REVIEW | The Society

Howdy!

This month was a good month to catch up on TV shows that I’ve been meaning to watch for a while, like The Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina, Supergirl and finally The Society. I know this one came out in May, but I kind of kept dodging it because I really didn’t think I would enjoy it, but then I caved and realized I was wrong with my initial impression of it.

Backstory

The Society is a story of 200+ teens who think they are about to go off on a camping trip as part of their final field trip together before graduating from high school an making their way to various colleges. They are dropped off at main square of their hometown of West Ham, to find themselves not with their families anymore. So, what’s their first reaction to this news? Well, to have a big party of course! Afterwards they find out the hard truth of how to be an adult and survive on their own without anyone helping them.

It is up to them to either work together or create chaos. When someone ens up killed, they have to figure out how to achieve justice an protect everyone when they no longer have a police force in their wing. Everything normal teenagers take for granted on a daily basis, is being thrown in their faces to the harshest reality that they will have to rebuild what they love an move on from their childish games.

What I Really Thought

Okay, so I will try my harest to not reveal everything, but I do have a lot of thoughts so if you want to, you can just skip this section!

There were a good balance of what I like and what I didn’t like about it. I guess in a way, I half expected it to have some supernatural effect to it, which in a way it does, but I mean like a mythology beast that haunts the town or something like that. When that never happened I was kicking myself a bit because I was so iffy about the show itself. It wasn’t until the last episode that I actually started to like it more.

The things that I did like about it were things about the characters, such as their personalities and the fact that we get elements of everyday life. I think adding both the deaf and LBGTQ+ communities were great! They never shied away from the possibility of gun violence, domestic violence, mental illness, pregnancy and inexperienced childbirth being parts of the story. It is modern story of survival and it was nice to see 17-19 year old kids telling the story for once.

It was also like a test to see how much they remembered their studies too. After everything that happened with the trail of you-know-who, I immediately went into the bowels of my brain to see if there was a way that they could serve justice is by a firing squad, which is what they demonstrated on the show and I have to say, that is a very brave thing to do for many reasons. If you don’t have a way to secure your prisoners besides locking them up in wine cellars, the death penalty could be an option. A lot of people may not agree to it, but in order to show others that if you’re stupid enough to make a choice like this, this is what happens as a consequence. I hate that fact a single person had to make that type of result, but I fully agreed with that person.

Now there were some things that I didn’t like, kind of goes with the previous paragraph as the leader demands that all guns are to be taken away. I know they needed to be tested to see if they matched the bullet that killed “C” but keeping them for safe keeping really strike a nerve with me as I think this is wrong. I don’t think anybody else what do anything like that again–then maybe besides Campbell! That’s one of our biggest arguments now, whether or not to remove all firearms, but it’s like demonizing the pit bull breeds, it’s not their fault, it is the one that yields the power and in both cases people are the heart of the issue.

Lastly, I wasn’t thrilled when it was announced that instead of continuing the role of being the leader of their establishment, they held elections. I know this is another part of being an American, but considering how the season ended, I really hated the idea. The thing about having chores or living together to save resources were smart! When “H” vowed that things should be different, people should be thinking of themselves and not of the others living next door really made me angry because that’s just somebody’s ego talking and not giving a damn about what happens in the future. By the time the new season returns, we’ll see that these new rulers of West Ham were just in over their heads and chaos will really take place.

Have you watched Netflix’s “The Society” yet? What were some of your thoughts about the plot and overall story? did you enjoy it or hate it?

 

 

February Playlist

Howdy!

I was debating whether or not to actually publish this post, but I felt like I listened to too many great tunes this past month that I ended up talking myself into it anyways.

For the past three or four months I’ve had to listen to music through YouTube because unfortunately, I’ve run out of room on my laptop to keep installing Spotify. So I am just stuck with YouTube, but it isn’t a total loss though, because I’m able to look up a lot of tracks that are not available on Spotify. I’m also able to search easily and listen to playlists of other users of the site. There is one thing that I miss about Spotify and that’s my “release radar” playlist, it’s a list of recent releases of my favorite artists and bands. I am usually more excited to check it out first compared to the “new music” playlist, because it gives me a bigger variety of music that I listen to on a daily basis.

As everybody was doing the decade challenge of sharing a sort of “before and after” on their profiles of what they looked like in 2009 to what they look like nowadays. I haven’t done it, but I have been rediscovering music from the late 90’s to 2009. It’s actually become a bit of a problem, because I want to hear older music than what’s been coming out recently! It doesn’t necessarily work very well when you’re a music blogger! There has been one genre that I’ve been looking up a lot lately and that’s R&B music. I use to listen to a lot of it when I was younger, I liked the catchy lyrics and relaxed vibes of the beats. What I’ve been finding to be interesting (and scary at the same time) is that I am remembering the lyrics and what it was to make me fall in love with the song in the first place!

One thing that is difficult is not listening to both R. Kelly and Chris Brown. I’ve been trying my best to not give Chris Brown a listen anywhere for the past several years, sometimes I’m successful but there are days when I hear “With You” or “Yeah 3x” and I cave in! He does have a great voice, but it’s his actions with the various domestic abuse issues, I’ve tried to stay away as best I can. The same goes with R. Kelly too, after reading and watching testimonies of the victims of his abuse online and the documentaries on Lifetime. I’ve stopped listening to “Ignition (Remix)” on the radio and I really miss it! It sucks when somebody’s actions can take away any enjoyment you’ve felt about that person, but I have to stand up for my beliefs and if that means muting their music then I’ll work on stopping it.

Here are my Top 10 songs I’ve been enjoying lately!

When I Die by ALMA
Fire Meets Fate by Ruelle
Savages by Sam Tinnesz
Goddess by Avril Lavigne
Poison & Wine by The Civil Wars
Loyal To Me by Nina Nesbitt
Gallery by Mario Vazquez
Show Stopper by Danity Kane featuring Yung Joc
Dip It Low by Christina Millian
Don’t Let Go by En Vogue

I’ve been meaning to go back to reviewing albums, but I haven’t been in the right state of mind to do anything like that right now. I do have a couple that I do want to talk about and if I have a good day in the next couple of days, I might go ahead and work on them! I have been wondering about something though. Since I’ve been wanting to listen old music, would you like me to review one of my favorite childhood or teenage albums? I actually rarely ever listened to a whole album when I was younger, so I thought I could give them another try and see how much my tastes have changed over the years. Let me know in the comments if you’d like that.

Lastly before I go, I just wanted to let you know that if you visit my Facebook page on Saturday, I’ll post five extra songs for you to check out over the weekend! Hopefully you’ll remember and like them just as much as I have been in the last few days!

So I’m curious, what do you think is the best year for music? What were listening in the month of February?

Top 11 Life Mottos To Live By

Howdy!

I’ve been thinking about writing this post for a while. It wasn’t until I saw fellow blogger, Lisa put up a post about her favorite life mottos that made me get my butt in gear to publish this!

Back in 2014, I really wanted to learn how to deal with life. I didn’t want to get started on anti-depressants, and still don’t honestly! I knew what I was doing, wasn’t the best. I had two big depression spells first was in 2010 and the other was late 2011 into early 2012 and at this point at my life, I was fine, but I always felt on edge. I remember being on the website Your Zen Life created by actress Teresa Palmer a lot. I read some of their self-love articles and they really helped me deal with some of my inner demons. I started to learn more about daily affirmations and somehow I managed how to control my patience, which still freaks out a number of my family members!

Blondie and I have adopted a similar way of using life quotes to our advantage. After she got out of a very abusive relationship, one of the things she did to help her find some comfort, was she wrote out different quotes in this small notebook she got after attending a college campus tour. We’ve decorated the back of our doors with quotes and song lyrics that really mean a lot to us in the past, and with doing this, it helped a lot because I was able to see the phrases in front of me on a daily basis and I constantly had them on my mind.

If you follow my blog’s Facebook page and been seeing the quotes I’ve posted on there for the past couple of weeks, this is the reason. Here are eleven different quotes and the stories of why I like to use them on a daily basis. Maybe some of them will inspire you to adopt them into your life.

Train your mind to see the good in every situation.

A few years ago, I found this thing on Pinterest that I was thinking about doing, and I mentioned it to my nana and somehow by the end of our visit, we ended making a promise we’d do it together. So instead of looking at your whole day and knit-picking at the negative stuff first, you’re suppose to select three good things that happened within your day and if you can find three things then you have an excuse to say it was a “good day” compared to what you usually say.

This is how I ended up finding this quote, because it was similar to the activity. After a while, you do start seeing the good in your day that maybe you didn’t before. I mean, you’re going to have bad days, but you don’t want to feel stuck in that pattern for days on end, so this is a good way to start anew.

Sometimes the best reaction, is no reaction at all.

It’s funny, this was the quote that inspired this post because as much as I like to use it on a daily basis, the one thing that it doesn’t work on is apparently basketball. Maybe it’s the papaw in me or something, but I have trained myself to not react to everything, except that!

I think the one thing that I still need to work on, is how to deal with my dad. Whenever my mom goes to work, I spend close to six hours with him and we know how to get on each other’s nerves pretty easily. And whenever he says something that I feel like I don’t need to reply back to, he will ask it anyways. So I’ve learned to select my battles and I try my best to not give him any kind of reaction at all.

Everything happens for a reason.

To a lot of a people, this will seem like a cliche quote to use, but I think it’s one of the most popular quotes ever.

Honestly I use it for probably the most random things ever! This actually comes in handy whenever I watch Jeopardy.  I’ve had a lot of things that I’ve watched on TV, mostly about art, books, food, history become categories on the show within a week later. I always find it both cool and weird whenever it happens.

Prove them wrong.

This one is just embed into my brain. I started using this one when I was very young, before it was a just a simple phrase I heard other people say out loud to me and somehow I ended up becoming that phrase. I like to prove people wrong with everything I do, it’s part of my disability vocabulary, and I still use on a daily basis.

Strive for progress than perfection.

I wish I knew about this one in school, especially when I was in elementary. As the “prove them wrong” was meant as a positive quote to say around, it also had a drawback to it. When I would take art classes, I would become this “amazement” to my teachers and the rest of the class. I was never teased for it, but I feel like I was my biggest bully to myself because as I got older, I started to really hate wanting to be perfect in whatever I did. It took many, many years to get myself out of that mindset, especially when it came to art.

You’ll do it when you’re ready.

This is a like a timeline on what’s going on throughout my life without even trying!

I think this can be taken in many ways. Right now I have a lot of ideas relating to my writer side. I want to branch out and share some of my knowledge and pieces to other websites, but I have a lot of self-doubt that comes with it. I can talk myself up to it only so far before my confidence fades. So a part of me has been writing, writing, writing as I’m trying to follow the advice of Lucy and have a different array of articles in my drafts, so when I do decide I’m truly ready, I can just pick and chose which ones to give out!

Be open to whatever happens next.

I found this quote, prior to the death of my papaw. I don’t know if this was my sign that something was coming, but I have been increasingly embracing this lesson. I think it’s a good idea, because I know you can’t prepare yourself for everything, even though I’ve become pretty good at attempting this. I usually try to say it in the mornings, and it’s been very helpful!

Perspective is everything.

Perspective really is everything to me, it keeps me grounded I think. I’m not as quick to judge things and people, thanks to this quote. I also like to use it when it comes to art too! I like trying to figure out what the artist was thinking about as they were doing the design in the first place. That’s why I usually like big canvases and abstract art!

You can’t change what’s going on around you, until you start changing what’s going on within you.

Oh, this was a new addition to my life and to this post. I found it back in mid-April, as I was scrolling through my dashboard on Pinterest! I thought it worked well with how I was dealing with life in general.

I am the one that everybody comes to for advice, or they did, and I’ve been used as distractions in the past. I’m fairly good at doing both, but it’s when people don’t want to be bothered with either situation, is when it can get a bit difficult. Now when it comes to help for myself, I’m scared to ask for it. I like my independence and hate the fact that I need extra guidance to get through life, so a part of me knows that if I want to get better, I’m going to have to accept this obstacle and basically hitch a ride and hope to God, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.

Everything is a choice.

I think this is somewhat similar to “when you’re ready” and “perspective” quotes. They all go together with the same outlook, I mostly use them for my articles. I need to remind myself that everything I do is a choice, I don’t have to conform to what other people expect me to do, and if they don’t like it, I can take that piece and send it to another person or site and hopefully they’ll be more open to allow it.

Even the nicest people have their limits.

At first, I wasn’t going to add this quote, because I didn’t think it was like the others, but the more I thought about it and I realized why I wanted to write up this post in the first place, I figured out this was one of the most perfect quote/lesson to keep in mind.

I’m a fairly nice person, I don’t have any drama with people, I get along with most of the population. I’m not racist, homophobic, or anything of that nature. I’ll never really talk about these any subjects but I do have an issue with keeping other things, like serious topics locked up and they can swirl around in my head for many, many years without being discussed and I’m very been worried that one day, I’m just going to explode because somebody’s said the wrong thing to me and I’m going say something that’ll sound insulting and that’ll just break my heart.

So, in the future you might see some very brave posts that I feel need to be talked about on here, and hopefully I won’t sound too much like an asshole. I’m just tired of keeping my opinions to myself. This is your warning I guess to what could come on this blog in the next seven and a half months!

Are there any quotes that you love and keep nearby to remind you to keep going in life? What is your favorite quote ever?

Favorite Nicholas Sparks Movies!

Howdy!

Wednesday is Valentine’s Day, so if you’re single and don’t want to associate yourself with the day as a whole, I’d be getting your essentials the day before and stay in all day long! Now for those of you who have to work or be around family and/or friends who drive you crazy about the fact that you haven’t met your “soul mate” yet, just breathe and think happy thoughts. I’d still buy one or two bottles of wine for that night just so you’re covered though.

Well, as much as I don’t believe in love at first sight, even though I’m still a sucker for both old school Disney princesses, I have decided that I needed to discuss about my love for Nicholas Spark romance movies. I know, I know!

Before I worked on this post, I decided to put up a poll on both Facebook and Twitter. I figured I’d get a big amount of feedback because I know how much these books and their movies are so lovable, however I didn’t get as many people as I thought I’d get, but everybody seems to enjoy The Notebook and The Best Of Me the most! I’ve decided on four movies to talk about today! I originally had five, but I quickly realized that I’ve actually never finished The Longest Ride. I do remember starting it, but I never made it to the middle of it. I’ll be honest I only wanted to watch it because it had both Scott Eastwood and Britt Robertson in it. I adore the two of them. Hopefully one day finish the rest of the film!

4. The Lost Song (2010) – Miley Cyrus, Liam Hemsworth, Kelly Preston, and Greg Kinnear

Since I’m not exactly into romantic movies, I definitely didn’t watch this immediately after it was released on DVD. I think I saw it after I watched both Dear John and The Lucky One since they both appear to have been released the same year! To my brain, it would have been easier to get through them all at once and when you have a younger sister with a boyfriend at the time, you are looking for hopes that you’re going to have soulmate someday soon and I think that’s how it happened!

Unfortunately, I’ve only seen it once because I honestly didn’t like it as much, I thought it reminded me too much of Hannah Montana, since Miley’s character is into music in this movie. Another thing that these movies are good at, is making me cry! And to think, I did this multiple times to myself. Anyways, since only seeing it once or twice, I don’t really remember everything that happened but I am kind of happy that Miley Cyrus met Liam Hemsworth on that movie and that they’ve been together this long! I just find that really sweet!

3. Dear John (2010) Channing Tatum, Amanda Seyfried

Surprisingly, I have very vivid memories of this movie! I got the idea to do this post because this one was playing on Starz all month long. I haven’t decided whether or not I want to watch it. Like I said, I’m pretty sure Blondie and I actually went out to the movies to see this one, I don’t remember exactly but I think she brought her friends Jayde and Jace, because they all wanted to see it too. They sat next to me while I sunk down in my seat, trying to get through this in one piece. Thankfully we all cried and were pissed off at Amanda Seyfried after it was finished, so I wasn’t too alone in my feelings!

2. The Lucky One (2012) Zac Efron, Taylor Schilling, Blythe Danner

All right, as we continue on this track, the memories are getting stronger and stronger. I definitely remember this one, although there are times where I get it confused with Charlie St. Cloud too because they both have Zac Efron and the military aspect is in it too. I also thought they both were NS movies, but I literally just found out that it isn’t so I had to leave it off of this list.

I think this one is pretty sexual, compared to the other movies, but since I’ve seen such a limited amount of Nicholas Sparks movies, I can’t necessarily say that the others are about the same even TLR is right up there too!  I did enjoy this more than Dear John though, it didn’t really irritate me as much and it was pretty sweet too, but let’s be honest I could only be saying that because Zac Efron is in it!

1. Safe Haven (2013) Josh Duhamel, Julianne Hough, Cobie Smulders

This is definitely one of my favorite movies! I didn’t see this theaters like I did with the others, but I think I did that for a reason. Since dealing with the two above and the other romance movies, I think I’ve finally learned that it’s better to watch these movies in the comfort of your own room! My mom got it for me to watch for a night, and I watched it on my laptop and I really enjoyed it. Everything about it was easy to follow, parts of it were hard to watch because this was the same year that my sister was going through her troubles with her ex-boyfriend at the time, so I had to pause through it a couple of times just to get myself time to relax.

The ending has to be my favorite part though, not because the movie was done, but the content that they added in about a certain character. I am a sucker for those moments when they leave you breathless, it doesn’t happened very often so whenever it does, the movie will be embed into my brain for the rest of my life. Of course, I cried that much harder and basically had to tell my mom that she shouldn’t watch (and she never did) but they were genuine and good tears compared to the ugly crying I did for the others!

Are you a fan of the Nicholas Sparks books or films? What is your favorite? 

 

DIY: Last Minute Pumpkin Ideas!

Hello!

We are two weeks out before Halloween (a week for those of you who will be celebrating 27th and on!) and after Monday’s post, I was really inspired to compile all of my favorite pumpkin crafts for you! I think crafting with pumpkins is a fun thing to do both as an adult and if you’re parent with young children! It’s like the seasonal coloring book you never thought you needed until later on.

For the most part, every post has a list of what you’d need and I have even done step-by-step photographs in case you get lost in my words which has happened before! I try to be very helpful in guiding you through all of the projects, some might be a little confusing and I do apologize for that. Sometimes we just made up the rules as we went along and that can be pretty fun too! You are welcome to interpret what you see into anything your heart desires as long as you enjoy what you’re doing and don’t stress about your mistakes!

• The Pumpkins – I have many versions of how to melt crayons on pumpkins but this one is visually pleasing I think. The pictures turned out beautifully, so that is the main reason why I am sharing this one instead. 
• The “America” Pumpkin – This is a clear example of a last minute pumpkin idea, my nana and I actually worked on this early November and I published the post later that month while we discussed what we were going to do for Christmas! This is probably the simplest one out of the bunch!
• Awareness Glitter Pumpkin – I decided to include this one because October is the month for two very big things: Breast Cancer and Domestic Abuse. My Great Aunt Shirley is a survivor of breast cancer and my sister is a survivor of domestic abuse. So it has a double meaning for me!
• Ophelia Pumpkin – I actually got the idea to do this after seeing it in the magazine Country Living and I guess I loved the idea so much that I ended up just doing it!
• The Punk-y Pumpkin – This one is an older post, when we didn’t have anything for our crafts yet. However we made do with a least used nail polish and a tub of silver glitter! 

I am sorry that these are the only ideas I have on my blog, I actually have more but they don’t have any good photos and I’m pretty sure my writing in general is down right awful so if you want to check the rest out, go to my search box on the top right and put in “pumpkins” and it should give you all of the posts, plus a few other Halloween inspired crafts too!

Hope you have enjoyed this post!

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