January has been interesting for me. There were a couple weeks there where I seemed to be stuck in a rut and wasn't doing anything but feeling exhausted. Then I used a Easter egg blue bath bomb a friend gave me and I felt like I could handle it, (baby steps). Never underestimate the motivational power of a pretty bath bomb.
As far as practical things I've accomplished go...
I've been slowly working on a math course. (Officially graduating highschool is a big thing on my resolution list)
I had an eye appointment and got new glasses. (Which was very needed. Surprisingly my prescription didn't change much so that made me feel a bit better.)
I'm on Day 7 of Chloe Ting's 14 day Summer Shred Workout. (I can't wait to be done, but I'm glad I'm doing it. I'm not doing it very well but I sweat enough for it to count for something)
I entered the prompt contest a few times and won the first one.
Movies/T.V.
Season 2 and most of season 3 of the O.C. (I'm enjoying it but I had to take a break from it because watching a bunch of it in a row can get repetitive. The sheer amount of relationship drama they pack in is astounding. I'm not sure there are any other plotlines in this show. Well there are, but still. I'm watching for Seth and Summer mostly. Seth and Ryan's dynamic is great too.)
I introduced my brother to Doctor Who. We watched Eccleston's season and a few episodes of Tennants.
Rewatched the first season of Anne With An E
Jo Jo Rabbit (so good!! Loved it)
The Broken Hearts Gallery
(Loved it. Dacre Montgomery is an amazing actor and he doesn't seem to be in many things)
There were a couple other things but they were mostly just rewatches.
Books
Murder on the Orient Express
(I knew who did it but still. Agatha Christie honestly deserves her title as the 'Queen of Crime')
Mansfield Park
(For some reason it took me awhile to get through. Jane Austen is a good writer but this wasn't my favourite one of hers)
Currently rereading Pride and Prejudice (Skye gave me a really pretty copy)
Reread I Capture The Castle
Future Projects Hopefully
I'm hoping to start Bullet Journaling. I'm terrible at writing down future plans so I think it's going to be more of a personal record more than anything. Adding in maybe the occasional plan. Who knows how that will go. I got a journal, some tape, and some stickers for it.
Finish Chloe and try to keep doing some of her videos even if it's not following a specific schedule.
Figure out how to fix some of the minor problems with my blog like trying to make black my default text colour. I'd love to change the whole look of my blog but I'm scared to touch anything and I'm too lazy to fix the posts if I did do that. I've been looking at some of my other posts and realizing just how many times I've stated things that I had changed my opinion on like two days after posting. (some examples, Evermore is amazing and I can't separate it from Folklore in my head anymore, upon rewatching the 1996 Emma movie with Gwenyth Paltrow I realized I like the mini-series more than the 1996 version in general. My very first post is no longer applicable either as far as age and family size go.) I'm trying very hard to not erase it sometimes. Anyone else have that problem?
There's been other things this month too but this was a good majority of them.
Okay, so ads are annoying. But some are just so good, bizarre or surreally iconic. I think some of the people that make ads are really passive-aggressively salty and it can be unexpectedly entertaining. Some of my current annoying favourites are...
There's this ad for this used car dealership and essentially the guy (I call him Karl with a 'K' for reasons that don't exist) says that if you treat your customers well, they'll come back to you. That customers can tell when you aren't genuine. And then a few weeks later they started running this very confusing ad that was him saying that they won the #1 thing or whatever and they're not willing to give that up. Which seems fine, good for Karl. But then he mentions (in a very subdued voice compared to the original ad) that they are working really hard to get the customer's trust back up and I'm just like "What happened at the dealership Karl?"
So now I've become weirdly interested in the drama of a used car dealership. Is it a good sales strategy to admit that you've been shady? Also how do you have such a good award and yet you need to get the general trust back up?
And Karl apparently
There's this other one where there's this couple and the wife is pregnant apparently. Now this ad is being narrated by a guy who says that what's-her-face and what's-his-face have been getting ready for the big day when what's-her-face (keep in mind it's a guy voicing this entire thing) screams "IITTT'S TIIIMME!"
Then they run through their list of things they need and realize they can't find they're car keys so now the guy screams "NOOO!" and then there's something like "Don't worry, something something towing company has your back" (which I think is very rude. They could have at least called an ambulance. A towing company is just rude)
Then the couple is so grateful they're going to name their baby after the towing company or something and then they begin to start scream-spelling the name and the tow truck driver is already gone.
Essentially nothing about this ad make sense and everytime the man screams that 'it's time', I have a heart attack.
To be fair, even while trying to scream like a pregnant woman, the guy never even attempted to sound feminine which almost made it funnier. It was a very emphatic man announcing that it was time.
There's this other ad that I'm actually not sure what it's for but essentially the part I remember is like this..."Some things get better with time, like cheese, wine, your Great Aunt Becky"...like what does that even mean? I'm not sure I particularly want to know. Maybe she gets nicer as she gets older? Maybe you're waiting for her to die because there's money willed to you? Who knows. Why is it so specific?
There's this other ad that played around Christmas and I think it was supposed to be spreading Christmas cheer or something but I got a very aggressive vibe from it. There's this lady who has a son and he LOVES her neighbour Amy's Christmas lights and he's constantly wanting to go over to see them. She says a few things but she jokingly mentions that 'she thinks her son loves the Christmas lights more than her' and she seems to have a subtle grudge against Amy.
No one else in my family seemed to notice so maybe it was all in my head but I swear that lady needed to talk to someone about that.
This was the general energy the lady was giving off
There's this other one where there's this older guy that sounds like a dad in a 50's radio show and he's like 'We seem to be having some trouble with the car Mary' and then she says in the fakest voice I've ever heard 'Oh no! What's wrong with the car George?' and then he mumbles 'I don't know Mary.'
Again, no effort was made on her part
There's this other one that's not so much an ad as much as someone just briefly talking. He's like 'Kids these days just don't talk anymore. They're always on their cellphone's. But actually my daughter has this group of friends and they calls themselves, like, a 'squad', and they put their phones in a bowl and actually talk to each other.'
He sounded so shocked and trying too hard to be 'hip' and it's really only hilarious to me.
This is an incredibly random and honestly dumb post but it's been weirdly entertaining. We'll see how long I keep this post up. Hopefully this was entertaining to someone else. Anyone else have any weird ads or things that have stuck with you?
Skye told me about a writing contest thing because I've been struggling getting myself to write lately and random contest things are just fun to do. The website has an official contest which I think is closed now for new contestants, but they have a prompt every couple days for anyone that's interested in entering. (The Writer Games Link) It's really simple to enter really, you just write the 150 words (or less? I'm not actually sure on that) using the given prompt and then comment it onto the current Prompt Post before the deadline happens. The first prompt was 'Tell The Wolves I'm Home'. After the initial struggle trying to write something for the prompt that I actually liked, I had fun writing again and honestly, that on it's own was all I wanted. It was definitely a nice way for me to begin 2021. This was the first time that I've won a writing contest and it gave me a much needed validation boost. It's small, but it meant a lot.
The Judge gave me a couple really nice comments and I can't even...*gestures vaguely*
OH.MY.GOODNESS. I cannot express how much I love your story, except to say that you are the WINNER of this challenge!!!! *throws confetti and chocolate* I lovelovelovelove this story
MY THOUGHTS:I was hooked from the very first sentence! This story was written in such a beautiful, lyrical way, I knew immediately that it was the winner. The vivid descriptions brought this little girl and her merciless world to life, I love how we're told just enough to feel satisfied, while it still leaves so many questions hovering in the reader's mind. Great job Elizabeth!
2020 has been an interesting year. It's been a rough one for many people, but personally it's been a good year. 2019 was kind of a mixed bag in the fact that it was a really rough year but also a good one so this year felt a bit like a glow-up in comparison. I've been incredibly lucky with that, a lot of people were badly affected by it. Some not great things happened this year but it wasn't anything that I couldn't handle. I was affected by it, but I didn't stay mired in it and my mental health has been a lot better this year. So that's character growth, I hope. I've had my share of ups and downs this year but for this post I want to mention some of the highlights I've had. There's been a lot, too many to add to one blogpost really.
My camera roll for this year has come full circle. January started with pictures of our Christmas lights and now it's ended the same way.
January was very Labyrinth inspired. I painted dead leaves I'd collected from outside and then Skye and me did a photoshoot with them. I also did a 'Starless Sea' by Erin Morgenstern inspired one with a broken plate which honestly made more sense at the time. It's still pretty though. I think Skye had told me about Micarah Tewers on Youtube and I watched her while I painted things. This year has flown past but different things from this year also feel so long ago. It's like I've been several different people throughout this year.
February, Me, Skye, and her Sister did a sort of Galentines thing where we watched To All The Boys: P.S I Still Love You with 'Pink Drinks' from Starbucks. Honestly it wasn't anywhere near as good as the first one but I did enjoy seeing the characters again.
I don't know how to sum up this year. There's so much I have to say about it and yet I can't seem to be able to express any of it. For the most part this year I think I healed a lot. There's always more to discover, learn, undo and whatever but this year has been such an important one for me and in my own way, I'll miss it. It's been a good year for me overall. Which, again, I'm incredibly lucky to have that, a lot of people have had a really hard time. A big resolution this year was to try to push myself to be intentional. This year I've been trying to live in each season, I took photos, I did things like picnics in the woods, with a blog I've been able to keep a record of it. Not everything that I did always felt like I wanted it to, but I did it. On a not as fun note, I got my wisdom teeth out. It went really well and for some reason I didn't have any pain during the whole recovery so that was unexpected but really nice.
Taylor Swift her Folklore and Evermore this year and they're both so good. Hayley Williams dropped Petals for Armor. I've read a lot of books this year. I read the Lord of the Rings for the first time this year and loved it. I made Strawberry Milk based from a Korean cafe video. I went night swimming quite a few times, once was during a Corn Moon and the water looked like black ink. The last time I went night swimming it was so easy to spot the milky way and I saw shooting stars, and there was that bat that fell into the water and kept floating towards us which kind of marked the end to the whole thing. There were peach smoothies from McDonald's, Cannoli, macrons, chutney and champagne marmalade, just food in general that I got to try for the first time.
I barely read anything last year so that was something I wanted to do more this year. I read too many for me to remember but I read The Lord of The Rings finally this year which was one that I've been meaning to get to for years.
Some top ones that were new to me were...(in no particular order)
The Blue Castle
Fangirl
Lord of the Rings
And Then There Were None
Small Spaces
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland
I Capture The Castle
Ocean At The End of the Lane
We Have Always Lived in the Castle
Peter Pan
T.V Shows
The Queen's Gambit
And Then There Were None (BBC)
Community
The Punisher (season 1)
Gravity Falls
Are You Afraid of The Dark (the 90's ones)
Umbrella Academy
Over The Garden Wall
Veronica Mars
The O.C. (most of season 1)
Doctor Who (Tennant's Seasons and Matt Smith's. I'd done Eccleston's a different year. I cried several times. One of the times it was Tennant's last episode and I made an omlette to stress eat and then it started snowing while I was making it and it was a whole ordeal)
It seems fitting right now too
Movies
(I'll try to keep it relatively short. I watched a lot of good ones this year)
Birds of Prey
Mr. Right
Tolkien
Emma (2020)
Happy Death Day
The Man From Uncle
Knives Out
Split/Glass
Ready Or Not
The Kid Detective
Bridget Jones's Diary
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
The Decoy Bride
Red Eye
Sing Street
I guess this is my farewell to 2020 and here's to wishing for a good 2021.
I tried a London Fog from Tim Hortons and it was really good. I found a London Fog recipe (Original London Fog Recipe) I liked and I've made it quite a few times now. Essentially a London Fog just tastes like a really good cup of Earl Grey Tea. It's worth it though, and it tastes better the longer you let the tea bag steep in it so I usually just leave it in.
1 c. Strong Earl Grey tea (the recipe said to let it steep for at least 3 minutes)
1/2 c. scalded milk (the recipe said that any milk is fine)
I'm going to be talking about the Queen's Gambit (on Netflix) and shockingly I won't be mentioning actual spoilers. Before I begin though, I have so many thoughts about this show and I can't mention everything without making this post miles long so there is a lot I've left out. I'm going to paste the basic summery of this show. It doesn't really tell you anything but it does give you the basic plot.
The Queen's Gambit follows the life of an orphan chess prodigy, Beth Harmon, during her quest to become the world's greatest chess player while struggling with emotional problems and drug and alcohol dependency. The title of the series refers to a chess opening of the same name.
This mini-series is so well done. The story, the execution, the lighting, costumes, colour palate, general atmosphere, character choices, everything. Everything they did fit together so well, even if there were a couple things that I just found a little awkward. It's one of those shows that just feels solid all the way through and it has that weighty feel of something complete. Sometimes, even shows/movies that I like will have a sort of slightly plastic feel. It doesn't feel solid even though I do still like it. I guess what I'm trying to say is that this show doesn't feel 'cheap' in any way.
Obviously not everything has to have that specific feeling to it, but when I do find it, it just feels so 'right' and it feels like it will stand the test of time. I think that I as a person like to think in the 'whys' of something. I like to know why someone chose that particular thing, or why they react to things the way they do, etc. I usually don't feel like I understand something until I feel it deep in my gut. This show subtly shows the 'whys' without ever necessarily pointing them out; I understand the 'why' of everything in my core. Everything is just so clever that there is so much you miss so much at first. This show portrays things in such an immersive way that it feels real. I kept expecting to find out this was based on a true story but it isn't, it's based on a book. Some of the details, like the games that were played, were taken from real life, but Beth Harmon was not. Although I think she was inspired by a real person.
I love how the entire show is so shaped by Beth's perspective. The atmosphere of the show and the style that it is shot in is so attuned to Beth's movements. The energy of the atmosphere is so classy, intentional and styled. It's delicate and yet it can feel like a gut-punch. The atmosphere of the show perfectly captures the whirlwind energy of self-destruction, power-dynamics, genius, and intensity. It's stunning. It's almost as if her mind feels too big and it consumes everything around it. The way it's directed is so...intense and so full of feeling. It has the stunning intensity of a creative montage in a movie when someone throws their mind into the work they are passionate about. You feel incredible understanding and empathy while you watch it. It's also gorgeous in so many ways, so you can't help watching it with absolute awe as well. The director of the Queen's Gambit is American but the show feels heavily influenced by European culture as well as American. I also love the uncertainty of this show, because they've shown you a clip of something that happens later right at the beginning and you genuinely don't know if she will spiral completely out of control. I also love just how angry she is as a person.
I love the colour palate of this show. I love how everything around her has this slightly hazy desaturated look to everything. It's like seeing through her perspective and seeing how it touches everything. It also helps incorporate the feel of the 60s timeframe because while the shots are all very easy to see, it has the haze of listening to a vinyl record. It makes everything seem very lived-in and natural even though it is very structured.
I love the textures of her clothing and the little details like the colour of the pills she takes match her clothes at times. The clothing, colours and textures of the show were so engaging. Everyone's clothes seem so suited to their personality. I'm always obsessed with how some clothing can sit on someone like a second skin while other clothing just looks wrong for them. I usually can't tell that in real life so it's always interesting to me when it seems so obvious in the thing I'm watching, I don't know anything about different eras or anything but the stylized textures and lighting and clothing felt incredibly 60s. Nothing looked 'weird' either, if someone wore something that I wasn't used to, it always felt 'right' and I never questioned anything. Between the Queen's Gambit, the Man From Uncle (2015) and even the 2nd season of Umbrella Academy I've been in a 60s style rabbit-hole.
Beth is very aware of her own personal style. At first it's a self-conscious awareness of her 'lack' of it. Then she adopts the styles around her. She'll buy the dress she saw on a mannequin, she won't know a song that everyone else knows and then later she'll tell someone to turn it up because she loves the song. The way she carries herself changes throughout the years and it's all very intentional. Her self-awareness of her movements feels like it's own little chess game. She takes the things she finds and makes them her own. The things she finds become a part of her image. Her look is very collected and immaculate. Beth is described through the show at times and is known to be on the offense while playing, she's very intuitive, she's very affected by her emotions, she likes to have control, she's obsessive and she herself is always balancing the line of wondering whether she is insane or a genius. Her clothes and her general surroundings are subtly affected and portray her personality. I love how she noticed people using different tactics to throw her off her game, like yawning, showing up a bit late, and using it against them. The visual psychology of this mini-series is astonishing and beautifully done.
I love the contrast between her and everyone around her. How her personality mirrors or contrasts between the other people in the show in different ways. I love the dynamics of everybody, and that phone call that her friends did for her was so cute.
Again, I just love how complete and well done this mini-series feels. I love that, despite the fact that Beth thought her addictions were helping her, the show didn't leave that as the explanation. Mr. Shaibel and Beth's somewhat mentor/slightly father daughter relationship was so heartwarming. The newspaper wall made me emotional. Her relationship with her adopted mom was great. I loved the interesting dynamics she had with everyone really.
All the actors/actresses portrayed everyone so well. The director did an amazing job. The whole crew of this show did a fantastic job really. The music suited it so well. The 'Venus' song by Shocking Blue is stuck in my head now.
The way the show incorporated things and reused things was clever. Just everything was so intentional and solid. The mini-series format of this show paired perfectly with the Dark Academic style of this show. This show absolutely blew me away.
I just... I love it. I know that media is subjective and this show won't be for everyone, but I adore it and highly recommend it. There is some content in it, with language, there's a couple 'scenes' but those can be quickly skipped and they aren't long, and there is addiction portrayed. Like I said at the beginning of the post, there's so much I could say about it but that would take forever. Sorry if this post is kind of all over the place, in my head everything I've said makes sense, but I don't know if it makes sense to anyone else. I'm sorry that I'm terrible at checking the grammar in my posts, I never notice most of the problems until I've posted it and reread it a few times. Then I'm usually too lazy to fix it.
This was the other tag Skye tagged me for and I'm grateful. I don't have much Christmas content planned so these are great.
When do your decorations go up?
Most of them go up in December but we usually start sometime in November.
If money were no object, how and where would you spend Christmas?
Somewhere in England. Or Ireland. An Irish Christmas could be interesting. I have no idea what it would be like but it sounds amazing. I'd spend Christmas pretty much how I spent my slapdash Thanksgiving a couple months ago. With the basic food things that I associate with it, watch movies and possibly take a short walk in the weather.
What Christmas film do you have to watch every festive season?
The usual ones generally. Home Alone, The Grinch, Elf, Edward Scissorhands, Jack Frost... The most recent additions have been The Nutcracker and the Four Realms (2018), Klaus (2019), and The Most Wonderful Time of the Year (2008).
Who do you find the hardest to buy presents for?
Parents in general but my step-dad is THE hardest to get gifts for. He thinks he likes everything except for the few things he doesn't and it's not entirely true. He always gets us so many gifts and I always feel bad that he doesn't get as much. Part of it is his fault though, trying to get information out of him is ridiculously hard.
Would you rather buy lots of little presents for a hamper, or buy one big/main present?
Little presents for a hamper. I've done main presents but it doesn't feel personal enough so I usually end up adding little gifts to it anyway.
What did you leave out for Santa when you were a child?
My mom didn't really do Santa Claus but my dad did. With my dad we left out milk and cookies. Occasionally with carrots for the reindeer.
I think the carrot thing started because my grandpa had a friend who dressed up like Santa Clause and my sister and I sat on his knee to tell him what we wanted. My mom had told me that Santa wasn't real and while I believed her, there was the other part of my young mind that realized that if this was the real Santa Clause I had one shot at asking for something I could only ask Santa Clause. Because I was in a major horse girl phase at the time, I asked for a horse. There was a bunch of back and forth with 'Santa' telling me that he can't fit a horse in his bag and me telling him that he carries toys for kids all over the world surely he can fit a horse (I was that kid). He asked me if there was something else I wanted. So I took my final shot at asking Santa Clause for what I wanted, which was to feed Rudolph a carrot.
Santa said that it was too dangerous for me to do that since Rudolph was on the roof. He told me to bring him a carrot and he'd feed it to him for me. I rushed upstairs and grabbed a baby carrot and gave it to Santa. I don't remember what happened after that but he left (we were in a basement so as far as I knew he was going to the roof) and he'd forgotten the carrot.
It truly was a tragic day for me as I realized that that particular Santa was a fraud XD My sister had already figured out he wasn't real because apparently she'd given him a cookie and he'd pulled his beard down to eat it. I'd missed it however.
Clearly I was always a dramatic person. Also very hard to please apparently. Most kids would have just asked for something easy.
Essentially my dramatic reaction to Santa
Where did you spend last Christmas?
Christmas (officially) changes for me every year. Last year on Dec.25th I was at my dad's. I think I did Christmas with my mom a couple days after that. It was good both places. My dad's was a little awkward at the time because of some personal reasons but it was still good.
Which Christmas song makes you cringe?
I saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus. It's always the first one that comes to mind for me.
If you could be a character in a holiday movie, who would you be and why?
I usually range from Buddy the Elf to the Grinch. But that's also just me in general.
My genuine first thought after the Grinch and Buddy the Elf was that one dog in Edward Scissorhands. The one near the end of the movie when he runs up to Edward and Edward snips off the fur covering his eyes so he can see. The dog seemed content and happy after that.
Also 'Kim' played by Winona Ryder simply because it's Winona Ryder. That scene of her dancing in the snow is me internally during the first 'proper' snow of the year.
Have you ever had a White Christmas?
Most years have been White Christmases for me. Depending on where I've been, it's been rainy on occasion but it's still had a Christmas feel to it.
Is your tree real or fake?
Currently it's fake. Generally my mom has used fake trees although once someone gave us a real tree when I was little.
With my dad in the past, it's been real trees. Although for the last few years we've used a fake tree and we put a Santa hat on it. I don't think it's come down for the last 4 years.
Choose a holiday drink: Spiced Apple Cider or Eggnog?
Spiced Apple Cider. Although I do like eggnog. My mom is always on the look out for the specific brand of eggnog that we like but I don't remember which one it is. We're not picky about most things but this one is tradition at this point.
I highly recommend Lynch's Original Apple Cider. It's so good.
Rules
Put on your favorite Christmas Playlist to listen to while answering!
Have a Christmas drink and/or snack while writing
Thank the blogger who tagged you and link to their site
Answer the 9 original questions
Answer the questions set by whoever tagged you
Ask 2 questions of your own
Tag 6 bloggers to take part
My two question are...(If anyone feels like answering them)
What is one of your favourite Christmas memories and why?
What is your least favourite or weirdest Christmas memory and why?
Actually I'll add one more question... Have you discovered a new holiday movie/show recently and if so what is it? (it doesn't have to be a 'proper' Christmas movie) or, my alternative to that question, Is there a holiday movie that really sticks with you? (again it doesn't even have to be a proper Christmas movie)
I don't currently know enough bloggers to tag anybody so whoever wants to can feel free. I tag
