Dear Christine

Dear Christine,

I found you a couple years ago when I first started to enjoy reading. It was an accident honestly. Casually browsing my Instagram, someone told me to subscribe to you on Youtube and because I was  thoroughly convinced that sounded like bullshit, I decided to link on the link the prove a point.

I was wrong.

After watching your book lions video I watched all your videos.  And then I showed them all to my friend, who is actually writing a post about you too.

You introduced me to the "booktube" community which is something I didn't know existed before you. Checking to see if you had a new video up became the best par to my day. I think I've seen all your videos twice. Including the ones on your comedy channel, of course.

Ok, real quick: for those of you who don't know, Christine is a book tuber who makes amazing videos all about books (i.e the definition of a book tuber). Like, everything that has to do with books, I didn't even know it was possible to talk about books that much and still be interested. But I was happily surprised.

Back to Christine: Both your comedy and book channel are the reasons why I wanted to write my blog.

Books and ranting are my two of my favorite things in the world.

I am not kidding. 

It just seemed right

Back when my friend and I first started watching your videos we tried to make a youtube channel too, but we were just too lazy. The blogging thing takes much less effort. I know that sounds bad but its the truth. We would much rather just watch your fabulous videos, instead of making our own much shittier ones.

While watching your videos I realized I relate to you on a real level. Now I'm not trying to become your best friend or anything but whenever you make some thought or comment or express your opinion about something, I always find myself screaming out "SAAAAMMEE". This happens just about every time I watch one of your videos.

So this post is supposed to be to the person who inspired me to write about this specific topic, and you are why I chose the topics of books and ranting. 

Believe it or not I genuinely love hearing your ridiculous stories about your life; I honestly find them quite interesting. Which gave me the idea to tell ridiculous stories on my blog, which is really really fun. I know they aren’t as great as yours but still, it humors me and I needed and something to write about that wasn’t a sport like everyone else in my grade was writing about. I know it may seem like I’m not a true parkite because I don’t mention how amazing the snow is every 2 sentences and thats completely the truth, I am not a true parkite. But I am totally not judging the real parkites, you blog about what you wanna blog about. But Imma do the same.

This brings me to your Book channel. I enjoy watching your book haul videos wayyyyy more than I should. So I thought I’d write about that too. Thats really really fun too.

But you’re amazing and just a spectacular human in general (I hope that sentence wasn’t cree, it wasn’t meant to be).

Lastly heres a link to the fabulous Christine Riccio youtube channel, or other wise known as Polandbananas20

See ya!
Olivia

Don'thatemcuzmybrainhasnowords

Wow. I’m really leaving this post to the very last minute as it is due today... I've probably told y'all before, but I am the queen of procrastinating, like if there was a job thats sole description was procrastinating, I'd be employee of the month or maybe a freelance for something but whatever, what I'm trying to say is that I can procrastinate like no other.

But I don't wanna talk about how good I am at procrastinating, thats boring...

I'm gonna talk about some people...

Now a few of my friends have recently written posts about my... group of friends (thats what were gonna call them because the real name isn't necessary right now) and I think I'm gonna do something like that too, but I'm gonna talk a little more about how my friends made me realize a few things about awkwardness. 

"the worst possible situation ever" 

So I call myself an awkward person, because I kind of am. But I'm not like socially awkward or shy exactly, I don't get the urge to run away and hide from social situations, I usually love talking to people and hearing what they have to say (if I don't hate them or anything and they aren't boring me).  But what happens is that I would go to a party or something and I'm talking to people I've never met before, my brain just kinda goes "shit, theres people around and I legit don't know what to say" so I end up standing there with my mouth glued shut for the next who knows how long and these people will end up thinking that I don't like them. This is what I call "the absolute worse situation ever". I try my best to avoid this situation but it still happens. I don't even know if this issue can be classified as being awkward but thats what I'm calling it for lack of a better word. Maybe I'll make up a name or something.  

But I've realized that the absolute worst only happens when I'm around people I don't know very well.  Heres my definition of friends: people you can be around with and be able to say whatever you want. When I'm around my friends I never shut up. Like I'm loud, I rant and, sometimes I'm a bit obnoxious. I never not know what today. I can just talk and I love talking. Sometimes (ok, a lot of the time) half the things I say don't make any sense but I don't give a shit. And the best part is that I feel absolutely no pressure to actually talk. The other thing that makes for the "absolute worse possible situation ever" is that I feel like I absolutely have to say something otherwise these people will forget about me. Which honestly, is kinda true. If I truly say nothing the whole time then the people I'm "talking" to will probably have no idea I was even there in the first place. But when I'm with my friends we have these moments where no one is saying anything. A conversation will end and the only noise we'll hear is the music in the back ground and maybe someone singing along. When this happens, no one feels uncomfortable and I don't feel like I have to fill the silence with something not really worth saying. When we want to talk, we talk. And we do it because we have something to say, not just to fill the void. And when we don't want to talk we don't. And thats okay.

When I'm with my friends I'm not really awkward anymore. Or at least I can avoid "the absolute worst possible situation ever". And as long as I can do that, I'm ok with being a little awkward, theres nothing wrong with that...

Back to a post I wrote a while ago about choosing how to feel in a situation totally applies to this, believe it or not I actually really like making friends now a days. That whole "absolute worst situation ever" thing doesn't happen to me that often anymore, for the most part, I can deal. 

Also, awkward has many different meanings, and it really isn't the right word for what I'm trying to describe here. I think I am gonna make up a word..."Don'thatemecuzmybrainhasnowords" (don't-hate-me-cuz-my-brain-has-no-words) there... I don't care if thats just a bunch of real word smashed together, it gets the point across...kind of...

See ya! 

Olivia 

I've done it

Its official: I have finished Winter (well I finished it a month ago but I'm just really lazy and just got around to writing the review right now).   
So if you're new here, Winter, written by Marisa Meyer, is this really really really big book thats really good.
But to be more specific; I'll start from the beginning.
In previous posts I've mentioned Winter and how excited I was about it, a countless number of times but I only had my ridiculous imagination and a few predictions about what I thought was going to happen. But it was nothing like I thought it would be. I mean I wasn't wrong about it being totally magnificent because it totally was! but more happened than I thought it would.

Luna: for those who are unaware

*WARNING* 

If you have not read the previous novels to this series, what I am about to write about will make absolutely no sense.
Starting from the point of view of Winter, she is in the throne room with her psychotic step mother during the trials (and possible executions) of the people who may or may not have been apart or witnessed the kidnapping of Kai. Eventually Jacin shows up and is mostly likely going to be executed but Levana, being the saint that she is, decides to just let him get whipped a couple of times and not give him dinner one night. This is where we witness Winter's first crazy spell, where she claim the walls are covered in blood and she's a princess of ice...
But really, every time she had one of her "visions" I just got more confused because there wasn't much of an explanation as to why not using her glamour caused her to go insane. I'm most likely forgetting where that is explained but maybe I'm not.
Anyways...
Around chapter 4 (yes, I remember the chapter that this happened) we got Cinder and I was so unbelievably happy about these next few chapters because, lets face it,much needed moment alone, I was crying from tears of joy. It was fabulous.
Kai. Alright, I love Kai more than any male character like ever. Okay not true, I mean Will Herondale and many others are out there somewhere.  But in terms of the lunar Chronicle, he is the best ever. So when in chapter 4 he and Cinder have a much much
But of course Kai has to go back to New Beijing and persuade the Bitch Queen (a.k.a Levana) to have their wedding on Luna.
Alright, this is a little of topic but I don't remember why she wore the veil over her head. I mean I read Fairest and it explained the first time she did it and all but I don't remember why she did it exactly. Does it even explain that? Damn, now I wanna know...
And now coming back to Winter...
We also get to see Scarlet!!! Like, for real; it's not every 78 pages for 2 seconds.
I used to hate Scarlet to be honest, like in her book she kinda bothered me, like she was really badass and all but it seemed like she tried to hard to not care... if you know what I mean... And with Wolf their romance was kinda over in like 2 pages, with not even a little suspense in Kai and Cinder's story or Thorne and Cress's. Ok, maybe a little too much for those four but still, when it finally happened it really made it worth the wait. Like really worth it. But Scarlet and Wolf: it wasn't drawn out enough.
But I still love them.
And I really respected Scarlet in this book, she redeemed herself by helping Winter, and the mutant soldiers wolf things.
Now Cress and Thorne: they, as a couple, are my favorite. like I love concert and Kai but Cress and throne just makes me so happy. But apparently I was just a little too happy at the end of Cress when they have the whole kiss on the the top the roof and its amazing and theres fireworks, I thought that that whole scene was them not being friends anymore but in Winter, I guess I'm proven wrong!!
Damn it! Now I'm angry.
Okay, anyways, at least they end up together in the end, the sen where they are in the castle was fantastic and then when Cress is in the hospital just makes me smile.
Over all my favorite part is either when Cinder kills the bitch queen or the very end when Kai is all "would you consider becoming an empress sometime?" and Cinder in response says "yeah, sure." But I loved it and there are so many more things that happened (it's 830 pages, a lot of shit went down) but I really can't write more about it unless this post becomes like 10000000 words long and then it gets boring and blah blah blah... but anyways
I loved it so much...
See ya!
Olivia

Real or Not Real?

So I am really really lazy and started to write this post 2 weeks ago and finished it about 2 minutes ago so were just gonna pretend its December 17th.

----

It has been over a month since Winter came out and I am on page 100... out of 827... I am disappointed in myself.

But its not my fault!! (entirely) Winter break starts like today so I've been busy with school and papers and school and science teachers who are out for my blood and school and this one person in particular who is so so so sweet but because of this person, I'm having problems concentrating on anything else! So I'm busy...

But I am literally going to force my self to finish that god damn book before the year ends... in 15 days....  We'll see what happens.

But needless to say I can not wait for break, I am so unbelievably done with school and assignments and tests, its like  no matter how much I study for them I still get a shitty grade on the ones I'm most prepared for, but do alright on the ones that I'm sure I'm gonna fail. Not complaining about that specifically, but still, I'd rather just not deal with the tests in the first place.

Okay, I'll stop talking about school, y'all, whoever you are, have heard the endless ranting before. But now I'm gonna talk about fantasy because... well... Winter. And reality too because why the hell not and no ones gonna stop me

Fantasy is not real, and never will be, because the second it is real, its reality. No matter how hard we try fantasy is fiction an  fiction is, again, not real. Thats how we know the difference between fantasy and reality. Real or not Real? Well, is there a fire breathing dragon chilling on the top of the Empire State? Probably fantasy. Your still doing homework? most likely Reality (unfortunately). Wouldn't it be nice if we could all just live in Fantasy land and then just screw reality? But reality is what makes fantasy so... amazing. Reality is when we live are real lives and then go read a really really good book or watch a really really good movie, or see a really really good play. Fantasy is new and you haven't seen or read it before and you don't know whats going to happen. The fact that it isn't reality makes that story so much more interesting. 

j-blockbuster

Take the Great Depression for example: life sucked, reality, for just about everyone in America sucked. With a poverty rate of 25% for the whole country, life was really really bad (to say the least). Believe it or not, motion pictures became quite popular around this time because, well I think, because it gave people a distraction from their reality. So your average family at the time would spend most of their day at home, the husband may go look for a job at some point, maybe he's lucky enough to still have one. He'd come home to his wife who's depressed and starving, the kids who are sitting around sad and bored, and they'd all realize that this is their pretty shitty reality. So he takes his family to the new found cinema down the street to see a movie. They pay their 18 cents for a ticket (practically a fortune) so they are able to escape their reality, and for an hour and a half view a fantasy. Lets say this family is seeing a movie about a double agent that goes undercover to make sure some bomb doesn't go off (it's cliche today but not during the 30's). This family smiles and laughs for the first time in a very long time and they aren't thinking about what they are going to do after, eventually they are going to have to go back but for now, they are enjoying the story, the fantasy right in front of them. 

Or from personal experience, I remember many many times that i was doing homework and really didn't want to... at all... but this time I was being really bitchy and math was making less sense than I thought possible so I decided to take a break and read a book. Quite a surprise I know. But when I first started reading it I was in a shitty mood but soon I got like really into this book, and then I wasn't thinking about math anymore and when I finished it, I was no longer bitching at my parents and in a considerably better mood. I wished for a minute that I could just live in that world, and live the life of the main character, but then I realized that both my parents would be dead, my sister was trying to kill me, and the man I loved had some plague that was probably gonna kill him. That would be my reality...

Some fantasies aren't that bad though, I know I'm not the only one who thinks up impossible scenarios in my head and pretends its my life. But also reality doesn't always suck, I mean mine is just fine right now ;)

See ya!

Olivia

  

New York is Big

I have actually zero time to write this... 

This post is due in approximately 2 hours and I am busy so this is gonna be quick and poorly written so I apologize. 

How is this photo a thing?

Ok, for those of you who give a shit about how my life is going (yay you!) I am in New York right now which is one of my favorite places in the world. Why? I love the city so so so much and needles to say, Park City, Utah isn't exactly a city... Ok, yeah Salt Lake City is a city but let be real, its in Utah and I personally believe that Utah is boring as hell. Thats right I said it, Utah is boring and I know I live in the place with "the greatest snow on earth" but - friends I apologize for this- I don't like skiing... I'm not saying I didn't try to like it I really gave every lesson my all. But when your a 7 year old who moves from Las Vegas, Nevada where your literally burning in hell year round, to a place who's temperatures range from freezing cold to a "warm summer day" in Antartica, it's kind of hard to adapt. Every. Single. Person (minus like 4)  I know, loves to ski. (or snowboard but were not getting into that argument just yet). They're all like stupidly good at it too. I mean, they've been doing it since birth so why wouldn't they be? They could probably go to the next Winter Olympics and bring home the gold at the age of 15. I am not kidding. 

So its been established that all my friends are hard core skiers and I am...well.. not. 

This brings me back to why I love cities so much. Theres no mountains around here and frankly I've been surrounded by mountains my whole life and I honestly believe I can live without them. Here in NY theres less mountains, skiing, ridiculously athletic fetus's, and the same amount of coldness. But here theres more people and more smiles and laughs and ideas and stories and restaurants with good food, and clothes and theaters ( ;) ) and lights and cars and buildings and book stores ( ;) ). 

So in simpler terms: PC = small, NY = big. 

I like big.

New York always has something going on, from a play every night to the naked cowboy in Times Square, you’ll probably never be bored. 

As the attractive Italian waiter said to me today, “ my life is boring in Rome, So I mov to New York” his English was shit but his face sure wasn’t. 

In Park City there’s a lot of beautiful mountains, which I’ve expressed I’ve seen enough of.

I have strong feelings towards Utah…

Needless to say, I do not plan on living there for very much longer.

But New York is great, I just saw Wicked which was fantastic. I realized after working on Shrek, that there were quite a few similarities between the two, and the plays both being musicals was not one of them. The main characters both being green wasn’t one either…. (although that did occur to me much later than it should have). I started to notice the things that I feel like most people wouldn’t. Like where they put their microphones (on their forehead) and how the flying monkeys are actually able to fly ( someone puts on a harness and throws them across the stage). It was quite interesting actually to see all this. But again Wicked, and almost everything about New York  is interesting so I’m happy.

Not that any of y’all particularly care about my well being but I don’t really care…

See ya!

Olivia

 P.S. Ya’ll should just start expecting another fabulous booktuber  at the end of all these: Her name is Sasha and yes, she's fabulous

"Shrek the Musical" and Some Advice as it Relates to Theater

Well it's official, I've heard "Its's a great big beautiful world" 500 more times than the average person should hear it in a single life time. 

For those of you who are unaware, that is the opening song of “Shrek the musical” which my high school is performing and I am on the stage crew for. First of all let me just say that I love theater but I am not an aspiring actress because I can't act for shit. Second; this play is so. Much. Fun. Being apart of the stage crew, is even better.

Does anyone ever have that feeling where you all of a sudden feel like you "belong"? Like I'm not tying to be the depressed, loner, "my life is so hard", "I don't belong anywhere” high school student; what I'm talking about is on a much broader spectrum.

Let me take it back.

Nope, she's not Shrek.... Sam Bedworth

For those of you who have read my first post ever, you know I was quite a shy and awkward child. Not much has changed except that I'm not as shy, and just more awkward. But recently, I have decided that I am going to be less awkward, and try as hard as I possibly can to just not let myself be uncomfortable in situations that can seemingly lead to complete and utter embarrassment. 

I’ve learned from being apart of the production of this play, is that  things won't affect you unless YOU let it. In other words, if you are hit in the head with a rock, stabbed in the chest, or shot in the heart, you can be sure that there will be some kind of a negative affect. But if someone told you that you look like shit, it's you who decides if that comment bothers you, if it will make you cry, if it will make you feel bad about yourself. We automatically assume that when someone insults us we should feel insulted, ridiculed, or put down, but the thing is that we don't have to feel that way unless we chose too. Obviously its not nice to tell someone that they look like shit, but this is planet earth, and we are all humans who aren't very nice all of the time. 

We can be rude, vulgar, horrible creatures, but only if we choose to be. So next time someone tells you that you look like shit, turn around, smile at them, say thank you, and go get some pizza. The next time that you want to tell someone that they look like shit, realize first, do you have something against this person? Second, realize that if you are trying to hurt them for some unknown reason, that may or may not be justified, know that insults are weak, and I personally believe that they are kind of pathetic. 

So I'm not worried that people are going to insult me; I'm worried that I am going to either do or say something that will cause an unwanted effect. So I'm the one who ends up standing alone in the corner with my mouth locked shut, and my feet in the same position they’ve been in the whole time.

I worry that I’ll say the “wrong” word, walk the “wrong” way do the “wrong” thing, and feel guilty afterwards for doing absolutely nothing! But if I do the “wrong” thing, its me who chooses if I go cry in the corner about it or just laugh it off. Just last night I was talking to a new friend, and I started a conversation (this is huge for me, I am the antichrist of conversation starting). It was all going great, I didn’t stutter, laughed, this kind human talked back, but then I walked away thinking that the conversation was over, but as the stage door closes behind me I hear that he is still talking. I immediately regret walking awday and my brain decides to jump to the conclusion that this human hates me and I am consumed with uncontrollable guilt all because I walked away from a conversation the I thought had ended. But then I think, why? Why would this be a reason for them to hate me; its not like I murdered his family or chopped off his leg, I made a mistake that doesn’t need to result in me feeling guilty for the next who knows how long. I decide to not think about this minuscule mistake but think back on how I made a new friend, and I am no longer consumed with this uncontrollable guilt. 

  It might seem impossible to do this because their your feelings, and feelings happen no matter what, but what happens after you feel that little bit of regret or shame, is up to you.

Damn… when did this post turn into an advice column? Whatever, this is some inspirational shit right here so I'm gonna keep going. 

But back to that feeling of belonging; I felt it when I worked on this musical. 

While sitting back stage and singing along to literally every song, I wasn’t worried I would say, or do, or wear something that would make for an awkward situation, because everyone else is either wearing ridiculously fabulous costumes, or singing a really catchy (and honestly, slightly annoying) song. The rest of the stage crew was focused on the story being told. 

Part of why I love the theater so much is while an actor is doing their job, its all up to them, no one else. If they make the audience cry, smile, or laugh its them who choose the effect they have on the audience. On the opening night Fiona’s crown came off which could have been really bad (I remember all of our simultaneous intakes of breath as this happened), but instead of letting it fall to the ground, she grabbed it, smiled, and made the audience laugh. She chose to not let this effect the story, but to make it even better instead. 

So yes, Shrek the Musical was fantastic and while most would think it to be boring as hell to sit around and move scenery on and off the stage - don’t get me wrong it totally was at times, all of us just wanted to go home - but I have absolutely no regrets.

Well the only thing I may regret is hearing “Its a great big beautiful world” 5000000000000000000000000 times, and it will probably haunt my dreams for the rest of eternity. 

See Ya!

Olivia

P.S

This has absolutely nothing to do with this post but heres another fabulous book tuber because why the hell not. https://www.youtube.com/user/jessethereader/videos 

Its a Miracle

Its a miracle!!
I'm actually reading!!

Ok I'm reading like 5 books at once but at least I'm doing something other than homework so I'd say life is pretty good. 

I haven't actually finished any of these 5 books yet and they are probably not gonna be finished until like Thanksgiving break. But who knows, I may finish them all tomorrow; but probably no, lets not get  ahead of ourselves here.

Okay enough of that really boring intro: this week I am going ti give some descriptions about these 5 beautiful books.

The Martian By Andy Weir

So I started this like 50000 years ago and I am still only 150 pages into this 300 page book. It's not that its bad or anything, its just that - although I like to think otherwise - my life has been taken over by homework assignments and the stress of school. Also this book has a lot to do with math; I am someone who does not like math. At all. What so ever. Nope. So I take a break every now and then.

But this book is actually amazing; if yawl haven't already seen the movie then read the book AND see the movie because its actually fantastic. This book follows Mark Watney; an astronaut who was left alone on Mars after the rest of his crew decided that he had died in a really bad storm. After the rest of the crew leaves Mark is of course found not dead and he has to figure out how to survive on Mars completely alone. He thinks there is not hope, that he'll most likely die on Mars just a few days after everyone thought he died.  But of course, this book was turned into a Hollywood blockbuster, not some no budget independent film, so we can all expect a happy ending that seemed virtually impossible.
Not that I'm trashing Hollywood, those guys are fantastic.
Bottom line is go read the Martian & see the movie because Matt Damon...and a bunch of other really cool people.

Point of Retreat By Colleen Hoover

It's about time everyone here learns about my love for the fabulous Colleen Hoover.
Heres what you need to know: This lady can write like no other. Her writing style doesn't really follow any specific format, each book is different and amazing. Specifically her characters are what I read her books for. They are so cool!! I know, i know, a lot of things are "so cool!!!!!!" but there is really no other better way to convey the epic-ness that is Colleen Hoovers wonderful characters.
Point of Retreat is the second book in the Slammed series that I started back in like July. I had started the second book but then I ended up needing internet to continue reading, but while being at a Lake House in Friendship (Friendship) Wisconsin its as if I went back a couple hundred years to when internet was not a thing.  Needless to say I didn't start it till this past Sunday. This series follows Lakeyn and Will who have both recently lost their parents and now have to take care of their 11 year old siblings plus they endure many hardships along the way blah blah blah, you get the point. Needless to say its absolutely fantastic.

Anna and the French kiss by Stephanie Perkins

Ok I know, the title is pretty crappy as far as title goes but DO NOT be fooled by the cheesiest title of all time. Stephanie Perkins is actually a guinness. This one follows Ann who has been forced to move to paris to attend boarding school for her senior year of high school where she meets a bunch of really cool people and a really attractive french, British, American guy. I've read it 3 times so that should be enough convincing.

Lastly I would like to mention Winter by Stephanie Meyer, which I currently am not reading right now because of all the other books i've got going on at the moment. But this one like just came out so here is Ms. Meyer's website and the unbelievable beautiful cover

AHHHDHHG ITs SO PRETTY usatoday.com

See ya!!

Olivia