other people about DLYCW. Please be sure to show them the rules.
• Any questions about the chain can go to me, Lily, or Sarah. You can find my information specifically on my Contact page

I won’t have a chance to post my picture right away, but I will let you know when I am able to get it up. Bear with me!

(VERY MUCH LATER)

Hi. I am very much overdue for this post. For this I apologize. Still getting in the swing of things with this acting camp monologue/scene memorization thing.

But I have a picture for your eyes! Oh, yes, indeed. And this one a jewel.

(Leigh. LEIGH. WHY ARE YOU SO INCREDIBLY HOW I CREATED YOU? IT HURTS MY BRAIN.)

Meet Leigh Alvarado, a pet peeve of mine. (Some people seem to be under the ridiculous conception that authors love all of their characters. Absolutely not. How on earth would be create such easily loathed characters if we didn’t feel similar in any way at all?) She’s the full-tale drama queen, and a rude peer/queen bee to boot. She’s mostly incompetent and does very little to help the situation, but it vital to the story, because she is actually possesses the most power in her star talents. But it’s less of a question of how much power with dear Leigh, so much as how to use it. She is as un-Mary Sue-like as I could make her. To be honest, though, I’m not sure how well I did.

If you’ve ever read Artemis Fowl, think Opal Koboi, but without the megalomaniac personality and less of the unbeatable evil genius. More her self-absorbed, self-aware, but undoubtedly powerful self. More of Opal’s failure in accepting that some things are not to be messed with. And definitely more of her lack in allies and her failure to sustain them properly (aka Briar Cudgeon, if you do in fact know what I am referring to).

In reality, I admire her for being such an oddly proportioned and awkward character. She’s not at all the deep think Dakota is, but she possesses powers Dakota does not, which is odd, because she’s a supporting character in all it’s peripheral glory, and nothing will change that. She’s actually very fun to write about. She’s just…irritating.

Anyway. That’s all I have for you. I’ll be blogging again soon. I have three new projects I’m forcing myself into, because I need the work. I haven’t written anything productive in what feels like months.

Poor Asylum. It goes empty and neglected for a while and then all of the sudden has to put up with the shock of fireworks and confetti that come with blogging awards. I don’t mind it, but the Asylum is dazed. I need to get it’s gears turning properly again.

All right, stalling session over. Time for the awards.

(Awards seem to be taking over my life lately. I need to come up with awards for various teachers at my school, and now blogging awards. IT’S LIKE DE-JA-VU, LIKE I’VE SEEN IT BEFORE.)

The first award (with weird spelling!) is the Kreativ Blogger award.

As with every award, there come rules; here are the tasks to be completed as follows.

-Answer 10 questions about myself.

-Name 10 random facts about myself.

-Pass this award on to 7 other Kreativ bloggers.

(That spelling makes me cringe. I’m sorry.)

Right, so. I’m assuming I’m using these. Ten questions:

What is your favorite song? I have too many, and they change too often. I think right now it might be a tie between this, this, and this.

What is your favorite dessert? Kale.

What ticks you off? When people spread lies about each other. To be honest, I don’t see the point of it. At all. And I don’t like how it affects my friends.

And, like, lots of other things. Grammar fails, for example. Or slow internet. Or Loki haters.

When you’re upset, what do you do? Go through a folder in my computer I have saved for funny pictures, eat chocolate, listen to befitting music (such as This Will Destroy You, Makkon, and Owl City), eat chocolate, lurk on Twitter, and eat chocolate. Oh, and make everything Loki-themed for a while. *cough*

What is your favorite pet? I can’t let Bodhi down! I’m more of a dog person. I love cats and horses, but Bodhi is my best friend.

Which do you prefer: black or white? It depends. If we’re talking something like chocolate or clothes, black. If we’re talking something like room color themes, then white.

What is your attitude? Sarcastic, verbose, and hyper. For some reason people still think me pretty friendly, and come to me with all of their problems, though. But it really depends.

What is perfection?  Um…movies, hot chocolate, and a rainy day. Together. (*bad poker face*)

What is your guilty pleasure? I think I’ll go with Lily on this one–chocolate. Most indefinitely.

And now, for ten random facts about myself.

1. I talk too much.

2. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is one of the best television shows there are. Period, end of conversation.

3. Florence + the Machine has the power to make me cry.

4. I take piano lessons, horse-back riding lessons, and acting lessons (in the Summer).

5. I’m a member of Loki’s Army. (Oh, Miriam, Charley? We might have to create a post on all that. As in a completely Loki’d post.)

6. I don’t really play video games, but I do watch certain vloggers play them on YouTube. More entertaining than you may think.

7. Really heavy French accents make me laugh. Hysterically.

8. I read books during professional baseball games–it just doesn’t appeal to me the way it appeals to some people. And those people think I’m crazy.

9. I have been at my current school all of my life; twelve years, to be exact.

10. I wish winter would come back. What I wouldn’t do for a blizzard right now.

Onward!

Yeah, that sums it up pretty well.

Here, have some more rules.

1. This award is for book bloggers only. To receive this award the blog must be at least 50% about books (reading or writing is okay)
2. Along with receiving this award, you must also share your top five favorite books you have ever read. (More than five is okay)
3. You must give this award to 5-10 other lucky book blogs you adore.

Well, here goes. This might not go as well as planned.

1. The Books of Elsewhere, by Jacqueline West

2. The Harry Potter Books, by J.K. Rowling

3. Variant, by Robison Wells

4. And Then There Were None, by Agatha Christie

5. How to Train Your Dragon, by Cressida Cowell

I believe now is the time I need to send this off to several other bloggers. Unfortunately, I don’t think I know enough bloggers to nominate seven to ten. I shall do my best with this, but if I nominate you and you’ve already received the award, just let me know.

Kirsten of Kirsten Writes! 

John Hansen of The Incessant Dronings of a Bored Writer

Allegra of All I Need is a Keyboard

Tomte (I’m sorry, I don’t think I ever got your name!) of You Didn’t Really Need to Know This…

Oh, God, is that all? I’m sorry, guys. I guess need to meet more people.

Thank you forever to Miriam and Lily! Love you both!

And since it seems to be a theme with some of my fellow award winners (*pointed look*), have some Loki to conclude.

(I REGRET NOTHING.)

This blog has been neglected for far too long.

God, what is it with end-of-school-year periods that makes me blog less and less? It’s like all my creativity is being sucked down a dark hole, and being replaced with the energy to lurk about on the rest of the internet, chatting away with fellow high school homework-swamped writers about mindless things like supervillains and chemistry homework. I’ve fallen greatly out of practice. It’s annoying, to say the least.

To be, fair, however, the end of the year is also the time for lots of plans and different projects to attempt. For one, my graduation is coming up, and my English teacher still thinks it unimportant to start our graduation speeches, however close the deadline looms. For another, I’m crammed with school projects, because once again the teachers at my school can’t take the time to coordinate who’s giving what project and when, so we end up with a sizable pile somewhere around the last day of school, which is absolutely joyous.

I do have a few things I want to attempt this summer, however, in hopes to at least get a general set of skills down. One of them is screenwriting.

See, I’ve never really thought about trying my hand at screenwriting, but in between juggling the hiatus between MLP:FiM seasons and my friend Aubrey Hansen and her considerable talent, it’s been something I’ve been wanting to try for quite a while now. I haven’t had the chance while school is still in session, but over the summer I might just be able to get something done. Believe it or not, I do have an idea of where to start, but I’ll mention more on that later.

Another thing I’m thinking about trying this summer is vlogging more often. Though I must say it’s a tad more difficult for me to take apart several minutes of footage into something presentable than to type up a few hundred words, it could a fun and more visual way to do things. Of course, I’d need a different camera for that, because I’m afraid I’ll soon be giving up this loaner MacBook Pro back to the school and be forced to return to my Dell, and those of us with PCs know perfectly well just how high-quality those camera/video-editing programs are. I’ll still need to maintain disguise, but hey, if I’m getting a message across, it might be worth it.

Also, just to make sure this post isn’t just a wall of words (I’m trying to avoid that in blogging and save it for noveling), here’s a song that you all might enjoy, and to celebrate tomorrow, which is Friday. Just in case you didn’t already know, that’s something to celebrate.

Happy before-Friday day, everyone.

Now, back to Twitter for some inspiration (SARCASM), in which I am seriously lacking. I’ve definitely had writer’s block, but this is ridiculous. It’s been, like, a week already.

It’s not the time to fall asleep on me, brain! It’s the time to awaken! And now that you have the time to do something with all those overcrowded ideas? Even more so.

What? It was going to happen sometime anyway. I’m busy obsessing over this anyway over on the Twitter machine, so I might as well bring it here, because I don’t do that often enough. Also I’m putting off my post on the trip to Costa Rica. Don’t worry, I’ll get to it eventually. Or something.

(WARNING: THERE MAY OR MAY NOT BE SPOILERS IN THIS POST FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO HAVE NOT SEEN THE MOVIE YET. I’M ABOUT TO GO ALL AVENGERS HISTORY TEACHER ON YOU GUYS, BUT I’M NOT ABOUT TO CHECK WHAT’S IN THE MOVIE AND WHAT ISN’T.)

Let me just start off by saying I have never been very associated with the Marvel comics series of this storyline. Comic books aren’t really my thing; I prefer a page of words to a row of pictures in boxes with captions. That’s not to say I don’t read them ever, but I do feel I can capture the feeling of the scene more if it’s in a book.

That said, I’m pretty new to this Avengers fanbase. I have yet to meet someone who has been following the story since the comic books, up to the five prequels (Thor, Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Captain America, and the Hulk) and the actual movie. (Just for the record, I did really enjoy the Iron Man movies as well as Captain America, but I have yet to see Thor and the Hulk, which are both currently on my to-do list.) Looks like I have my research cut out for me.

Now, the only factually correct Avengers in the movie according to the comics are Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor, but some of the original group, which is much larger, is included in the movie as well. This includes Black Widow, the Hulk, and Hawkeye (though there are others that are not included, such as Ant-Man and Wasp). Plenty of superheroes to go around if we need a sequel.

The conflict in itself is not very complicated at its base; an alien invasion from the other end of the universe upon earth from a god turned evil who goes by the name of Loki, God of Mischief, and brother of Thor. This storyline actually uses Norse mythology as its origin of deity–some examples of these gods are Odin (basically the equivalent of Zeus) and Frigga (the equivalent of Hera). Norse mythology is the same mythology used in How to Train Your Dragon, by the way.

Anyway, the structure of the whole problem here is something called the Tesseract, which is a store of enormous amounts of power, with the ability to open portals into different universes and also be used as a general energy source, and takes the form of a glowing cube. This is what our villain, Loki, uses in order to get to Earth (or Midguard, as his kind would call it), and which he also uses as a form of energy in his glow-y staff thingy that can blow things up. It’s pretty intense.

I won’t go into all the details of why Loki turned evil and decided to declare war on us, but I will say that basically he is the adopted brother of Thor, isn’t very happy about being abandoned by his original parents, and isn’t very happy about his brother gaining all the power and glory to rule, either. He’s a god with a broken heart and a hunger for power, so he makes for a pretty good opponent.

(Okay, I’m getting to the movie part now. Sheesh.)

I don’t want to ruin anything for you–it would spoil the inevitable epic–but I’ll start by saying the majority of this movie, however fantasical-sounding, is plausible. The government keeps all kind of things from us; why not a super-awesome superhero training program/defense team? Or an energy source with the ability to slice open the universe like a sheet of rice paper?

I will say, though, that there are a LOT of exchanging of witticisms. The characters are constantly snarking at each other in a competition to be the most aloof and sharp-tongued, and it can seem a little extensive sometimes. (Loki is really the only one who can do it very well. Just saying.) But in general it’s all pretty hilarious. I went with my parents and my aunt, and they were laughing nearly as hard as I was. The screenplay is very well-written, and even makes references sometimes that are fun to figure out.

Favorite super hero? Still Iron Man. Robert Downey, Jr. does it as Sherlock Holmes, and he does it as Iron Man. He’s the funniest of all of them, not to mention has the best costume. (Hey, no one in the group has a flying bulletproof super-computerized metal suit.) I must say, though, Hawkeye is growing on me. Archery is awesome anyway, but this guy? He’s so epicly precise, it’s funny.

Now, let’s get to the opposing side.

I’m just going to say right here and now that Loki is officially one of the most well-played, well-portrayed, witty, intelligent, dark, theatrical, and evil villains ever. Ever. Moriarity has nothing on this dude, or even Voldemort. I can’t help it–I’m a sucker for excellent bad guys, especially when the actor captures them so perfectly. Granted, he looked a little reptilian to me for the first hour or so (I was more than a little confused when my mom and aunt next to me started going on about how sexy he was, admittedly), but I got used to it in favor of his manner. The way he talks and stands and walks seems incredibly regal and realistic, probably because he pulls the same stunt that a lot of MLP: FiM villains do; he doesn’t just threaten to win, he acts like he’s already won. Not only does that make all the difference, but seeing just how good he was at getting what he wanted was what got me to respect him. To be honest I was laughing harder in Loki’s scenes than I was in the ones that were actually supposed to be funny. Whenever he got what he wanted, started giving a lecture, made a sarcastic comment, or even failed pretty hard at something, I was crying real tears. It’s hilarious to me. I’m not quite sure why.

Just to be clear: just because I love this guy to pieces, doesn’t mean I agree with his motives. What he’s actually doing is what makes him the idiotic sociopath, but his personality is what makes him better than the rest. The superheroes seem too perfect compared to him anyway–he provides contrast and entertainment to the story, not to mention excitement. Trust me, guys; his ridiculously awesome costume isn’t even half of it.

(I guess that means I’m officially a part of the #LokisArmy on Twitter now. Or something.)

Long story short, this is a great movie. I would recommend seeing at least one of the five prequel movies first to help you understand a few things, but then again if my super-extensive fictional history lesson didn’t fry your brain with knowledge, maybe you’re better off just seeing it anyway.

Here’s the trailer, just to give you an idea:

Also, I’m assuming you already know this, but this movie is a tad violent–so if you are not comfortable with explosions, people getting shot, or people getting stabbed (or people getting their retinas copied into a computer against their will with a suction cup thingy), then you should either be advised, not see this alone, or maybe give it a pass until you think you might want to see it. Or not watch it at all.

But I highly advise against that.

I really seem to be getting into these monthly things. I actually have to schedule blog posts accordingly now. It’s like…like I’m actually doing something with my life! The Asylum isn’t just a never-ending abyss of fangirling and stressing and opinions! Or so I assume.

Anyway.

Speaking of monthly things, it happens to be that time again when Pheris is given a prompt along with a certain number of others and their blogs on a given date. (Thankfully, not at a given time.) This is otherwise known as Teens Can Write Too!, the blog chain I follow. Here is this month’s prompt:

“Why do you write?”

Why…why do I…why do I wri–

What?!

This is either me being entirely caught off guard at some catastrophic level, or just me really confused. My mind, for once, is entirely blank.

Because here’s your answer: I HAVE NO IDEA.

This is probably the most honest I’ve been about anything in months. There’s just no other way to put it, because any explanation I give just wouldn’t make sense. It wouldn’t do the thing justice.

So, I guess what I’m saying is I write because I write.

I mean, when it all boils down to the very center of things, I write because it comes naturally. It’s based on impulse. It’s an instinct. It’s something that I couldn’t get rid of if I tried, and yet if I didn’t write every time I didn’t feel like writing, I wouldn’t write anything at all. It’s a weird parad0x-in-itself kind of answer, but it’s the closest to the truth I can give you.

I mean, what the heck else would I do with my life? I’m already an internet nerd, book worm, and procrastination extraordinaire, but even I can’t do that forever. I don’t even write physically all the time–I write in my head, constantly, unconscious of even doing so. It’s simply how I get through my day.

To be perfectly honest, I’m not sure where I got it. I have no knowledge of any of my family or extended family members ever loving to write quite as much as I do, or being as book-savvy as I. It came from somewhere, but probably pretty far back in the family tree. I actually have yet to meet someone who is not related to me in real life who is as committed as I am to writing, so I guess we’re just sort of scattered about in the wind somewhere. Artists often seem to work that way.

Sorry, John and Allegra. There’s nothing specific coming to mind. I write because I can’t do anything else quite as naturally.

Thanks for the prompt, though. Like I said, having a scheduled post is always pretty awesome.

Alright, I will be taking my leave now. The rest of the chain isn’t, though–here’s the tour list, up for grabs! We’ve got a lot of new people this time.

May 5–http://towerofplot.blogspot.com–The Leaning Tower of Plot

May 6–http://correctingpenswelcome.wordpress.com–Comfy Sweaters, Writing and Fish

May 7–http://cassidymarierizzo.wordpress.com–Cassidy Marie Rizzo

May 8–http://insideliamsbrain.wordpress.com–This Page Intentionally Left Blank

May 9–http://weirdalocity.wordpress.com–You Didn’t Really Need To Know This…

May 10–http://inklinedwriters.blogspot.com–Inklined

May 11–https://thewordasylum.wordpress.com–The Word Asylum

May 12–http://lilyjenness.blogspot.com–Lily’s Notes In The Margins

May 13–http://laughablog.wordpress.com–The Zebra Clan

May 14–http://planetaryelastic.blogspot.com–Tangential Bemusings

May 15–http://realityisimaginary.blogspot.com–Reality Is Imaginary

May 16–http://otherrandomthings.wordpress.com–Dragons, Unicorns And Other Random Things

May 17–http://lonelyrecluse.wordpress.com–The Lonely Recluse

May 18–http://delorfinde.wordpress.com–A Farewell To Sanity

May 19–http://incessantdroningofaboredwriter.wordpress.com–The Incessant Droning Of A Bored Writer

May 20–http://allegradavis.wordpress.com–All I Need Is A Keyboard

May 21–http://teenscanwritetoo.wordpress.com–Teens Can Write Too! (We will be announcing the topic for next month’s chain)

kthxbi.