we have done it. we are on the threshold of spring break, and we are ready to take a week off. it was hard, yes, but we have made it this far. now, I know that it doesn’t seem as if it is super easy to just take a break, to put work and school on pause, but you deserve it!
i know that i for one am super duper excited to be able to take a breather, but i am also concerned about getting all of my work done. the bad news is, those worries don’t really just go away, but I think a week off of having to actively work on projects is just what i need at the moment.
im not gonna lie to the lovely blogspacers, I am extremely burnt out. which is probably why this blog is going to be very short. i really just needed a moment to tell myself what i needed to hear, because spring break can’t get here fast enough!
so, basically, I am writing this blog as a pat on the back to both of us. you and myself… we did it!
I am sure that many of my friends know by now that one of my favorite shows of all time is New Girl. I actually wasn’t planning on making a blog about New Girl any time soon, but I got inspired last week when Jordan posted her ranking of the characters of the show (go check it out if you haven’t already). I actually have been watching the show since I was young and have always taken a liking to a particular character – Nick Miller.
Now, I’m sure that people reading this blog who are also a fan of the show are thinking, ‘Nick?’ Yes. I have loved Nick Miller since I was a wee little New Girl stan. Not for all of the reasons that you may thing. Not because of his lazy, slouchy look or his allergic to affection attitude – although those are small factors. So, I figured that with this blog I would compile some of the reasons why I love this character so much!
1. his endlessly quotable moments
“I’d give you a hug, but my shirt smells pretty weird today.”
“I’m not convince I know how to read; I’ve just memorized a lot of words.”
“Adele’s amazing.” (hehe)
“I like getting older. It’s like I am finally aging into my personality.” (felt that one)
2. he’s a writer
Okay, yes, his book may have sucked, but he wrote it! I feel like Nick’s passion for writing is glossed over most of the time. Yes, he did take a ridiculously long amount of time to write a book that was- not that great, but he was dedicated to it! Which is a big deal for Nick who is well-known for his commitment issues.
3. king of being realistic
In the show, oddly, Nick is sometimes the voice of reason. He is usually the one who brings Jessica’s bubbly attitude down to a safe level of dreamy. Often he calls out when Jess’s positivity gets the best of her and leads her into situations that she gets stuck in. I don’t know, I just really like the idea of the “bummy friend being the voice of reason in situations.
Anyways, those were just some of the reasons why I love Nick Miller. I was thinking about starting a series of these for each New Girl main character… but who knows what I’ll write next week!
The other day I went to eat lunch at a new restaurant near me. One of the drawing factors of this restaurant was the little robot that brought appetizers to the table. (Great marketing by the way.) Of course, I ordered an appetizer that was delivered by the cute little robot that was programmed to greet you. And although I should have just been enjoying the experience, of course, my first thought? “I should post this!”
The reasoning behind why? I really have no clue. There was no value to the post I would have made other than showing people the dumplings being brought to me by a small robot… the more I think about it, the sillier I feel. I’ve noticed myself doing this on many, many occasions. Instead of my first thought during an exciting event being, “Wow, I am so glad I get to experience this.” it more times than not is “Wow, I should post this.”
— And I hate it. I hate that I feel the need to do more than just experience the moment. But there is also the other side of that argument, which is I enjoy the experience I am having so much that I feel the need to share it with others.
Recently, I have been kind of thinking over what I am actually feeling in those moments before my finger hovers over the post button. Do I just want to share with others? or Am I doing this for others? In this day and age, posting our lives is almost a natural instinct to most people. Even in the older generations, facebook has become like a scrapbook for us to document almost every moment of our lives. Which makes me think about how much of the things we post we have actually experienced.
But of course, not all posting is related to sharing our own lives. There are forms of web sharing that can really make a difference. The internet can give you opportunities to support communities you would have otherwise never known of. The ability to share is something that I don’t want us as humans to take lightly.
So next time I go to instantly share a part of my life, I want to keep in mind the notion that sharing everything isn’t always as valuable as living it.
When mentioned, most people think of awareness in the political/social sense, but what I am going to write about today is awareness in relation to the human condition. How we, as people, express awareness is something so important not only in close relationships and life, but also in how our actions reflect that awareness onto others.
When I think about what I want people describe me as, I often think the word aware is what I strive for. Not only in the sense of being aware of other people’s feelings and emotions, but also in the way I take in my surroundings. I hope that I am aware of where I am and the importance of what I am doing. I hope I take into account the people around me, and the different ways they may view the world.
Awareness to me isn’t just having the knowledge of a certain topic, it is taking that knowledge and applying it to your daily interactions. Awareness is having an open conversation and accepting when you have done wrong. Awareness is sharing the knowledge you have learned and hoping that others wish to be mindful too.
As a human, I want to constantly expand the way I think of things, and I want to apply everything I have learned and continue to learn to the way I live to be a better friend and human to people around me.
sometimes i find comfort in the fact that i don’t have a plan. sometimes i am thankful that i am okay with not knowing where my life is headed but getting too comfortable in that mindset is what can lead to never progressing.
i spent so many years too focused on the future to the point that i could no longer relish in the present. but now, sometimes i feel as if i am not focused enough on where i am headed in the future. i know that i want to have a career in english or writing somehow… but where does a person even start to know what they want? how do i know if i’ll want a job in an office or out in the world if i have never done it?
finding a balance between overly worrying about the future and pretending it doesn’t exist is something that continues to kick my butt every day. on one hand, worrying about the future is a good thing, but on the other, damaging your mindset to make the future come quicker does no good. the same thing applies to not thinking about the future is a line that is hard to walk without slipping too much to one side.
i really don’t even know why i wrote this blog. maybe the purpose of it is just to proclaim the fact that i don’t know where i’m going. but then again, who really does?
I have decided to take an entirely different route to blogging than I normally do and write something that may be only interesting to me …. stress!
Well, more importantly the difference between stress and anxiety. I find it so interesting that sometimes the two are so hard to differentiate. Both work in a kind of deadly cycle of “Oh I am so stressed! Oh no now I have stress induced anxiety! Oh no now I am even more stressed.” So on and so forth.
Thats why I think learning to discern the two is so important. Learning to differentiate stress and anxiety is the first step in figuring out how to deal with it, because the two have different remedies.
For stress, (particularly induced by work or school) pacing is key. Learning to manage time and cognitive energy can help to ease stress, while in anxiety there is no particular cure all for every person. Everyone is different so for some people breathing exercises may work, but for others easing an overall sense of anxiety could take medication or meditation.
I don’t know, I just think the way the brain works is fascinating. It is so cool that we are capable of such complex emotions… anyways enough with the boring psychology talk, I’ll let you continue with your blog perusing!
I’ve always loved the simple things. Things so simple that they make you appreciated the more intricately good things. I thought about it yesterday when I was on the phone with my parents and they asked, “How was your day?” To which I replied, “It was a pleasantly average day.” One of my favorite things is pleasantly average days. Not necessarily good or bad, just a day where you do your tasks and have average conversations and go home feeling averagely tired. That is my favorite simple thing.
I’ve been trying to focus on things like that lately. Things that I find average, simple, etc. Simple things that make me happy. Like the smell of rain. Laughing. The sound of crunchy leaves. Warm jackets.
Anyways, I think it is so incredibly cool that we, as humans, have the ability to find such joy in plain things, and I hope that we never lose that ability.
OK. I know the title may be a tad bit scary to see coming from a writer, but don’t be alarmed. The writer’s block I am facing right now is less like a wall and more of a white picket fence. Which to the average person wouldn’t be super alarming, but as a suuuuppper clumsy person, a white picket fence still is a threat. The threat of tripping, running into, and falling on the white picket fence is still a possibility.
So right now, as we begin playwriting as Juniors in the Literary Arts department, although i would rather not have any sort of blockage in my righting flow, a white picket fence is decidedly better than an entire brick wall.
Anyways the point of this blog is to basically just say it’s okay to get a little stuck sometimes, but I hope you can find silly comparisons such as brick walls and picket fences to make yourself feel better too!
Upon the death of one of my favorite people in the world, Betty White, I coped with my stress by baking. Now, this isn’t the first time I have baked to relieve my stress or anxiety, but that particular day was the first day I realized how therapeutic baking really is to me. After two batches of Coffee Cake Cookies and an Earl Grey tea cake, I felt a weight lifted off of my shoulders. Even though my feet were tired from standing at the counter for so long, and my stomach was full from tasting my creations along the way, I was relieved to have made something. I was happy to be able to control something in a life where you can’t always choose what is thrown at you.
Anyways, I felt like maybe someone else could relate to this, so here I am writing another blog about all of my granny interests. Who knows? I may even turn this into a series, and drop a different one of my recipes each week!
And no, the title isn’t misleading, banana bread does relate to this somehow. Banana bread was actually one of the first desserts I perfected when I started baking. I’ve probably changed this recipe more than 20 times, but now I think it is pretty good, so I thought I’d share it!
Ingredients
2-4 very ripe bananas
1/3 cup melted butter
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mash bananas until smooth
Add butter, eggs, and vanilla; mix
Mix all dry ingredients together in a separate bowl.
Add dry ingredient mixture slowly to the wet ingredients; mix well
Helloooooo everyone and welcome back to another week of “Adele ranting about another random interest.” This week I have decided to take it upon myself to rant about my favorite show of all time. Seeing as there are other crime junkies that will be reading this, I figured it would not be a waste of blogspace to fangirl for a little bit.
Synopsis :
The show “Bones’ follows the life of Dr. Temperance Brennan, a forensic anthropologist at the Jeffersonian Institution. Brennan, better known as “Bones” by her partner, Seeley Booth, helps the F.B.I solve murders by following evidence left on the skeletal remains of victims. The show follows the partnership/evolution of Temperance and Seeley’s relationship over a total of 12 seasons.
(The show was inspired by the popular show X-Files!)=
Fan Favorite Characters:
Temperance “Bones” Brennan:
Dr. Brennan is my personal favorite character of all time. A word that many people use to describe Temperance is – awkward. Which, I cant lie, she is indeed, but she is the best type of awkward there is. She is a character that I have become so attached to over the years. The writers of the show actually confirmed before that Brennan was a character meant to be portrayed with less than superb social skills. Dr. Temperance Brennan bases all of her personal beliefs in science and is atheist, unlike her partner, Booth, who is catholic. One of my favorite things about her character development is that she never “sees the light” or changes her beliefs to better suit her partner. She is a character that always sticks to her personal morals and values, and I think that it is truly admirable.
Agent Seeley Booth:
Agent Seeley Booth is a very classic character. He is a former Army Ranger, F.B.I., agent, religious man. Booth is such a strong character and is portrayed as such in the series. He is the more sarcastic comical counterpart to Bones, who doesn’t understand half of the jokes he makes. Booth is like Brennan in the sense that he sticks to his morals. He has very strong faith which is a major part of his character. Booth relies on his faith in parts of the show where he or Bones is in danger (which is almost every episode). Overall, Seeley Booth is such a warm and caring character, and his love for the people around him is shown throughout each episode. Although he commonly jokes in the series about the “Squint Squad”, which is what he calls the members of the Jeffersonian Lab, he shows his admiration for each of them throughout the seasons.
Angela Montenegro:
Angela, who is the Lab’s artist, is someone who recreates the faces of victims by use of their skeletal structure. Angela isn’t what you would normally expect from a lab like the Jeffersonian’s. She was originally a freelance artist who lived a rather “free” lifestyle. Throughout the series, Angela plays the role of Temperance Brennan’s best friend, and she often acts as the sort of “translator” for Dr. Brennan who often doesn’t pick up on jokes or innuendos. Angela’s role in the lab is what I would call the “Emotions” because she is the one who has a harder time with seeing deceased victims, whereas the others in the lab have more of a scientific outlook on the situation. One of my favorite things about Angela is that she refers to her friends as “Sweetie” when addressing them, which I think is such a sweet term of endearment.
Lance Sweets:
Lance Sweets was brought in during the third season as a psychologist assigned to Booth and Brennan after an incident caused the F.B.I. to force them to seek counseling. Lance plays the role of a sweet, witty guy. Sweets is often the provider of comic relief, as he is the target of the jokes by both Brennan and Booth because of his young age. Despite being only 22 when he was introduced in the show, Sweets held two doctorates at his young age. I am personally biased towards Sweets as my favorite character in the show because I think he is literally the “Sweet”est (get it? yeah… it was a bad joke). Anyways, throughout the series, Booth and Brennan take Sweets under their wing as a little brother figure in their lives. Literally the cutest thing ever.
