Friday Facts (5)

First off, sorry about forgetting about this last week lol. Here's a brief recap of what happened.

Saturday Morning, MSN:

Alex: Hey.

Lauren: We forgot Friday Facts.

Alex: Oh. Want to do it now? It's Saturday but...

Lauren: No.

Lauren's always the lazy one.

So this week's topic is music. Our favorites :)

Oh, and Alex has lost her iTunes so she may have some difficulty with her input. Sorry...

TOP 5 MOST LISTENED TO SONGS OF ALL TIME: (these can be old so don't judge kay?)

Lauren:

1. Forget It - Breaking Benjamin
2. Heartland - Celtic Thunder (lol it's a good song.)
3. Seaside - The Kooks
4. Eyes - Rogue Wave
5. The Call - Regina Spektor

Alex:
- Uuuh. No idea. My Itunes is gonegonegone. But probably something like Boys Like Girls, Tegan and Sarah, Imogen Heap and... yeah. Lots of old stuff.

TOP 5 MOST RECENTLY LOVED SONGS:

Lauren:

1. Seaside - The Kooks
2. Lon Dubh (Blackbird) - Julie Fowlis
3. Don't Stop Believin' - Glee Cast
4. Candy - Paolo Nutini
5. The Blower's Daughter - Damien Rice

Alex:

1. Don't Stop Believin'- Glee Cast
2. Gold Digger- Glee Cast
3. Bust Your Windows- Glee Cast
4. On My Own- Glee Cast
5. Can't Stop This Feeling- Glee Cast

(seeing a pattern here? Since I have no Itunes, I just listen to YouTube Playlists which involve songs in Glee with some 500 days of Summer songs thrown in.)

TOP 5 FAVORITE ARTISTS/BANDS OF ALL TIME:

Lauren:

1. Belle & Sebastian
2. Celtic Thunder (you cannot judge until you listen to them. they are so good lol)
3. Kate Nash
4. Coldplay
5. Stars

Alex:

1. Stars
2. Kate Nash
3. Tegan and Sara
4. Imogen Heap
5. Regina Spektor
   

TOP 5 FAVORITE NEW ARTISTS/BANDS:

Lauren:

1. Paolo Nutini
2. Damien Rice
3. Margot & the Nuclear So and So's
4. Chris Garneau
5. Glee Cast

Alex:

1. Everyone from Glee
2. I am pulling a blank.
3. There are others.
4. But without Itunes, I am lost.
5. So yeah.
   

3 (good) LYRICS OFF THE TOP OF YOUR HEAD:

Lauren:

1. But I'm not a miracle and you're not a saint
   Just another soldier on a road to nowhere
   Amie - Damien Rice


2. I was perched outside in the pouring rain
   Trying to make myself a sail
   Then I’ll float to you my darlin’
   With the evening on my tail
   Candy - Paolo Nutini


3. And if you'da took to me like
   A gull takes to the wind,
   Well, i'da jumped from my tree,
   And i'da danced like the king of the eyesores
   And the rest of our lives woulda fared well.
   New Slang - The Shins

Alex:
Because blogger is being annoying, you don't get anything from me. Just google Don't Stop Believin' lyrics and there you go.

Friday Facts (4)

This is a little late, so please accept our deepest apologies. We were going to do music, but because this is Zombie Appreciation Week, it's going to be dedicated to zombies and anything else to do with zombies. The music facts will come next week instead.

1. There are several different definitions of a zombie, some being:

1. A supernatural power or spell that according to voodoo belief can enter into and reanimate a corpse.
2. A corpse revived in this way.
3. One who looks or behaves like an automaton.

(all taken from answers.com)

2. Some of the usual and/or stereotyped zombie characteristics:

• Zombies eat humans and brains.
• Zombies are commonly found in groups.
• Zombies are slow and uncoordinated.
• Zombies' bites are infectuous and may very well kill you.

3. Zombies are creepy.

4. Zombies are rising in popularity now along with several other paranormal creatures.

Switching over to more personal zombie facts...

5. The Forest of Hands and Teeth is the only zombie book Lauren and Alex have both read.

6. According to fact 1. c, two books Alex has recently read, Lipstick Apology and Fire, both include zombies in a very loose sense.

7. Alex forgot Kiss of Life, sequel to Generation Dead, by Daniel Waters at school. This means there is not going to be a zombie book review for zombie week! Ack!

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Uuh yeah. That's all we could come up with at the moment. On a better note, others have joined into the Friday Fact fun! Yep, craziness! :D So you should go check theirs out if you haven't already:

The Neverending Shelf

A Passion For Books

We'd do a Mr. Linky if we knew how, but since we don't... oh well. If you've done a Friday Facts and want us to link to it, just leave us a link in the comments!

Friday Facts (3) - BOOKS! OUR FAVORITES

Welcome to the third edition of Friday Facts!

This week's topic is... BOOKS!

...

Alright, well, our favorites. The best of the best - and we've read a lot of books. Statistically. Everyone here doesn't count...

First off though, last week we asked for some questions, because we were not feeling that creative. So thank you to everyone who asked and FEEL FREE TO ASK MORE. We like it. You ask questions now, we'll answer in next week's post, and you can get extra entries in our upcoming contest! We swear, the contest will come. Hopefully...

Let's start with those questions.

1. (From Kate) Since you have started your blog, have you or Lauren ever thought about having splitting up and each having your own blog?

Lauren: I would fail. Alex runs this show. BUT, I have been helping out a lot more lately. She doesn't pester me 24/7 anymore :) But no, we work well.

Alex: It came to mind to ditch Lauren... but no, I'd never actually do it. It's more like when I'm awkwardly talking in third person that I get annoyed with having Lauren also on the blog. :P But she is helpful now, so no. I like having her a lot. (insert sweet sappy music and AWWWs now.)

2. (From ReaderGirl) How many books do you guys read a week?

Lauren: Well, if you are super duper interested, you can check out our right-hand sidebar where we list all the book's we've read this year. Technically, in order to read 100 a year, you have to read a book every 3-4 days. So 2-3 a week. Alex has read over 100, so go her. This summer, I managed to catch up and have read about 40, so about 1 book every 2 days. It depends on how bored I am. I read My Soul to Take today because I had nothing to do.

Alex: Urrrr. I guess it depends. I read a lot more during the school year than this summer, oddly enough. Per week, during the school year, it could be 4-5 books. Now it's more like 2-3. I know, weird right? But if you divided the number of books I've read (116) by the weeks so far of 2009 (approx. 38 or so I think) it equals around 3. So the answer is 3 books per week. On average. Yes, that is math. Getting prepared for school! :D Oh joy... (If you're thinking I'm a nerd, you are currrect. At work today I calculated which size of fudge would be cheapest.)

3. (From Marisa) Do you prefer reading about faeries, zombies, werewolves, witches or vampires?

Lauren: Alright. Well I'd have to say my least favorites are witches and zombies. I was a huge Twilight fan before the craze happened - Alex and I were hooked right after Twilight first came out - and I loooooooved my Jacob. But at this point, I'm going to say faeries. There are a lot of faerie stories but they just aren't as tiresome as the vampires have become.

Alex: Honestly, I would go with faeries, but recently I get annoyed with them. I still like them though. I guess I like them all. While I like reading about zombies, they're not my favourites because I find them creepy. Not all that time, but I imagine zombies as really scary. Witches are fun. I like all the different takes on vampires. Werewolves are okay- I did like Jacob before, I'll admit. Now I think more of the HP werewolf and get a little scared. So at my top are probably faeries and vampires.

4, 5 & 6. (From Celi.a) Have you ever been under the influence of anesthesia? If you had to own a natural-colored cow, what color would yours be? When you read the word 'test,' what immediately comes to mind?

Lauren: No. Black & white spots. Tube.

Alex: Ur, I don't think so? My cow would be all black. Is that possible? Test = school = death. D: Not looking forward to school. I hate tests. I suck at them.

SO A BIG THANK YOU TO ALL ... FOUR OF YOU! BROWNIE POINTS! and I think Alex mentioned contest points too... Don't worry. We won't forget. Or at least Alex won't.

Now on to the factualness!!

1. TOP 5 BOOKS

Lauren:

1. The Book Thief - Marcus Zusak
2. HARRY POTTER!!
3. The Host - Stephanie Meyer
4. The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
5. A Great and Terrible Beauty - Libba Bray

Alex:

1. Harry Potter series
2. The Mortal Instruments trilogy - Cassandra Clare
3. Dairy Queen - Catherine Gilbert Murdock
4. Elsewhere - Gabrielle Zevin
5. The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins

2. TOP 5 AUTHORS

Lauren:

1. Libba Bray
2. Tamora Pierce
3. J.K. Rowling
4. Marcus Zusak
5. E. Lockhart

Alex:

1. Tamora Pierce
2. John Green
3. Sarah Dessen
4. Laurie Halse Anderson
5. Scott Westerfeld

3. TOP 5 FEMALE CHARACTERS

Lauren:

1. Gemma Doyle. Hands Down. (A Great and Terrible Beauty - Libba Bray)
2. Ruby Oliver (The Boyfriend List - E. Lockhart)
3. Frankie Landau-Banks (The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks - E. Lockhart)
4. Liesel (The Book Thief - Marcus Zusak)
5. *has been traded for an extra boy because I don't care*

Alex:

1. D.J. Swenk in Dairy Queen
2. Parker in Cracked Up To Be
3. Audrey in Audrey, Wait!
4. Terra in North of Beautiful
5. Willow in Willow

4. TOP 5 MALE CHARACTERS

Lauren:

1. Kartik (A Great and Terrible Beauty - Libba Bray)
2. Kreacher (Harry Potter - J.K. Rowling)
3. Wes (The Truth About Forever - Sarah Dessen)
4. Dexter (This Lullabye - Sarah Dessen)
5. Jesse (The Mediator - Meg Cabot)
6. (shhh don't tell Alex) Ariel (Eyes Like Stars - Lisa Mantchev)

Alex:

1. Jace in The Mortal Instruments trilogy (Lauren agrees)
2. Wes in The Truth About Forever
3. T.C. in My Most Excellent Year
4. Nick in The Demon’s Lexicon
5. Kartik in The Gemma Doyle Trilogy

5. TOP 5 COVERS

Lauren:

1. Fire - Kristin Cashore (here)
2. Wicked Lovely - Melissa Marr (here)
3. Dramarama - E. Lockhart (here)
4. The Book Thief - Marcus Zusak (here) *this is not the cover I have, but I love it)
5. City of Ashes - Cassandra Clare (here)

Alex:

1. Hush Hush - Becca Fitzpatrick (here)
2. Wondrous Strange - Leslie Livingston (here)
3. Eyes Like Stars - Lisa Mantchev (here)
4. The Luxe - Anna Godbersen (here)
5. 13 Reasons Why - Jay Asher (here)
6. And if we go into UK covers, Fire and Graceling by Kristin Cashore because those covers are absolutely stunning!

6. TOP 5 PAIRINGS

Lauren:

1. Wanderer/Ian (The Host - Stephenie Meyer)
2. Jesse/ Suze (The Mediator- Meg Cabot)
3. Dexter/Remy (This Lullabye - Sarah Dessen)
4. Katniss/Peeta (The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins)
5. Kate/Will (Perfect You - Elizabeth Scott)

Alex:

1. Katsa/Po in Graceling
2. Gemma/ Kartik inThe Gemma Doyle trilogy
3. Katniss/ Peeta in The Hunger Games
4. Terra/ Jacob in North of Beautiful
5. Kate/ Will in Perfect You

Alex: You'll notice a lot of our lists don't really match up. But we really do have similar interests. Just different preferences. :D And plus, isn't there a saying that goes "friends are made by similarites but it's our differences that keep us together"? Obviously put more eloquently than that.


Hope you enjoyed this weeks edition of Friday Facts!

Next week? Music!

Friday Facts (2)

This time, on Friday Facts, we are featuring... this blog! Go A Flight of Minds!

Actually, this is mostly because we lack imagination and can't think of much else to do it on. Also, pressed for time. :/

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1. A Flight of Minds is a project of imagination. It started months ago, with Lauren perusing book blogs. She got Alex involved and soon an idea hatched in Alex's head. Why not make a book blog? If others could do it, so could they.

2. With a lot of nagging and whining on Alex's part, Lauren finally caved and started the book blog with her. Lauren thought it would take too much work. Silly girl.

3. The blog was first started on April 26th, 2009. Or at least, that was the day of the first post.

4. Lauren and Alex went through a lot of different names. Some were terrible. Some were horrendous and can't be uttered again. Finally decided on A Flight of Minds... because the other choices were terrible. These included: Gen Y reviews, Teens Review Too (Knock off of Teens Read Too), and Where There Are Reviews. There were also name ideas that included "brains" and "head" and "Two" which are completely embarrassing to think of to this day.

5. Out of the 111 posts, including this one, 48 of them have been reviews. Mostly by Alex.

6. Lauren has oddly enough posted 5 reviews in the past week. Quite the record! (Obviously someone needs a life.)

7. Since Sitemeter was set up, sometime in May, there have been 3227 visits with 6803 page views.

8. Although, according to ClustrMaps, since August 3, there have been 1181 visits.

9. Sitemeter and ClustrMaps do not line up very well. They're about... 400 off. Isn't that odd?

10. We were our first followers. :P It looked slightly less pathetic to have ourselves as followers than have it say "there is currently no one following this blog", or whatever it says.

11. We will hold a contest soon. We promise. Really. We just need to get everything sorted out.

12. We're thinking of just having the winner of the contest decide what books they want: they could pick from anything, as long as it's not over a certain amount. Maybe?

13. Brains have fried making this post. Mostly Alex. Darn Lauren for going away again.

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Hmm, can you guess who made this post? Also, somehow switched from third person to first person. O_O Too lazy to fix.

Because these posts are getting awfully weird and random, we ask YOU, dear readers, to help us with Friday Facts. Ask us questions in a comment to this post, and you'll get bonus entries in our upcoming contest! We'll answer the questions asked in next week's post. The questions can be as random as you like, so long as they're ones we can answer. If you ask us "What colour is my underwear", we won't know. Sorry, but we're not psychic and we cannot see through computer screens to look at your underwear.

Fridays Facts

youSo this is a new meme we have decided to create. Hopefully, it can be weekly. We'll see. This is a list of random facts that we can come up with. Maybe they'll be facts about authors, books, obscure or not. Maybe they'll be about something completely off topic, like dogs or rainbows. This week though, we're doing something special, something very dear to both Lauren and Alex.

Mainly, ourselves.

Yes, we are completely egotistic. Yes, we care a lot about ourselves. Yes, we are obnoxious teenagers. Beware.

Oh, and this is our 101th post. Yay! (It was going to be 100 but Lauren accidentally posted her review before). This gives us a right to be self-centered.

Now, ontoooo the facts!

1) Alex and Lauren met on a fateful day in gr. 2. Lauren had just moved to the town, this was her new school. She was in Alex's class. Oh wait, first, a little back story. Alex was a shy, young girl. She enjoyed the simple things in life: picking up beads during recess, chatting along with friends, and most of all, unearthing a rock with a buddy. That all changed though, when Lauren entered. She stole away Alex's friends. Alex was heartbroken, left all alone, sniveling into her sleeve, while the others played ball, happy and carefree.

Lauren, on the hand, thinks Alex is biased. And only remembers picking out tiny beads from a sand pit and storing them in Alex's epi-pen holder.


Oh and a birthday party :)

The end. Slash not really. Maybe these memories aren't even real. Alex is sort of wondering. This could have all been a dream.


Probably.

2) Alex and Lauren weren't reunited however, until gr. 6, where the two became much closer, and old animosity was lost. In gr. 7, the two went to the same school (actually, all of the elementary school went to the same middle school) and were happily in the same class.

3) At the end of gr. 7, Lauren was deemed gifted, and therefore moved away from our crummy middle school. She went on to do high and great things like join several bands and go on fancy trips. For middle school graduation, Alex went to a theme park for a day, a mere two hours away. Lauren, for graduation, went skiing. CORRECTION BY LAUREN: How in God's name could I go skiing in June Alex? We ate lunch there. For a band trip, Alex went to a local Swiss Chalet and attended a karaoke night in the school gym. Lauren, went to Wonderland, biggest theme park in Canada.

4) But even though they were apart, the two remained friends. They still traded books, still talked, still hung out and did silly things. For instance, they entered a contest hosted by Libba Bray. They made a barbie video, with a little help from another friend, which we have embed here for your amusement.



To their complete and utter amazement, they won. Alex and Lauren screamed and were giddy for weeks after. Alex and Lauren have yet to read The Eternal Kiss, however, because there are no copies in their city. They are currently thinking up ideas on how to get the book. Plans range from ransacking a publishing house to driving cross-country to get it to simply ordering online. The last one, while easiest, is also the most boring.

5) Lauren hopes to be an archaeologist. Maybe. She doesn't really know. Alex, however, has no idea whatsoever. She hopes to figure this out in the next year or so, to be able to plan and not feel so confused. Science, art, literature, computers? So much to take, so much to learn, too much to figure out. Gr. 12 will be hell.