#If I'm gonna have to read my ebooks on everything else?!

[witches-unruly-heart]

What's the point of getting ebooks if I can't get one dumb file to my dumb e-reader

[petitmimosa]

This or That Ask Game

Tagged by @alittlefrenchtree for an obscure reason. Should've made you guess what I was going to answer and you'd get one sugar per cup of tea for each one you got right.

Iced or hot coffee ☕

Why would you make me drink coffee in the first place? Why was coffee even discovered and who decided it was an acceptable beverage? If I have to make a choice, then iced and with a shit ton of sugar/chocolate/white chocolat syrup. You know Starbucks' white chocolate frappuccino? Very little coffee, lots of everything else.

Iced or hot tea 🍵

Why would you ice TEA? This is why the human race is doomed I'm telling you. Tea is to be served hot but never burnt so get that kettle off before it boils.

Lemonade or sweet tea 🍋

Sweet tea is an abomination. Why would you give me BAKING SODA TO DRINK? Ugh. Lemonade is alright if homemade by someone who's not addicted to sugar though.

Fruity or minty gum

Not allowed to chew gum anymore but I was more of a mint person. Fruity flavors were too chemical for my taste.

Pasta or potatoes

Niak. This is a hard one. Potatoes are fun and you can fry them and they're creatures of God but pastaaaaaa... Parmesan goes on pasta and for that reason only it gets my vote.

Olives or pickles

There are two things you need to know about me if we're gonna share food together: I will never, ever willingly consume olives and will have pickles with absolutely everything. The small ones though, cornichons. Not the gigantic ones people in America like to grow.

Rice or bread

Bread. Bread. BREAD.

Cookies or brownies

Brownies take too long to bake and you have more fun with cookies. Also, that's my cat's name and if I don't say cookies he will know tonight when I get home and he will bite me to punish me.

Handwritten or phone reminders-

That notes app is somewhere on my phone because I can't uninstall it. But I hate my handwriting with a passion so I just remember everything since I have an excellent memory.

Zip-up or pullover hoodie

I hate zip-ups, I look like a whale in them. And hoodies are COZYYYY.

Jeans or sweatpants

I look even more like a whale in sweatpants so I'll have to say jeans. But when I'm home I'm just wearing pjs.

Flip flops/thongs or slides

Both are evil so they can crawl back to where they belong. I'll sleep with socks (even thin) all year long. I'll take them off when we reach 40°.

Paperback or ebook

I use my kindle before bed but paperback all the way when you want to spend hours reading.

Enemies to lovers or FWB to lovers

Enemies to lovers all the way. The hatred, the tension, the angst, the oh, oh maybe I was wrong? the messy feelings, GIVE IT TO ME I'M READY.

One bed or fake dating

That one bed trope has been alive way too long and needs to be put to rest, pun very much intended.

Hurt/comfort or whump

Hurt/comfort. I'm all for angst but the heavy hurt usually deals with atrocities and, nope.

Mutual pining or amnesia

Amnesia! That's the kind of angst I like.

Canon compliant or AU

It depends on the ship. I usually prefer canon but there are some excellent AUs out there.

Soulmate or Sports AU

My issue with sports AU is that it's almost always about the characters in the sports world rather than the chosen sport itself. I end up frustrated with how poorly depicted the sport is or how irrelevant it is to have them in this world in the first place all.the.time. Like okay they're figure skaters but why would you have them do 3 triple lutzes in one program when it's not a thing and yolo spins without telling me if it's a flying sit spin or a back camel?

Celebrity AU or Coffeeshop AU

I may have outgrown the coffeeshop AU, so, celebrity.

One shot or long fic

Quality over quantity. Which isn't an answer but :D

Anyone who wants to answer this, have at it!

[ren-the-neverending]

How I Annotate (Nobody Asked Tho)

This is just the way I do it, not trying to say it's the correct or superior way to do it.

First step is acquiring access to google drive, which I use bc it's free and I'm poor.

Second step is putting the text of what you're reading *into* the google doc. If you read physical copies and are scared of writing in them, you're gonna have a ton of typing ahead of you. If you read PDFs or ebooks, you can copy-paste, but it'll only let you paste so much at once and you'll have to do it in batches of a few paragraphs at a time. It's very time consuming, sorry. I also HIGHLY recommend putting the chapter titles as Headings instead of normal text, bc in google docs it will act as hyperlinks to those specific parts of the document. (screenshot of the left side of my annotated document of If We Were Villains by M. L. Rio. I'll be using this document for example shots.)

Third step is setting up your highlighting key [(if you're going to use specific colors for different things that is, you don't have to tho) (comments default to an ugly yellow color that i don't like, if you know how to change this let me know, and also if you're going to make comments instead of typing directly in the text be aware of this)]

Fourth is to decide how you're going to differentiate your thoughts from the text of the story, bc as mentioned before, the comments all default to the same ugly color and i don't like it. What I do is highlight the section relevant to the annotation in whatever color my key dictates, and then change my font and bold it and type the annotation in between the paragraphs or sentences, usually encased in {{ and }} and highlighted in the same color as the section.

I like doing it this way for now, but who knows! One of the best things about digital annotating is that you can change it part way through the book and keep everything consistent, instead of halfway through a physical copy the blue highlighting is suddenly something else bc there wasn't enough of it's first purpose.

Here's my pro/con list for my current method, because it's not perfect but it's mine.

Pro:

Very customizable, you can differentiate your annotation from the actual text in a wide variety of ways and use custom highlight colors to fit your aesthetic

You can easily insert links in your annotations if you want to link a specific article, website, or even another book document at a point in the text

Can annotate any book this way, even if it's an antique book or you only have a physical copy that's a collector's edition and therefore don't want to ruin it

Makes it possible to share the document with friends (or even a book club!) and have all the annotations in the same place while people are reading at the same time

Con:

Having the annotations in the text itself can get super clunky and make it harder to read after a bit, hopefully I'll find either a way in google docs to change the comment highlight color, or another *FREE* software where I can do that

Have to put the text of the book into a new document before you can get started, which as I said earlier is very time consuming. I know there are PDF editors and annotating software, but I've yet to find one that I like the layout and mechanics of

Can be difficult to find where you left off if you didn't write it down or make a note somewhere in the document

[jimimn]

No, I understand you because I placed the order at midnight and 5 minutes later I was like why is it not shipping already??? 😭 I also hate reading from PDFs 😞 the only thing I can read on my phone is fanfiction 😭 For everything else I need a book in my hands!!! I feel like I got scammed by amazon though because my address is set so they compared the preorder delivery to my address?? Theoretically? 😭 But when I actually placed the order it got so fucking long like amazon why 😭😭😭😭 I could've just paid less and I bet with normal shipping it would've arrived at the same time 😭 (watch me keep crying for a week and then the book will arrive earlier 🤦‍♀️🚶‍♀️)

you get it the impatience is real 🤝🏼 i hate reading from PDFs too 😭 but I've been reading a lot recently and i can't buy so many books so i read from epubs. i like epubs! but I don't want to start reading a book from an ebook that I have already ordered. Like I want to read from the physical book when I'm buying it, you know? and damn did you pay online? 😭 i opted for cod so I'm relieved in that way that amazon doesn't have my money already atleast. i went to my local bookstore like two weeks back and I asked them if they would get this book in stock and they said they would check and get back to me, took my phone number and never got back to me 💀💀💀 else I would've had the book in my hands rn!!!! I'm gonna keep crying too we're in this together 😔🤝🏼

[gachagon]

Hey I finished Babel by RF Kuang and I wanna talk about it so don't click if you haven't read the book at all

anyways, well that was a wild ride. I'm emotionally drained. I feel a different level of hopelessness and depression than I have felt ever before after reading a sad book. Yeah the books sad as shit, but like it's a different, deeper kind of sad because I, the reader, knows that nothing will get better for anyone in that book at all.

Like they'll just continue to suffer for years and years until eventually things get somewhat tolerable. I'm glad Victoire didn't die in the end, but knowing how american slavery is abominable and how just looking black was grounds enough to being owned and treated worse than dogs, I don't feel hopeful as she's on a ship headed to a place arguably worse than where she's leaving.

I'm not gonna be one of those annoying ppl and complain about tropes or whatever, I think it was sad Ramy and Robin both died as well, and tbh idc if it really falls under that "bury your gays" trope I really don't think that mattered in the end because that's just how hopeless everything is.

You know, after I finished the book I tried asking myself "What if THIS character made it to the end? What if they had some help from THIS character?" and no matter how many strange and silly solutions I came up with, I still couldn't figure out a way the ending couldn't have been avoided.

I knew SOMEONE had to die, and I knew it'd probably be either Ramy or Robin, but even though everything was predictable it still hurt to read (in a good way). I don't hate sad books I know this seems pretty negative but trust, it was a good book and I enjoyed it from beginning to end.

My only real criticisms of the book is just that I personally don't think it said anything too revolutionary in terms of race. Robin and Co are figuring things out about white people and society that I had to learn by the age of 12, so every time they make some grand revelation I'm just like "yeah...glad you're getting up to speed now."

And while this might be shocking I think letty is the best character in the book (not that she is a good person or that I like her I actually hate her guts and I would not want to even be in a room with her, I sometimes paused my reading every time she spoke and wondered how tf Victoire managed being beside her) But she's like the Ultimate White Woman, you know? The author somehow managed to meld every annoying racist white woman any POC has had the misfortune of talking to, and melded her into Letty. And I think that's pretty impressive considering white people manage to be annoying in multiple ways and not just one.

Now every time I see something racist on the internet I think to myself "Would Letty type this?" and most of the time I am correct she would

I also wish we had more time to flesh out Ramy and Victoire and the others (Idc about Letty's sad "boohoo my brother died" story tbh) I feel like Ramy especially was just kind of there as a prop for Robin to gaze at longingly and for him to get into stupid, petty arguments with Letty. The author definitely should've given us more than that little interlude before he kicked the bucket. And I think I'd have liked the book more if it weren't always centered on Robin's pov. Like if we got a few chapters dedicated to anyone else's POV besides those short interludes, that'd have probably fixed the issue a bit.

All in all, the book was great. It was amazing, and I really feel like I need to get myself a physical copy now and not just an ebook.

I also now have the strange urge to go back and fish up my old duolingo log in. I've missed some streaks since highschool.

[writerjuliannaf]

Thank you so much @laurajournal for tagging me!! I had a blast participating ❤︎

About Me~

MUSIC

Favorite genre(s)?

Rock, Folk, Eighties, Pop, Alternative/Indie

Favorite song(s)?

1. Wrecked by Imagine Dragons

2. Follow You by Imagine Dragons

3. The Funeral by Band of Horses

4. Little Did I Know by Julia Michaels

5. Stakes by Vancouver Sleep Clinic

6. When We Were Young by The Killers

7. Lost by Dermot Kennedy

8. Papercut by LINKIN PARK

9. Fix You by Coldplay

10. Someone You Loved by Lewis Capaldi

11. So Far Away by Staind

12. Everything Changes by Staind (… if I could keep going, I would)

Most listened song recently?

If The World Was Ending by Julia Michaels & JP Saxe (I’m a sucker for duets)

Song currently stuck in your head?

Let Me Down Slowly by Alec Benjamin

5 favorite lyrics?

1.  Now that we're here, it’s so far away

All the struggle we thought was in vain

All in the mistakes

One life contained

They all finally start to go away

Now that we're here, it’s so far away

And I feel like I can face the day,

And I can forgive

And I'm not ashamed

To be the person that I am today

~ So Far Away by Staind

2.  But everything changes

If I could

Turn back the years

If you could

Learn to forgive me

Then I could

Learn how to feel

Then we could

Stay here together

And we could

Conquer the world

If we could

Say that forever

~ Everything Changes by Staind (Aaron Lewis’ voice just sends me right back to my childhood)

3. Loud thunder, heavy rain

Thin line 'tween joy and pain

It's a long strange trip, it's all insane

You ain't never gonna be the same

~ Loud and Heavy by Cody Jinks

4.  Hear the fallen and lonely, cry out

Will you fix me up?

Will you show me hope?

At the end of the day, you were helpless

Can you keep me close?

Can you love me most?

~ Someone to Stay by Vancouver Sleep Clinic

5.  Please let me take you

Out of the darkness and into the light

'Cause I have faith in you

That you're gonna make it through another night

~ Lullaby by Nickelback

Pick!

radio or your own playlist | solo artists or bands…… both | pop or indie | loud or silent volume I slow or fast songs | music video or lyrics video | speakers or headset | riding a bus in silence or while listening to music | driving in silence or with radio on

BOOKS

Favorite book series?

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer & The Lorien Legacies by Pittacus Lore

Comfort book(s)?

The Merchant’s Daughter, The Captive Maiden, and The Golden Braid —all by Melanie Dickerson

Favorite book(s)?

Divergent by Veronica Roth and Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

Perfect book(s) to read on a rainy day?

Hendrix by softsloth (an amazing werewolf romance on Wattpad) and You Are Not Alone by penbehindthemask (the BEST Phantom of The Opera fanfic on Wattpad)

Favorite character(s)?

Bella Swan, Edward Cullen, Four, Jo March, Jane Eyre, Mr. Rochester, and Six —from The Lorien Legacies

5 favorite quotes from your favorite books?

1. “I am no bird; and no net ensnares me.” ~Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

2. “I’ll be your family now.” ~Insurgent by Veronica Roth

3. “Penguins. Lovely.” ~Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer

4. “One of the gifts our planet gave us is to love completely. Without jealousy or insecurity or fear. Without pettiness. Without anger.” ~I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore

5. “It was too mangy. A little bit like you.” ~Her Wolf King (THE BEST Beauty & The Beast/Jane Eyre retelling) by @linsimin

Pick!

hardcover or paperback | buy or rent | standalone novels or book series | ebook or physical copy | reading at night or during the day | reading at home or in nature | listening to music while reading or reading in silence | reading in order or reading the ending first… both | reliable or unreliable narrator | realism or fantasy | one or multiple POVS | judging by the covers or by the summary | rereading or reading just once

TV AND MOVIES

Favorite tv/movie genre(s)?

Romance, Fantasy, Superheroes, Comedy, Action/Adventure, Dystopian, and Sci-Fi

Comfort movie(s)?

Jane Eyre (2011 version), Barb And Star Go To Vista Del Mar, Pride & Prejudice, The Silver Linings Playbook, Ratatouille, The Phantom of The Opera, LOTR, and The Hobbit (… I wish I could keep going)

Movie you watch every year?

The Santa Clause

Favorite movie?

X-Men

Favorite tv show(s)?

The Office, Portlandia, Fruits Basket, Friends, Wolverine and The X-Men, Last Man Standing, Cobra Kai, Man With a Plan, Gilmore Girls, Sweet Magnolias, #blackAF, Dr. Who, North & South, Adventure Time (… and the list is neverending)

Comfort tv show?

The Office

Most rewatched tv show?

The Office

5 Favorite tv/movie characters?

1. Logan Howlett from X-Men

2. Luke Danes from Gilmore Girls

3. Michael Scott from The Office

4. Tohru Honda from Fruits Basket

5. Cindy Berman from Fear Street

Pick!

tv shows or movie….. both | short seasons (8-13 episodes) or full seasons (22 episodes or more) | one episode a week or binging | one season or multiple seasons | one part or saga | half hour or one hour long episodes | subtitles on or off | rewatching or watching just once | downloads or watches online.

I tag: @sincerelyrachelr @linsimin and anyone else who wants to join in on the fun 🌸

[exeggcute]

this summer marks Ten Whole Years since the first time I read it and even though I reread it a bunch of times immediately afterwards (which some of you have been here long enough to see me blog about... a mildly scary thought) I don't think I've actually committed to a full reread since high school? made a couple attempts since then but I always dropped off somewhere before page like, 70? I think I was always too busy or too depressed or not depressed enough to make it through. gonna read it all for real this time though. I'm doing the ebook route again (the only physical copy I have on hand is my literal original copy and I'm kinda afraid to read those annotations I made as a kid. also it's just genuinely falling apart. guess I could buy that new edition but I do like reading on screens tbh and I've had more than enough of the Brick Experience by now) and highlighting all the little bits that jump out at me, which is fun.

but it has been a hot minute since I've read the damn thing, so on one hand a lot of this is seared into my fucking brain and rereading it again is a little painful and dizzy and satisfyingly all at once like I'm cracking the vertebrae of my soul's spine. and yet at the same time I'm not fourteen (or fifteen or sixteen) anymore, on multiple levels, so there's a lot of stuff that I finally "get" now or else hits different or otherwise I'd literally forgotten about on account of it's been forever and you're bound to forget some shit from a thousand-page book.

other random thoughts though, so far:

I forgot how much of this is written in present tense? definitely a lot more formative than I'd thought to give credit for lol

everything being in single quotes always throws me off at first and then I get back into it like it's nothing. and people have discussed this to death but it's got me back into the thinking about like, whether this whole thing is someone's testimony, essentially in invisible regular double quotes

also the random first-person hal passages peppered in, but also also the hal passages that are in the THIRD person, which tangles everything into this big old narrative knot of okay so whose testimony are we hearing then, if you go by that single quotes/double quotes framework?

one of the things I did not catch by virtue of being literally fourteen (but which in hindsight is a pretty big thing to not catch) is how much of the plot hinges on the "experialism" of america's energy production and waste disposal and shit, and that's not like a wholly fictional or even necessarily groundbreaking thing considering how outsourcing waste disposal literally happens all the time, the only different being that it's an irradiated nuclear dump in the great convexity rather than trash barges being sent to southeast asia, but you know. definitely pertinent. and it's helping me understand the engine of the whole novel a little better—because people love to talk about how infinite jest is about entertainment (and it is) but the kind of excess can't be separated from the trash and the waste or whatever. capitalism. etc.

I do still have to ask though, why quebec of all places?

rereading infinite jest (for the first time in ages) and feeling very normal about it

[randomfanfic1]

https://youtu.be/QbpZ1GwKdrc

Yeah, I get it. Ya'll mean. But I aint mad anymore. Had my bitch fit about it last night and I feel better after the best fucking sleep in my entire life in MONTHS. So, yeah, keep having your Town Hall meetings in my back yard at ungodly hours and if the cops ask just tell them I said it was okay because it's peak hours for Pokemon GO or something. But please let me sleep and if you want to update me on your thoughts or the situation please send me a super encrypted, anonymous email. Hell, even do it in memes if you're afraid I'mma syphon your energy to read it. At this point I honestly dont give a fuck and gonna enjoy doing other shit.

You can even keep whatever stuff you have of mine and furiously fap to it if you like behind my back or keep on your little crush or whatever - if that was actually a thing and I didnt imagine it or misinterpet the cards.

If later on you get the nerve to ask me out I'll say yes with no consideration to what has happened up until now. Just dont mention this until about until three months into us dating because I dont think I could mentally handle it until then.

If you need it - do seek out that psychiatric treatment like I suggested it but it's not a requirement to be in my squad - even at a distance. I completely forgive you and am not mad. Am still entirely enthralled that you made all this effort even if it were an elaborate prank. But after this I am done, though, and gonna train and learn as Becky's Padawan because she's an Asexual Jedi Master and I just learned about my Force Sensitivity before I leap into the Dark Side and become Darth Vader... Or heaven forbid - FUCKING KYLO REN. Cause ya'll drive me to that shit. And Becky's gonna have to pull an Armitage Hux as my bestie and collect data and figure out how to pay for the collateral and psychological damage caused my emotional fits. Lol

Yeah, as far as BOA, the J-Pop artist is concerned? "Done with the crying game." So, unless you approach me first I aint looking at anybody. Not because I'm waiting for you(cuz your stupid ass probably aint coming like everyone else - figures, right? Just what I deserve), but because I'm ragequitting my dating life and me and Becky are gonna be two old biddies living in a swanky witch house who have brownies for breakfast, scare the shit out of our neighbors(lulz), and are gonna die on the same day, at the same time, after we have epic battles of Backgammon throughout our lives(because that's my favorite fucking boardgame, FYI.).

I'm gonna get heavily back into gaming not as a form of alcoholism to cope with stress but because it used to make me fucking happy.

You already know about my desires with the PS+ Account and a PC tower cuz I know you done read that shit.

Aint nobody gonna be called on you. No report gonna be made. Keep going on with your real life and fapping life and let me fucking SLEEP AT NIGHT WITH PEACE OF MOND, TYVM.

Hate the shit that you violated me and turned world upside down but it was necessary for me to live again, get my shit together, and figure out some new life goals.

You are literally The Tower in my Tarot Deck. Still dont get it? Google an ondepth meaning for that or read one of my Tarot ebooks on it and figure it out.

And while I gave Ace my entire life in exchange as a payment for him overpaying for my spiritual services and saving my life from Tang after William? It's just a lifetime subscription service to my spiritual services and full commitment of sisterhood for the rest of the days of his life. Kind of like how Japan hires social workers or pretty young women to play "onee-san" to lonely, recluse Japanese men who hole up in their apartment and never participate in life again.

But you? I was gonna give you an all-access, non-refundable, non-exchangable(cant Karen your way out of this one) full subscription to my Eternity with my heart and soul and everything in there as an added benefit. But I guess you'll never hear that. The offer will still stand if you ever come to me sincerely without expiration. I wont wait, though.

Not gonna Tang just because of my promise to Ace - but because I gotta spite all ya'll mother fuckers who try to bring me down. Not just you and Bromance. Still gonna post on this anonymous account for you to peer at occasionally as to not spam or stress people out via DM. Already fucked up Ace over this. Not your fault. It's like the situation with inufandom and William. I got time to patch things up and MAKE THINGS WORK so I dont fuck up so badly like I did with them or any other bestie I had in the past.

So, until then? Asexuality/Aromanticism is thing but I can still have my pretend boyfriends but will not bother looking to RP those romances because that comes with expectations and heartache I literally cannot handle anymore.

Enjoy your day. Play a video game. Fuck up some bitches. Pay off your debt with Bromance. Keep your bromance with Bromance because you probably need the friendship or comfort(no longer worried about it).

Goddess bless you and thank you for guiding me through this Shadow Work because I would have denied ot forever.

#peace

#epvalleygirl