December 2018

I’m back home for the holidays and intend to blog more. I got a new job in August which has kept me pretty busy. I’m a teacher and I went to teach in a remote location. It was a very rewarding experience, I have lots of good memories about the people and the place. I’m going back next year once the school year starts. I hope to make a lot of improvements for next year.

One thing that I want to improve on is giving priority to my personal goals. Before I got my job, I had started on an Arts degree majoring in creative writing. It was something that I had always wanted to do.  I dropped out of college when I got my job because I felt that I would be too busy to do it.

I missed writing and having that creative outlet, so I’ve enrolled back into uni. I’m still working full time, but I’ll make the time for my studies.

I have a few weeks of summer vacation which I intend to catch up with friends, go out and watch lots of movies. What I like the most about being back in city is the availability of everything and catching up with people.  I do enjoy living in a remote place, but a change of scenery is good.

Reading

I am currently reading The First Days of School: How to be an effective teacher by Harry K. Wong and Rosemary T. Wong to get some tips on teaching. I’ve been a substitute teacher for most of my career but now I have my own class. Subbing is different from being a classroom teacher. A substitute fills in for a classroom teacher who is away. Now I have to do some planning. I am looking forward to seeing the growth of the students throughout the school year, which was something I wasn’t a part of as a sub.  

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I am also reading the bible to better understand the community that I work in. Most of the community are Christians and the school is sensitive to the culture of the community despite being a public school. We have a prayer at every staff meeting and school function. I’m a Buddhist but I don’t have any problem with learning another religion.

In contrast, I’m also reading The Davinci Code by Dan Brown. Jon Bear and I are reading the book together and I’ll post a review about it later.

Watching

I started watching The Alienist on Netflix. It’s set in 18^th century New York and follows a psychologist, a newspaper illustrator and police secretary who are investigating serial murders. I’ve only watched one episode and I’m hooked.

October Update

Life

It’s been a long time since I blogged. In August I accepted a new job teaching in the Torres Strait. The Torres Strait is a series of islands located up north of Queensland. I live on a small island of 250 inhabitants and I teach primary school.  The island is very small and it only takes an hour to walk around the whole island. I’ve really enjoyed the experience. The people are very friendly and welcoming. It is a bit of an isolating experience in some ways. Mobile phone reception is limited to a few hotspots on the island and the internet is slow. This island is not open to the public as it is a part of the Indigenous Protection zone.

I’ve recently had a short vacation in Cairns. It was refreshing to be back in a city again. I went shopping and explored the sights. My brother came up from Brisbane to join me on vacation. I hadn’t seen him since I left.

I am looking forward to the end of the year. There’s going to be a lot of fun events happening. The school will have a Christmas Concert and the grade six students will have their graduation. When the students have finished all their assessments, we’ll play games, do arts and crafts and watch movies. The last week of school was always my favourite time of year when I was a kid.

Reading

I am still reading Dracula by Bram Stoker. I think it’s a very exciting book although some might see it as tame compared to the horror genre in modern times. I think the story is told in a very interesting way. I like how the story is told through different viewpoints by diary entry, newspaper clipping and telegrams.

Watching

I’ve recently started watching Doc Martin. It’s a British drama series about a cantankerous surgeon who moves to a sleepy coastal town after he develops an aversion to blood. The town inhabitants get on his nerves with their stupid questions and beliefs. He is a very serious and blunt person which is what adds to the entertainment.

We Bare Bears

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We Bare Bears is a cartoon series about three bears living in San Francisco. The oldest is Grizz who is a Grizzly bear, then there is Panda and Ice Bear who is a polar bear. Grizz is an extrovert, who loves action movies and video games. Panda wants to find a girlfriend and loves anime. Ice Bear loves to cook and is pretty handy with an axe.

The three bears try to integrate into human society having grown up alone and homeless. They make a few friends along the way but mostly stick to themselves. It’s a heartwarming cartoon that everyone can watch. The episodes are the brothers trying new restaurants, going to the movies, grocery store and then having something go wrong.

I think this show is so cute. I’ve watched three seasons so far. My favourite bear is Ice Bear. He’s the quietest out of the bears and talks in a monotone. Ice Bear says random one liners that I think are funny and endearing.

The episodes are about twelve minutes long so it’s good when you want to something short to pass the time. I like to watch it when I’m eating or taking a break.

The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa

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The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa is a story about a white cat named Nana and his life with his owner Satoru Miyawaki. The story is told from the cat’s point of view. Nana starts life as a stray but is befriended by Satoru. They live happily together until something happens to Satoru. He cannot look after the cat anymore and tries to find a new home for Nana. The pair go on a road trip to meet Satoru’s old friends who might be able to care for him.

I’m a cat lover and I have a cat. I was thrilled to learn about this book. I haven’t read many books where the main character is an animal. I thought that Arikawa did a great job in making a cat’s personality. Nana was aloof yet loving in his own way, which is what cats are like normally. I was also interested in the book from a writer’s perspective. I think that it would be difficult to write from an animal’s perspective. Animals don’t talk, and a lot has to be conveyed by internal thought and their movement.

The story is deceptively simple. The friends that Satoru visits reveal different parts of his life, from childhood, adolescence and adult life. The stories reveal Satoru’s kind and gentle nature and his love for his family, friends and cat.

I really enjoyed this book. I almost shed a tear at the end. The book has been made into a film! 

Mind your own business Kristy! by Ann Martin

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My guilty pleasure reads are reading The Babysitters’ Club by Ann Martin. There are hundreds of books in the series, I’m not sure how many exactly. It’s a teen series from the late 80s to early 2000s about a group of girls who babysit in their neighbourhood. I started reading them in my teenage years and I still collect them to this day.

In this book, Kristy decides to host a softball clinic for her softball team, Kristy’s Krushers during spring break. The team consists of some of her babysitting charges who are too young to be in Little League. Kristy’s brother Charlie volunteers to help her out.

Kristy becomes envious of Charlie because he’s able to coach the children better than her. Her relationship is further strained when Charlie gets into a relationship with a new girl named Angelica and begins to shirk his responsibilities with the clinic. Kristy feels that Angelica is wrong for her brother and does what she can to break them up.

I wanted the story to go in a different direction than it did. Kristy took an instant dislike to Angelica without getting to know her. In every book, there’s some lesson that the reader can take away. I thought it was going to be that you shouldn’t be quick to judge other people. I thought that Kristy would learn to let her brother go and accept that he’s going to get into relationships. Kristy has abandonment issues after her father walked out on the family. It is a topic that is broached in this book.

I could see that Angelica was going to be the villain because she’s seventeen and smokes. In a wholesome books series like The Babysitters’ Club it means you’re a bad kid. I don’t approve of young people smoking but I don’t think that smoking means you are bad person.

I thought this book was a little bit more negative than the other books in the series but it’s obvious from the title. I find most of The Babysitters’ Clubs books in thrift stores, but you can now buy them new as they have reprinted them again in bookstores.

Life Updates in June

Life

Last month, I started some reading and writing goals. It’s been going great even though I’ve had a few setbacks.  My reading goal is to read ten pages a day. It’s not a lot but I find it very easy to manage. I enjoy reading but I don’t do it as often as I like. I’m one of those people who read a bit and then not pick up the book for months. It takes me a long time to finish any book. So I try to read a little bit in the morning. I usually find that I end up reading more than prescribed.

Another goal of mine is to write 100 words a day for my novel. I’m participating in a 100 word for a 100 days challenge  http://goteenwriters.blogspot.com/2018/05/register-for-100-for-100-writing.html . It’s a challenge open to all ages. The challenge has been really good for me.  I am making good progress in my novel. I’m writing more than what I usually do. Prior to the challenge, I wrote sporadically whenever I had the time. Sometimes, I would hardly write anything even though I would spend a long time on the computer.

Reading

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I’m currently reading Mary Poppins by P.L Travers. I’ve had that book for four years, so I figured it was about time I read it.  I actually haven’t watched the movie either.

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I’m also reading The Host by Stephanie Myer. This book was gathering dust on my bookshelf for a long time too. I watched the movie adaption some years ago. I really enjoyed it. I think that if The Host had been Meyer had debut with this novel, people would have recognized her talent. The writing and the story is stronger than Twilight.

Watching

I’ve started watching the third season of The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.  It’s a comedy series on Netflix about a woman who gets freed from an underground doomsday bunker. Kimmy tries to rebuild her life.

Please Write Back! : More Letters from Henry and Voula by Maureen Stewart

Please Write Back! More Letters from Henry and Voula by Maureen Stewart is the sequel to Henry and Voula. The story about two teenagers in the late 80s writing love notes to each other. I wrote a review of the first book here.

This book continues from where the first book left off. Henry and Voula are reunited after the school holidays and continue their romance. Voula is not allowed to date so they meet in secret in the library and computer room and pass notes to each other in class. The love affair is very innocent with a few kisses and handholding.

Voula is bolder in the story, initiating more in their relationship. She becomes resentful of her parents for forbidding her from socialising with boys. But she doesn’t openly rebel against them. Henry is still the lovesick fool who gets blotches whenever he’s apart from Voula. It’s interesting reading about a boy being that infatuated with a girl.

The first book and the sequel are quick reads and it seems like the author could have kept it all as one book. It was a cute story that makes me nostalgic for young love. It reminds me of high school about having crushes, getting your friends to play messenger and having fantasies about walking that person to class or going out with them. 

I just learnt that there is a third book too, Henry Goes Green. As these books are no longer in print, it'll be hard for me to find this one. 

The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald

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The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald is a fictionalised story of German philosopher Friedrich von Hardenberg (2 May 1772 – 25 March 1801) and his short-lived love affair with Sophie von Kuhn (1782–1797). The two met when Hardenberg visited her house to meet her father. Hardenberg was learning to be a salt mine manager when he met Sophie who was twelve years old at the time. She was an unusual choice for him considering how most thought she was average in looks, personality and intelligence. Hardenberg was also an aspiring poet and philosopher at the time, thought she had a special quality about her.

The pairing was considered unusual at the time but not wrong. He was twenty-two years old at the time, but his intentions were honourable. The pair got engaged when she was thirteen and they were to be married when she turned fifteen. I felt sorry for Sophie. In the book, she seemed very passive. I think as she grew older, she developed some affection for him but only because she grew up with him.

I think Hardenberg and Sophie would not have been happy together if they did get married. In the book, all he did was say romantic and philosophical things and Sophie never understood them. She was more interested in playing with her dogs, snow and playing with her siblings, typical interests for any child. I think she had a lot more growing up to do and didn’t comprehend the responsibilities that marriage would entail.

Besides the romance, the book also describes Hardenberg’s family and friends. I felt that all the characters were very fleshed out. I liked reading about Hardenberg’s family, particularly his siblings. I felt sorry to learn what happened to them in later life.

I thought Fitzgerald captured every day life in the 18^th century authentically. I liked descriptions of the relationships between men and women.  There were times when I didn’t like the dialogue, I thought it was too philosophical and not what people would say.  

The Blue Flower is not something I would normally read. Jon Bear and I put it on our booklist when we first started the blog. We wanted to do a book challenge and read things we had never read before. I don’t know who picked this book. I think we chose eleven books each. I chose a selection of books off the bestseller lists and some from my own collection.

I enjoyed reading The Blue Flower. I like historical books. I thought Fitzgerald’s writing was so good that if I hadn’t known, I would have thought that the book was written in that time instead of being published in 1995.

Henry and Voula: An Offbeat Love Story by Maureen Stewart

Henry and Voula by Maureen Stewart is the story of two lovesick teenagers. Fourteen-year-old Henry has a huge crush on Greek girl Voula, so he sneaks a letter into her art portfolio asking for her help in a project about Greek culture. The two start a letter exchange which leads to love.

The two characters are adorable, and I believed in their love story. Henry is melodramatic, neurotic and deeply infatuated with Voula. He’s lovesick on her, getting hives every time at the slightest inkling of disapproval or set back from Voula. Voula is the most sensible of the pair. She’s delighted but cautious about the relationship. Her parents don’t want her to date and they wouldn’t approve of Henry because he’s not Greek.

I have a thing for YA books from the 80-90s and I bought this book from a Lifeline store for a dollar. There’s short message written at the front, it was a Christmas present for a girl named Barbara in 1993.   I thought this book was very cute and reminded me of high school. The love story is very innocent, puppy love stuff. They pass notes to each other and meet in the library. They don’t even kiss or hold hands.

I could relate to Voula and the gender inequality that she faced in the story. She is not allowed to date because she’s a girl. However, her brother is allowed to date because he’s boy. Voula is forbidden from socialising with boys and her family call to check where she is at all times. They are worried that if she socialises with boys, she’ll disgrace the family by getting pregnant or a bad reputation. My parents were also worried about me socialising with boys when I was growing up, but I wasn’t forbidden from dating anyone. I didn’t date anyone in high school, so it wasn’t an issue.

The book is rather short but there is a sequel which finishes the story off. One could finish the book in a few minutes.  I’ve read the sequel too. It seems like the story was just cut in half. The book is no longer in print but look for it online, in the library or in a thrift shop.

May Happenings (2018)

Life

This month, I’m trying to turn over a new leaf. I have a terrible habit of procrastinating. I put off what I need to do, and I think I’m too busy to do the stuff that I would like to do. So, I decided to stop being lazy and have weekly goals. I mainly want to read more, exercise and get more things done.

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I’m always tired so being healthier will help me with the having energy to get things done. I’m going to bed earlier and trying to focus on sleeping instead of thinking about everything.

As for exercise, I’ve started walking for thirty minutes on a treadmill and doing squats and sit ups. I’m going to do Pilates and yoga too. It’s something I enjoyed doing years ago.

Watching

Search Party 

Search Party is a comedy mystery series about a bunch of millennials who try to find their missing friend Chantel. I am watching season two now. I would say the first season is more compelling than the current season. There were lots of twists and turns. What I find appealing about the show is that it is current with trends and events happening. All the characters are little ridiculous in their own way. The second season is more comedic. Australians can watch the show on sbsondemand.

Imposters

Imposters is a show about three people Ezra (Rob Heaps), Richie (Parker Young) and  Julia (Marianne Rendon)  who were scammed by Maddie (Inbar Lavi) . She married each of them and stole all their money. They manage to track her down to confront her and find out that she’s part of a bigger conspiracy. Meanwhile, they are all being tracked by the FBI and a mysterious doctor.  I’ve only watched three episodes of season 2 so far and I like what’s going on. They are in Mexico and it’s just gorgeous there.

Reading

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I’m still reading The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald which has been on my booklist for eight years. It’s a fictional biography of Friedrich von Hardenberg, a German philosopher who lived in the 17^th century. It’s an interesting read. I find the character to be a bit silly, but he is young and a dreamer. The only thing I have contention with, is that he courted Sophie von Kuhn, twelve-year-old girl when he was twenty-two years old. It was something that he really did do. However, I understand that it was a different time.

The characters do find it peculiar that he would be so besotted with a twelve-year-old. They think she’s just a child but Hardenberg says there’s something special about her. He was an honourable man though. Hardenberg asked her father for permission to court her and she liked him. They got engaged when she was thirteen years old. *spoiler* They were to wed when she turned fifteen, but she sadly died of tuberculosis. *

Dawn and the Surfer Ghost by Ann Martin

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The Babysitters’ Club was a book series for teen girls, written in late 80s and finishing in early 2000s. There are more than a hundred books in the series as well as spin off series. I loved reading the Babysitters’ Club books when I was younger and have been collecting them for a while now. I have about eighty books so far. I look for the books when I go to thrift stores and markets. They now reprinted the first four books, so some are available in department stores, but I like the old ones. I haven’t read all the books yet in the series.

Dawn and the Surfer Ghost is a book no.12 in the mystery series spinoff. The books are standalone and feature one of the babysitters’ trying to solve a mystery. The mysteries are lightweight stuff like Scooby Doo mysteries as it is a book series for kids.

There are seven babysitters in the series and the books focus on one of their viewpoints per book. This one is on Dawn Schafer, the environmental, vegetarian peace-loving babysitter. (There’s a different babysitter for every taste). Dawn has moved away from Connecticut where the other babysitters are, to live with her dad and her brother Jeff in California.

She attends surf lessons with her friend Sunny and participates as a volunteer for children’s program at the beach. A big surfing competition comes up and Dawn enters it in the beginner’s category.  One day, the best surfer on the beach goes missing. Some people think he’s dead others think he’s skipped town. Dawn is on the case to find the missing surfer.

This mystery wasn’t as good as the other ones I have read in the series. I feel that she didn’t really do any sleuthing at all. There were hardly any clues, no following leads or false accusations, no mysterious calls telling her to quit investigating like the other mysteries. It all came together in the end when she got a hunch.

What I enjoyed the most was the nostalgia from reading it. It is why I read the books.  The book was printed in 1993. It was amusing how Dawn explains what a smoothie is and there’s lots of cringeworthy surfer lingo. I can picture this book as something from one of those made for tv movies when the characters go on vacation. I think my thirteen-year-old self would have liked this book and not noticed any of the shortcomings. 

Life in April

Work

I’m no longer working as a teacher aide but it was a wonderful learning experience. As a teacher aide I assisted many different classes and I was able to learn ideas on classroom management and activities. I was working with teachers who had been teaching for many years and it was great seeing the level of experience they had in action.

I had some fun times at the school. Everyone was friendly and polite. It was a positive environment which was a nice change from some of the places I have worked at before. I will miss the children and the staff.

Life

One of my goals this year was to catch up with old friends. During the school holidays, I met up with my old teaching buddies from when I taught in the desert. We had a nice lunch together and chatted about old times and what were up to now. I also met up with one of my best friends. We finally swapped Christmas presents from last year as she’s been away travelling.

Watching

I’m currently watching Chrisley knows best which is a reality tv show about a rich Southern family and their life. They all have big personalities which makes the show entertaining. I like how the episodes are around 21 minutes, so I can watch it while I’m eating and finish an episode during that time.

Reading

I’m still reading The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald. It’s a fictional biography of Friedrich Von Hardenberg, a German philosopher. The book has been on ‘to be read’ pile for years. I’m liking it so far. I’m also reading Dawn and Surfer Ghost by Ann Martin. It’s one of the books from The Babysitter’s club.

 

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Our Souls at Night

Addie (Jane Fonda) and Louis (Robert Redford) are two senior citizens who have been neighbours for many years. They both lead solitary lives after their spouses have died. Addie asks Louis to sleep in her bed every night to ease their mutual loneliness. They talk in bed together and reminisce on their families and relationships. The couple’s relationship becomes more complicated when the neighbours find out about them and Addie’s son arrives with her grandson in tow. Addie and Louis contemplate their growing attraction towards each other and what their future will bring.

I liked how this film explored aging, relationships and isolation. While Addie and Louis had friends, both were lacking intimacy in their lives which made them lonely. Not just physical intimacy but having someone to talk to about their inner thoughts. It’s easy to forget that older people want those things too.

 I thought the romance between the two was interesting because of the maturity and life experience that they both had. Jane Fonda and Robert Redford played the characters with ease, having worked with each other before in four different films. I think they both gave an understated performance, as their characters were mild mannered people.

The movie goes at a gentle pace, highlighting the staid lifestyle of the two main characters. They don’t do anything exciting, just go about their day in their small town. They both live in big empty family homes, with floors that creak just like their bones.  However, when the two characters get together, they have more fun. Sometimes, things are just better with company.

I wasn’t fond of the ending, but it was a happy ending. I would have liked the movie to end more triumphantly. I wouldn’t see this movie again, but I don’t regret watching it. I would recommend this is a movie to watch with your parents. The themes in this movie would be a good avenue for discussion.

Soon I will be Invincible by Austin Grossman- Review By Carlyn

Soon I will be Invincible by Austin Grossman is a novel set in a world where superheroes and supervillains are real. The chapters alternate between Doctor Impossible, a supervillain who wants to rule the world and a new hero called Fatale who joins a team of superheroes to stop him.  Jon Bear has also written a review of this book and you can find more of the synopsis on his review.

Jon Bear asked for the perspective of a female on the strong female leads in his review. In answer to his question, I liked how complex and strong the female characters were in the story. I liked how they didn’t just exist in relation to the male characters and didn’t need rescuing all the time. I particularly liked Fatale because she still trying to find her place in the world after turning into a cyborg and trying to fit in with an established group.

I liked the exploration into the everyday lives of superheroes, the origin stories and growing older and going into retirement. There’s a variety of super powers explored in this book, from magic, science experiment gone wrong and alien technology. The characters all relate their stories about how they saved the world from alien invasion and ancient forces, how they time travelled, went to different planets and parallel dimensions. It’s a bit funny how they mention it as if it’s an ordinary thing to do.

While reading the book, I concluded that it would be awful living in a world populated by people with special powers. The citizens in this book must deal with the constant threat of world annihilation or domination and suffer through the super battles that go on in their cities. This topic is explored in some of the current superhero movies.

I thought this book was funny and entertaining. I think this book has a kind of Mystery Men vibe to it. It’s a little quirky and has enough action, comedy and heart in it. I think it’s appropriate for all ages and for anyone who likes superheroes.  

February Happenings

I haven’t really done much this February. Most of my time has been spent on my new job as a teaching assistant. It took me a while to get use to working every day as I use to be a part time worker. The people at my new work place are very friendly and welcoming people. Everywhere I go, people say hello and ask me how I’m doing. I must have the same conversation three or four times. I bet the others go through the same convo cycle.

 I find it a little tedious, but I try to remember that it’s the first time having that conversation with that person. I think this is what celebrities feel like when they are asked the same question in press junkets.  I try to remember what people say to me too and inquire about their lives as well. I’m totally anti-social, I do like my colleagues and care about them.

I really value the weekend now and love Fridays! In my downtime I have been reading Soon I will be Invincible by Austin Grossman. It’s one of the books on my ‘to be read’ pile since 2011! It is a book about superheroes and alternates between the villain’s point of view and the perspective of the hero. Jon Bear has read it before, you can read his review here.

I’ve also been watching Star Trek Discovery on Netflix. It’s different from the other Star Trek series. The main character is Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) as a science specialist on the USS Discovery. It features the Federation during war time and the ship has a secret weapon which hasn’t been seen on Star Trek before.

Heartthrob

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One of my guilty pleasures is that I love watching movies or reading books about obsessive love. I love the melodrama, the stalking and final moment when the main character realises what’s really going on and how the stalker/lover becomes unhinged. I do know that it would be a horrible experience in real life to have a stalker in real life. But I don’t mind it playing out fictionally.

Heartthrob is about an unlikely romance formed between Samantha (Aubrey Peeples), a popular girl and a shy nerd Henry (Keir Sinclair) over the summer. Sam likes how Henry is different from her friends who only care about hooking up and partying. Henry is thrilled to be with Sam and strives to be the perfect boyfriend by spying on her constantly. His jealously eventually drives them apart and leads him to do dangerous things.

I knew it was going to end tragically, I just didn’t know how it would end. I think the whole mess would have been avoided had Henry talked it through and was more rational. Although I do understand his motivation. Sam is his first love and he’s thrilled to have a popular girl validate him. Sam is more rational than Henry having a bit more experience in relationships. She knows that life will go without him if they break up whereas Henry feels that Sam is the best thing that has ever happened to him.

The acting in this film was okay. No standout performances. The cast are relatively unknown actor with a few credits to their names. The film was made on a small budget but not much is needed for a simple story. I think this is a good movie to watch with friends, especially if you have friends who like to give a running commentary. There’s lot of things to discuss in this film and you can always talk about your high school experiences.

Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life

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Rafe Khatchadorian (Griffin Gluck) is a middle schooler who has been kicked out of multiple schools for his trouble making behaviour. Hills Village Middle School is the last school that will take him and he promises his mother Jules (Lauren Graham) that he’ll behave.

The school principal Ken Dwight (Andy Daly) enforces a hundred school rules that centre around obedience and respect. The students are not allowed to do anything creative which is especially hard on Rafe as he is a talented artist.

When Principal Dwight destroys Rafe’s sketchbook, Rafe decides to get revenge by breaking every rule in school with his friend Leo (Thomas Barbusca). Rafe’s pranks include covering the school in post its, replacing the school bell with fart noises and putting hair dye into the principal’s hat.

The movie was based on a book by James Patterson and Chris Tebbetts. The film has a fun upbeat soundtrack which accompany animation sequences that detail Rafe’s feelings. Although I haven’t read the book, I’m guessing that there are pictures in there and it matches what is used in the film.

There’s a twist in the movies which I didn’t see coming. It was touching and provided the heart to the story. It helped me to understand Rafe’s motivations and his interactions with other people.

I enjoyed this movie. I think it is good family viewing and perfect for sleepovers and rainy days. Kids will like the outlandish pranks and comedic characters. Everyone is kooky in their own way in the movie. I thought the child actors were fine in the movie, nothing remarkable and stilted at times. I liked the adults in the film, particularly Andy Daly and Rob Riggle who played Carl, Jule’s boyfriend.

My guilty pleasures

Fanfiction

I enjoy reading fanfiction because it expands on the fictional worlds, ideas and puts the characters in interesting situations. There are a lot of talented writers who make something from nothing. I really admire the ones that take an obscure secondary character and give them a whole new life yet keep them in character. I like to read Harry Potter, Star Trek, Stargate fanfiction and sometimes I’ll look up random fiction after I watch a movie.

Every version of House Hunters

House Hunters is a show where regular people look for houses to buy.  Each episode features a couple who want to buy a house for various reasons in a new place. They go to a real estate agent and tell them their wish list and then they are presented with three different houses. There are pros and cons about each house and then the couple decide on which house they like.

I like to binge watch House Hunters and all their spin offs. There’s House Hunters International, House Hunters Tiny House, House Hunters Renovation, House Hunters Family etc.  I like to guess which house the couple/family will pick. I guess wrong most of the time because I don’t know them. The couple/family pick their house for many reasons such as price, location, size.

An amusing aspect of the show is the pickiness of the House Hunters. Some of them want a lot of things for the price they are willing to pay or there is some small detail about the house that they are unwilling to overlook.  

Teen Girl fiction series from 80s and 90s

I like to read book series for teenage girls from the 80s and 90s like The Babysitters Club and Springsong Books (Christian romance books). I read it for the nostalgia as I grew up in those times. I mostly find the book at thrift stores for a dollar. They are a fun quick read.

What are your guilty pleasures?

My 2018 New Year Resolutions

My goal for this year is to be happier and productive. Last year was tumultous, there were some happy memories too but it was a bit of a hard year for me. 

Blog weekly

I would like to blog on a weekly basis to improve my writing skills. I’ll mostly write entertainment reviews and stuff happening in my life.

Finish my novel

I started writing a novel in 2017 and I hope to finish it sometime this year. I would like to publish it one day. The focus is finish it as I have started projects before but never to completion.

Catch up with friends

I would like to catch up with friends I haven’t seen in a long time.

Curb procrastination

I would get so much done if I didn’t procrastinate so much. I can get distracted easily especially if I’m using my computer. I’ll try to be more aware when it’s happening.