What a Fabulous Work of Art! /// Music Monday #50

Hey, guess what time it is? You got it!

Today's song is a very special one for me, because it's going to be used for an upcoming series of mine. (A quick heads-up: there are a couple uses of "damned" and "hell" in the song, but they're proper usages.)

"Instruments of Cyanide"

Composed by Will Ryan

If you're familiar with the indie video game scene, particularly that of the horror genre, you might've heard of a game called Bendy and the Ink Machine. With a visual style that hearkened back to the old cartoons, it basically asked, "What if Walt Disney was evil?" Upon its release, it took the gaming world by storm. One of the things it spawned was a whole slew of fan songs. I've heard a number of good ones, but I think this one is one of my favorites, if not my absolute favorite.

Will Ryan (otherwise known as the YouTuber DAGames) makes his own music, which is a combination of his own stuff and video game songs. He often does rock/metal, but there are times when he branches out and tries something new. This is the middle ground, as I believe "Instruments of Cyanide" would be classified as symphonic rock or something.

Will's got a pretty powerful voice on his own, something that's needed for his musical niche. In this song, he's joined by two other YouTube musicians: Caleb Hyles and Chi-Chi. Both of them also have great vocal prowess. A fourth YouTuber, OblivionFall, created the lyric video, and his talent shows.

In the context of the game, they're each singing as different characters. Chi-Chi is the voice of Susie Campbell, the actress who plays Alice Angel; Caleb plays the Projectionist; and I'm really not sure who Will is. Boris, maybe? This probably doesn't make any sense without knowing the original game, which I suggest you should check out.

While I love it for its ties to the game, I love it even more for another reason: it has hugely inspired a trilogy I plan to write. This is all rather hush-hush at the moment, but I basically want to write three connected trilogies. The first is the Portal Chronicles, which you've heard about if you've been on my blog for a while. The second is called the Titan Saga, and the third has no name as of yet. The Titan Saga will be a sequel to the Portal Chronicles . . . and I really can't say much due to spoilers. Trust me, things are gonna get really cool.

Will, Caleb, Chi-Chi: if you, for whatever reason, happen to be reading this . . . thank you. Thank you from the bottom of my art. Your masterpiece of a song has inspired so much of the Titan Saga in its early stages of creative birth. I could go on about how certain lyrics mean different things within the context of my trilogy, but I'd rather not give anything away. Suffice it to say that you deserve to go in the acknowledgements. Without this song, I really have no idea what the sequels to the Portal Chronicles would look like. Thanks again.

Sorry I was so vague in some parts of this post, but like I said, I'd hate to give stuff away. Thanks for reading! What'd you think of the song? Do you have any that inspire your own stories? Do share all!

Frequent Infrequency . . . Potentially?

Sorry that I'm posting one of these again, but there's not going to be a "real" post for today. My evenings have all been filled this week, I've got stuff that needs doing, and on top of all that, I'm doing a walking challenge with my work. I try to get 10k steps in per day, and that also eats up a good chunk of time. Plus, I didn't really have any ideas as to what I should talk about.

In fact, rather than me having to write up a similar message every time, I might as well say that I'm not sure how frequently I'll be posting over the next while. Suffice it to say that if you don't see a post from me on a Friday, it's probably not happening. I'll stay on track with Music Monday posts, but my "regular" ones might occur a little less often for the time being.

That's all from me for now. If you got any questions, leave them in the comments, and I'll try to answer them promptly. Thanks for understanding and for bearing with my lackluster performance these past few months. Enjoy your weekend!

Not Much Longer Now . . .

Mark shook his hand vigorously and sat up straight in his chair. "Sheesh. These invitations will be the death of me."

Warren snorted from his spot at another desk. "That'd be a little anticlimactic for Shattered, wouldn't it? 'And thus, Mark died from having to fill out too many invitations, even after he escaped suvorens and skirmishes.' Our readers would be more than a little miffed."

"The Author could always choose to revive me."

"Why would he bother? It's not like you've contributed to the story."

"Oh, aren't you the wise guy?" Mark rolled his eyes.

Warren turned to him and grinned. "You're too easy to bug, you know that?"

"I say everyone gets their fair share," David piped up. Warren chuckled at that.

"Tell me," Mark said after a moment, "why were we designated by the Author to invite his other protagonists to this anniversary thing? We're his newest creations."

"Not exactly." David put his pen down and rotated his wrist. "Ours was actually the first novel he ever attempted, except we were a lot different then."

Warren tapped his chin. "My memory's a little foggy on that, but weren't we soldiers at the time? Ones who acted more immaturely than we do now as grad students?"

"Pretty much. It was so bad that the Author went out of his way to do a whole series on his blog where he went through the original story and poked fun of a whole bunch of stuff."

"It's good that things have changed," Mark said. "But that doesn't answer my question. Why were we selected?"

"Probably because he trusts us the most," David said. "We're old friends."

"True enough." Warren bit the end of his pen for a moment. "Hope none of those nemeses of ours decide to crash the party."

"They'll be too busy planning to take over the world or finding items of power," David said. "They couldn't be bothered."

"You sure about that?" Mark asked as he went back to writing the invitations. There were just a few left, and the sooner they finished, the better. "If I were one of them, and I heard the Author himself was holding a big celebration without inviting one of the most important groups of characters . . . I'd be a little miffed."

"I really don't think they're that petty," David said. "In fact, it would be a golden opportunity for them to unleash some heinous plot."

Warren shook his head. "Whatever the case, I'm gonna stay alert. No need to get caught off-guard."

Half an hour later, the rest of the invites were all written up and sealed in fancy envelopes. "Perfect!" David clapped his hands. "You guys know your routes, so let's be on our way. Not much longer now!"

"What about the reader?" Warren asked.

"Oh, I almost forgot. Leave 'em one too."

Mark hastily wrote up another invite and left it on his desk. Once the trio left, all was still for a while. Finally, curiosity got the better of you, and you leaned in to grab the paper. It read in scrawling ink:

You are officially invited to Josiah Dyck's blogoversary celebration. The Author is hosting a party for two years of blogging, and he'd love to have you join in the festivities! No gifts or RSVP required. The event is being held on June 21st. We hope to see you there!

Here Comes the Zelda Train! /// Music Monday #49

Ah, back on schedule. Always good to be on time. Let that be a lesson to you!

. . . Don't ask. My brain's in a bit of a weird mood today.

Today, we have an orchestral cover of a few Legend of Zelda songs, all mixed into one!

"Beyond the Mirror" from the Zelda Cinematica album

Composed by Sam Dillard

Okay, lemme just fanboy over this guy's work for a moment. Sam, who goes by Samo Studios on YouTube, does "cinematica" albums for different video games/video game series. I've bought only his Zelda one so far, but I absolutely love it. Every time I listen to it, I feel like I pick up more and more tracks from the original series that he's scattered throughout the songs. This one in particular opens with a bit of "Tal Tal Heights" before moving to "The Dark World" and "Lorule Castle" (one of my favorite final dungeon themes ever). There might be more than that here, but I haven't caught them yet.

Why do I love his work so much? Well, this song is a perfect example. It's such a majestic piece of music. Hearing the Zelda scores get an orchestral treatment like this delights me more than you might know. Sam does such a great job of respecting the original work while creating a magnificent medley that makes your heart swell with pride and joy. I dunno, it might sound a little weird, but that's what it's like for me.

Honestly, this entire album is perfect for writing. I think I'm going to have to include Sam in my acknowledgments, because Zelda Cinematica has been perfect on a few occasions for when I've been working on Shattered. The fantasy adventure tone gets me in the right headspace. I really need to include at least a couple songs on my playlists for the Portal Chronicles trilogy.

Plus, there never seems to be much for video game albums that you can buy on iTunes or wherever. Artists like Sam Dillard and Rozen are the cure for my need. They put out such incredible albums. If you have never listened to either one of them, go look them up now. The three albums that I own of theirs--Zelda Cinematica by Sam and Sins of Hyrule and Children of Termina by Rozen--are superb contributions to the Zelda fandom. And even if you aren't into Zelda and know nothing about its music, you can still enjoy these albums. They make for great background music, and you might even find them to be creativity-inducing, like I have. I would support these talented artists in a heartbeat.

Anyway, that'll be it for me. I apologize if this is one big ramble, but when I find people like Sam, people who are incredibly gifted and not well-known, I just wanna let everyone know how awesome they are. Find those hidden artists and give them all your love, because they need to know that their contributions are worth all the time and energy spent.

What're your thoughts on the song? Did you catch other Zelda themes that I missed? Have you listened to Zelda Cinematica yet? If you know of any composers who don't get enough attention but totally deserve more, share their names with me!

Monthly HapPENings: April

So it's May, which I guess means that it's time for another Monthly HapPENings post. I'm gonna try to keep this one shorter, as I've been pretty tired and sore the last few days and I feel as though I haven't really relaxed in a while. I apologize in advance if I come off as . . . I dunno, brusque or something. Not my intention.

A couple of highlights of the month were a staff outing I went on and Easter weekend. For a few weeks, I planned an event for all the staff at my workplace. One of my managers helped out a lot to put it all together. In the end, there were only, like, eleven of us who attended, but it was still super fun. We went to a place that had bowling, laser tag, and a restaurant. (I had a pulled pork sandwich with a milkshake, in case you're wondering.)

Something funny happened during the bowling. We got two lanes for an hour, and I was absolutely killing it in the first game. I got spare after spare and beat everyone else. When it was my turn to start the second game, one of my coworkers whispered under her breath, "Gutterball."

"Excuse me?" I asked as I turned around. "What'd you just say?"

"Oh, nothing," she said with an innocent smile on her face. I take my turn--and I get a gutterball. Then another. Each and every turn, I get one gutterball after another. Meanwhile, everyone else thinks this is hilarious, and the instigator and a second girl who joined her in the chant of "Gutterball" are dying laughing. I ended up with only nine points by the time the game ended. It was probably the best part of the entire evening.

Easter weekend was pretty great. On Friday, my sisters went for a long walk and stopped for ice cream along the way. Much hilarity and goofy antics ensued, and it was just an all-around fun time--save for the sore legs after. I had a Jack and Jill shower to attend on Saturday, and a family gathering on Sunday. While they were fine, I would've preferred to have more of the weekend to myself. I hope that'll be the case on the May long.

Bookish HapPENings

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So I have mixed feelings about this book, and the Dominion Trilogy in general. I slogged through the first one and got very little enjoyment out of it. I dreaded reading this one, but I will admit, it was better in some ways. It held my attention better than Relentless did, and I enjoyed it a lot more overall. However, it still suffered from some of the same problems, such as too many named characters, especially insignificant ones; some characters are just used as convenient cameras for the readers for some scenes; too much dialogue at times with no action in between; some scenes were told instead of shown instead of vice versa; and others that aren't coming to mind at the moment. Hopefully Merciless will avoid these issues!

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I don't often read graphic novels, but this Amulet series caught my attention. I thoroughly enjoyed the first installment! While the art style is pretty simple most of the time, it doesn't detract from the story at all, and some scenes/characters look super cool. This was a quick and interesting read for me, and I am definitely gonna keep reading these books.

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I picked up this book for two reasons: one, the back of the book snagged my attention by using just a few sentences, and two, Eoin Colfer--author of Artemis Fowl--enjoyed it. The book had me laughing to myself already in chapter one, and I knew it was going to be fantastic . . . and it is! I was blown by Kevin's debut novel. It's full of action, intrigue, great characters, and humor that appeals to me. This was a near-perfect book for me. There are a few jokes that target the male crotch, but aside from that, this was one of the best novels I've read this year. And it's the first in a series, no less!

HapPENings on the Screen

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Tracey and I watched this on the Sunday of the opening weekend, and OH. MY. BRICKING. GOSH. What a phenomenal end to a phenomenal decade of films. This movie was everything I wanted and more. Heck, it was everything I didn't know I wanted! If you don't think this was one of the greatest Marvel movies of all time--or even just one of the greatest movies of all time--I will fight you so hard.

We watched this in the D-BOX, and while it wasn't as utilized as it was when I saw Aquaman, it was still a great extra feature, especially during the final battle. Also, the audience I was with was spectacular. Everyone clapped and cheered at some stuff, or sat in heavy silence during other scenes (you'd hear a few sniffles around you at times). Even one dude whispering "Oh sh*t" near the beginning of the film just added to that experience.

Honestly, this was mind-blowing and incredible in every sense of the word. It makes me wanna collect and rewatch the entire MCU.

On Good Friday, my mom and dad had to step out in the evening, so my sisters and I watched a couple of TV episodes. It'd been forever since I watched Once, but so far, S4 just isn't living up to the first half of S3. The current villainess is not only immodest in her attire, but also twice as annoying the one in the latter half of S3. I really wish they'd focus more on characters like Hook, Emma, David, and Mary Margaret, while keeping Regina and Gold as anti-heroes and having antagonists who are actually interesting like Pan was. I do hope things get better, but I fear they'll just get worse in the long run . . .

We also watched the first episode of S4 of The Flash, which I personally found a lot more enjoyable. It was still as good to me as it was when I first watched it by myself. I'm curious what the villain's going to be like, since this is the first time we're getting one who is not a speedster.

Gaming HapPENings

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The other day, Chloe, Kaitlyn, and I decided to play some more Kirby's Return to Dream Land together. The result was a fun time with lots of laughing and bantering, and maybe a bit of button-mashing as well. Even though this title is several years old by now, it still looks very appealing, and remains one of my all-time favorite games. In our time playing, we did some wacky stuff. Chloe jumped into a fire block while I was riding on top of her, making me lose my ability; we had a crazy battle with a genie by the name of Mr. Dooter; I controlled a giant snowball that destroyed a few large sand castles on the beach while taking my sisters along for the ride; and we played a minigame where we threw ninja stars at targets. It was all a total blast!

All three of my sisters and I also did some Wii Party minigames and a few rounds of Super Smash Bros. Brawl one day. Again, more fun, more laughter. On top of that, I did a lot of Breath of the Wild. Just last Tuesday, when I stayed home sick, I fought and killed a Stalnox, Lynel, Molduga, a Guardian, and a Talus . . . all in one play session. I'm honestly surprised that I didn't even die once, thanks to a couple fairies and one handy special ability.

Writerly HapPENings

In case you missed it, I participated in Camp NaNo last month, and it went super well. Not only did I surpass my goal of 900 minutes, I also ended up with 12,446 words written. I'm super proud of the progress I made, and I learned some stuff from the whole experience. I seem to do better with time goals rather than word count goals. Even though I didn't write as much during NaNo, I enjoyed the time I spent writing a lot more during Camp. It's easier to write consistently when you're doing thirty minutes a day versus having to write 1.6k. I think I've finally found a rhythm that suits me, and I'm quite pleased about that.

Okay, I'm done now. How was your month? Did you have a good Easter weekend? Did you participate in Camp NaNo? Have you seen Endgame yet? Do tell all in the comments!