#and played barbie games and read twilight instead

[kitkataract]

having my lotr phase in my early 20s when everyone else had it in their childhood is very on brand for me

[thursday-knight]

music tag game

tagged by @thenervousduck

i've barely listened to music this year, so instead of music, i'm using youtube.

20 songs on shuffle:

(so i'm doing 20 videos from my history instead)

1. cats! and the weird mind of ts elliot - maggie mae fish

2. owning more than one switch is finally worth it! cloud saves - nintendo life

3. my name is inigo montoya princess bride fight analysis - jill bearup

4. halloweentown - cosmonaut variety hour

5. what joker can learn from dolemite - nando v movies

6. adam sandler: really that good - moviebob

7. the hysteria of this flower explained: behind the hype murakami's flowers - hypebeast

8. games i am playing 5 - happy console gamer

9. comedy and masculinity - curio

10. the try guys try archery - try guys

11. kristen dresses like jen for a week - kitchen & jorn

12. please don't tell nintendo about this video... - beat em ups

13. cyberpunk 2077 review kindafunny gamescast ep. 53 - kindafunny games

14. when god adds extra spice r/traa - onetopic

15. can i buy better sleep? pillow edition - devin but better

16. the try guys bake cookies without a recipe - the try guys

17. cyberpunk 2077 first thoughts - happy console gamer

18. trixie builds her own "barbie cookie dreamhouse" from mattel - trixie mattel

19. kristen and jen compete to make the best yule log cake - kitchen & jorn

20. i read the new twilight book - strange aeons

10 songs i've been listening to:

(instead 10 channels i've been watching a lot of)

1. strange aeons

2. the completionist

3. happy console gamer

4. arlo

5. beat em ups

6. the try guys

7. devin but better

8. film joy / movies with mikey / deep dive

9. nando v movies

10. kitchen and jorn

9 most influential abums:

(instead 9 most influential channels)

1. film joy / movies with mikey / deep dive

2. moviebob

3. strange aeons

4. maggie mae fish

5. happy console gamer

6. nando v movies

7. vlogbrothers

8. brows held high

9. every frame a painting

tagging:

@masteranakinskywalker @ihni @crownofstardustandbone @frightenedofrabbits @gaymacriot @oh-goodness-loki @rascheln @nblesbianbenhanscom

[awkwarddystopianwarlord]

People Have Different Tastes

Something that has always bothered me is when people end up absolutely befuddled because I didn’t watch a certain children's show or listen to a particular song. I’ve had numerous people gawk at me because of this as though it’s some unspoken requirement of humanity to all watch and listen to the same things. What’s popular to you doesn’t necessarily mean it’s popular to someone else. Granted, I know there are videos that go viral and songs that make it to the top ten and shows that people rave about worldwide. I have still managed to avoid that though, for the most part. It isn’t intentional, I just generally immersed myself in what I found interesting to me. I grew up listening to what my mother played from her ipod or CDs and I watched more movies than I did TV shows. I never really had a vessel to explore music tailored to me or videos I personally enjoyed until I was in about ninth or tenth grade.

I received an ipad for christmas and downloaded a knock-off version of youtube that allowed me to play music while using another app. That was when I started exploring. When my younger sister was looking up epic music to use jokingly in a school project, I found that I actually really enjoyed it. Epic instrumental music and movie scores were the shit I loved to listen to. It took me a wee while actually to branch out from that and find songs with words. I wanted something with the same feel, same use of instrumental abundance. The band Of Monsters and Men took me in a different direction though, interesting sounding vocals. I’m a sucker for accents so listening to foreign bands gave me that satisfaction. I never fell into a boy/girl band phase, I either wanted a mix of both or just a strong male or female vocalist. So when One Direction became a sensation, I just pretended to be a fan. I wanted to be a part of the community of people that adored one thing, whether it was a band, a song, a show, a clothing trend. It simply never fit with what I enjoyed though. There were rare moments when I felt that inclusion with appreciating something but it was often few and far between.

I watched Nickelodeon as a child, but it was mostly Spongebob Squarepants and iCarly sprinkled in between. H2O: Just Add Water was a favorite as well. I still managed to miss a ridiculous amount of shows there though. Still managed to baffle people with my lack of indulgence. The thing is, I watched an episode or so and then I was done for the day, so that episode was from the one channel I knew to get to. Netflix wasn’t a thing yet, hell, flat TVs weren’t a thing yet. Channel 37 was all I knew so dammit that’s what I hit on the remote. Also, like I said, I was also a big movie fan. I watched Titanic religiously with my younger sister, we were about four and six years old. Eventually our parents banned us from it because they were so sick of it. Our love for it was rediscovered two years later so that was a fun thing to relive. We liked Disney movies but not as much the old classics like Snow White, more like Mulan and Pirates of the Carribean. This of course led me to be considered a fake Disney fan since I wouldn’t watch as many princess movies. Barbie movies on the other hand were a blast to watch but that doesn’t count, so again I was on the edge of the crowds.

I never bothered to follow clothing trends, I was poor, then I moved to a small town where going to Vancouver only happened twice a year for us. Buying the next trendy thing wasn’t something I could do when most of my clothes were hand-me-downs or from what I found at the thrift store. On top of that, I have a habit of wanting to look like the last character I saw in a movie that I like. I’m a fiend for overcoats because of that. I was more interested in looking like I popped out of another time period than keeping up with a trend that would last a week and come around again ten years later. If there was an in-style look I fancied, I always ended up acquiring it late and then it didn’t even matter if I caught up, the world already moved on.

Video games were never really present in my life, until we got a Wii. That became addicting for awhile but even then, my parents never really had to urge me outside much because I loved being outside. I thrive among trees, grass, and creeks. I would wake up early and sneak out of the house before my sister woke up just so I could have an hour of poking around ditches and bushes with a stick, pretending it was alive and I was narrating its existence like the gent from Planet Earth. My group of friends would play manhunt in the woods or make up civilizations in my backyard. We would be out in the neighbourhood streets from late morning to twilight. Of course those that didn’t do that as kids wondered why I was so horrible at video games and never saw all the episodes of anything because I was never in front of the TV that much. Even though I had a small herd, I still felt isolated from the much larger herd of people familiar with something I wasn’t.

I’ve been in dance classes all my life from when I was two so no, I don't know how to navigate an Xbox. I grew up listening to Enya, Simon and Garfunkel, and opera, so no, Katy Perry wasn’t someone I jammed out to. I’m a shy, awkward introverted bookworm so no, I never went to parties. I don’t have a lot of money so no, I don’t really buy brand name clothing. I’m not trying to sound like I’m such a one-of-a-kind, not like the others, clearly a quirky and unique person. What I”m trying to say is, there are loads of people like that, loads of people that find joy in the less known, the more obscure, the sub-genre of things.

People forget that just because they grew up one way, knowing the things they learned and seeing the things they saw, does not mean everyone else did too. The world is a grand place because there is so much to offer, so to ridicule, tease, taunt, shame those that dwell in something different than you is stupid. We don’t all have to agree with one another’s tastes but we should at least appreciate the fact that we have different tastes and aren’t instead clones that all march to the same destination without knowing why. So whilst someone plays Assassin’s Creed or goes to a club or reads a book or takes a hike or browses a mall, I’m writing a blog and doing any of those things is wonderful.

Do what makes you happy, and be happy that others are doing what makes them happy because the happier we all are, the more tolerant we’ll be of everyone’s differences.

[the-cowgirl-bookworm]

Chapter 1

Zoey is talking with her best friend Kayla by her locker when she notices a “dead guy”. This guy is apparently a Tracker, sent to mark teenagers as new vampires. We also get our first characteristic of Zoey when she complains about her “freakish inability to fit in”, despite the fact that her family lives comfortably and she is dating the star quarterback of the football team. Really not fitting in, huh? While seeing this guy close to her locker should make Zoey aware that she could be picked, all she does to talk to her friend Kayla about how her boyfriend went to a part without her and drinks a lot. The quote below shows how Zoey completely ignores how Heath, her boyfriend, is becoming an alcoholic and she is only concerned about how this affects her, i.e. his attractiveness.

"The point is that he was wasted for like the fifth time this week. I'm sorry, but I don't want to go out with a guy whose main focus in life has changed from trying to play college football to trying to chug a six-pack without puking. Not to mention the fact that he's going to get fat from all that beer." I had to pause to cough. I was feeling a little dizzy and forced myself to take slow, deep breaths when the coughing fit was over. Not that K-babble noticed. "Eww! Heath, fat! Not a visual I want." I managed to ignore another urge to cough. "And kissing him is like sucking on alcohol-soaked feet." K scrunched up her face. "Okay, sick. Too bad he's so hot."

I rolled my eyes, not bothering to try to hide my annoyance at her typical shallowness.

Zoey then reiterates how there is a dead guy by her locker, and that vampires in this world have crescent moon tattoos in the middle of their foreheads. He recites some poem, points at her, and she blacks out as she gets a crescent moon outline on her forehead, the mark of a fledgling, who could one day become a full vampire. Zoey wakes back up and finds Kayla freaking out like a reasonable person because someone she is close to basically just got handed a death sentence, as apparently the tattoo means that Zoey is going through the Change, which could kill her if she doesn’t get around full vampires immediately. You’d think the Tracker would hang around so that the fledglings actually had a chance to make it to the obligatory school. Zoey then gets mad at Kayla for getting emotional.

"Stop crying. You know I hate it when you cry." I reached out to attempt a comforting pat on her shoulders. And she automatically cringed, and moved away from me. I couldn't believe it. She actually cringed, like she was afraid of me. She must have seen the hurt in my eyes because she instantly started a string of breathless K- babble.

Yeah Zoey, your friend has an instinctual reaction to a stressful situation and you immediately start bitching. Not to mention that Zoey had already mentioned how people seem to have a backwards view of vampires, despite what we’ll see later.

"Oh, God, Zoey! What are you going to do? You can't go to that place. You can't be one of those things. This can't be happening! Who am I supposed to go to all of our football games with?" I noticed that all during her tirade she didn't once move any closer to me. I clamped down on the sick, hurt feeling inside that threatened to make me burst into tears. My eyes dried instantly. I was good at hiding tears. I should be; I'd had three years to get good at it.

Our first Mary Sue trait, our poor abused heroine who tries to be tough and not cry. Zoey then remarks about how she’s glad she got Marked inside because she didn’t want every one including her “Barbie-clone sister” to see her out by the buses. Zoey then gives us a big dump and makes it clear about why I hate her as a character.

There was only one other kid in the math hall--a tall thin dork with messed- up teeth, which I could, unfortunately, see too much of because he was standing there with his mouth flapping open staring at me like I'd just given birth to a litter of flying pigs. I coughed again, this time a really wet, disgusting cough. The dork made a squeaky little sound and scuttled down the hall to Mrs. Day's room clutching a flat board to his bony chest. Guess the chess club had changed its meeting time to Mondays after school. Do vampyres play chess? Were there vampyre dorks? How about Barbie-like vampyre cheerleaders? Did any vampyres play in the band? Were there vampyre Emos with their guy-wearing-girl's-pants weirdness and those awful bangs that cover half their faces? Or were they all those freaky Goth kids who didn't like to bathe much? Was I going to turn into a Goth kid? Or worse, an Emo? I didn't particularly like wearing black, at least not exclusively, and I wasn't feeling a sudden and unfortunate aversion to soap and water, nor did I have an obsessive desire to change my hairstyle and wear too much eyeliner.

Yeah, Zoey pretty much insults any group that she isn’t a part of. And it brings up how the Casts cannot seem to get past that fact that cliques are not in vogue anymore. When I was in high school, yeah you had some kids who sat together since they were in band or on the same team, but other people sat with them. It wasn’t clearly defined, and was malleable. What’s with the hate on the goths? Isn’t that one of your key demographics, the people who think Twilight isn’t dark enough for them? Zoey then sends Kayla way after her phone starts playing “Material Girl” as her ringtone, because why show her character when she can be accurately defined by a song title? Zoey angsts for a bit about how she has to go to “Vampire Finishing School”, which is the exact phrase that Cast’s agent used, and how all she wanted was to fit in at school since her home life sucks. Zoey decides to go to the bathroom and wait out the crowd outside, but stops to look through a window.

High-pitched girl giggles flitted to me from the parking lot. Great. Kathy Richter, the biggest ho in school, was pretending to smack Heath. Even from where I was standing it was obvious she thought hitting him was some kind of mating ritual. As usual, clueless Heath was just standing there grinning.

Thus begins the massive amounts of slut shaming in this book series. The Casts constantly promote this as some kind of feminist series, but anyone actually reading this can see that they are some of the biggest hypocrites I’ve ever seen. Kathy also gets no further descriptions and only appears for this one sentence. The Casts could have just had Kayla smiling at Heath and him smiling back and that would have worked better, planting some seeds of doubt about her friend, but no, we get a throw away character who solely exists to be slutty. Zoey doesn’t think about this, instead moving to the bathroom and talking about how she looks.

She had my eyes. They were the same hazel color that could never decide whether it wanted to be green or brown, but my eyes had never been that big and round. Or had they? She had my hair--long and straight and almost as dark as my grandma's had been before hers had begun to turn silver. The stranger had my high cheekbones, long, strong nose, and wide mouth--more features from my grandma and her Cherokee ancestors. But my face had never been that pale. I'd always been olive- ish, much darker skinned than anyone else in my family. But maybe it wasn't that my skin was suddenly so white...maybe it just looked pale in comparison to the dark blue outline of the crescent moon that was perfectly positioned in the middle of my forehead. Or maybe it was the horrid fluorescent lighting. I hoped it was the lighting. I stared at the exotic-looking tattoo. Mixed with my strong Cherokee features it seemed to brand me with a mark of wildness...as if I belonged to ancient times when the world was bigger...more barbaric. From this day on my life would never be the same. And for a moment--just an instant--I forgot about the horror of not belonging and felt a shocking burst of pleasure, while deep inside of me the blood of my grandmother's people rejoiced.

Yes, a character who is supposed to be part Native American just said that she looks more barbaric! How can a person’s mindset be so ass backwards that they write that? The other thing that bothers me is that Zoey says that she is the only person in her family with a darker complexion, despite the fact that her mother is half Cherokee. Even if Zoey’s grandma had a child with a white man, her child would have at least some Native American features. Not to mention the exotification and reducing Native American people to some kind of old fashioned magical people. Ugh, onto Chapter 2.