Non-Bookish Favorites of 2019 (Part One) // from internet links to trips!

I’m in a reading slump.

This time it’s not because I’m not interested in reading or haven’t been able to start a good book (I’ve actually been reading Feed by Mira Grant on and off for the past two weeks, and I really like it so far!). Lately, I’ve been more interested in other hobbies and life things ~~(cause binge-watching TV shows is totally a hobby)~~.

¡FUN GAME! take a shot every time you read “bookish” 🥂 in this post!!

Since I haven’t been in the bookish mindset, I thought it would be fun to share some of the non-bookish things I’ve been enjoying this year. If you’re like, “ᴛʜɪs ɪs ɴᴏᴛ ᴡʜᴀᴛ ɪ sɪɢɴᴇᴅ ᴜᴘ ғᴏʀ, ʙᴇʟʟᴇ—ɪ ᴇxᴘᴇᴄᴛ ᴍᴇᴅɪᴏᴄʀᴇ, ɪʀʀᴇɢᴜʟᴀʀʟʏ–sᴄʜᴇᴅᴜʟᴇᴅ ʙᴏᴏᴋɪsʜ ᴄᴏɴᴛᴇɴᴛ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ɪ ᴄᴀɴ sᴄʀᴏʟʟ ᴘᴀsᴛ!,” then let me redirect you to My Favorite Books of 2019 (Part 1) post ~~(also, friend, that was so aggressive and unnecessary~~ 😭).

𝓵𝓲𝓷𝓴𝓼

🌱 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐖𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐁𝐨𝐱 𝐢𝐧 𝐅𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐭 – link

It’s been five years since the start of Flint’s water crisis, and residents still don’t have clean water. This video is about The Water Box, a device that can clean ten gallons of water per minute.

🌱 𝟒: 𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐀 𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐍𝐈𝐒 – link

Kina Grannis is one of the only artists I fan-girl over. On top of making great music, she has such a nice personality.

Kina is featured in this podcast episode hosted by Kate McGill (another great personality) in which they share very personal details of their life. It’s inspiring, relatable, and solidifies Kina’s place as my favorite artist.

🌱 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡 𝐨𝐟 𝐅𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 | 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐒𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐌𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐚 𝐑𝐢𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐝 𝐀𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐚 𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 – link

If there’s any Youtuber you should be subscribed to, it’s ColdFusion. ColdFusion creates videos primarily on technology, but they often crossover to topics such economics, politics, and society.

His video on The Death of Facebook | How Social Media Ripped Apart a Generation is a good example of his channel’s contents. It’s a video that sets out to illustrate the downfall of Facebook, but turns into a greater commentary on culture, civil conversation, and empathy.

𝓰𝓪𝓶𝓮𝓼

🌱 𝐑𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐨𝐱

I’ve been drafting this post for a while, as evidenced by my three week hiatus from blogging, and this 𝓰𝓪𝓶𝓮𝓼 section is the most recent addition to this post.

Get ready for some unnecessary back-story and justification for why Roblox made this list.

If you’ve read some of my previous posts, you’ll know that I studied abroad for college and just graduated a few months ago. Because of this, I’m in LDR relationships with pretty much all my friends—and LDR is hard. For a hot second after I came back home from college, I was questioning my ability to socialize and make friends ~~(to be fair though, when am I not?)~~. But then, Roblox happened.

Roblox is a mass multiplayer online (MMO) game which allows you to play a wide selection of user-built games with your friends. Many of the games resemble popular titles like Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, and even Pokemon. However, the characters and worlds have a lego-like appearance and the gameplay is overall very simple. As a result, Roblox has the connotation of being for kids ~~(which is a fair call)~~.

So, why does a group of young adults like it so much? Personally, I love the fact that it has given my friends and I a medium to interact with each other outside of sporadic texts and video calls. It’s great catching up with a pal, but those fun experiences you forge friendships and memories over is not quite the same over the phone. That’s where an online game like Roblox fills that void and gives my friends and I something to continue to bond over.

So, Roblox—it’s on this list and not going anywhere.

If you play Roblox, let me know some of your favorite games! My friends and I really enjoy Dungeon Quest and Zombie Attack 😂.

𝓶𝓾𝓼𝓲𝓬

🌱 𝐊𝐚𝐥𝐢 𝐔𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐬

𝙂𝙚𝙣𝙧𝙚: r&Bb, neo soul, pop, urbano music

🌱 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐬

𝙂𝙚𝙣𝙧𝙚: alternative/indie

🌱 𝐌𝐞𝐧 𝐈 𝐓𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐭

𝙂𝙚𝙣𝙧𝙚: electropop, indie pop, dream pop

🌱 𝐎𝐧𝐞 𝐎𝐤 𝐑𝐨𝐜𝐤

𝙂𝙚𝙣𝙧𝙚: alternative rock

🌱 𝐉𝐨𝐣𝐢

𝙂𝙚𝙣𝙧𝙚: trip hop and lo-fi

🌱 𝐖𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰

𝙂𝙚𝙣𝙧𝙚: alternative r&b

𝓼𝓱𝓸𝔀𝓼

🌱 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝟑

I feel like everyone under the sun has watched Stranger Things by now, but just in case you don’t know what it is, here is a super vague summary of it (because, no spoilers!):

Stranger Things follows a group of middle schoolers, teenagers, concerned parents, and officers as they try to uncover the secrets of the government lab located in their small town. The show is part sci-fi, part horror, part cop drama rolled into one package and wrapped neatly with 80s vibes and an A+ cast.

🌱 𝐁𝐞𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐖𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐆𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐒𝐡𝐢𝐦

Beautiful Woman Gong Shim is a playful K-Drama about a non-traditionally attractive woman trying to make it in a trendy fashion magazine company. It’s hard not to hope for the best for the lovable main character, especially as multiple romantic interests realize her inner beauty and make advances towards her.

🌱 𝐌𝐢𝐬𝐚𝐞𝐧𝐠

Misaeng is an office K-Drama that follows a 26-year old, ex-board game player who starts his first white collar job in a big trading company through a family connection and favor. He gets a lot of criticism for getting the job through nepotism, especially because he never went to college and knows next to nothing about the business. The show is slow-going at times ~~(there’s only so much action that can happen in an office)~~, but it’s inspiring to see the protagonist persist through insults and abuse to learn the company culture and apply himself to the business.

🌱 𝐋𝐮𝐜𝐢𝐟𝐞𝐫

I’ll admit that I’ve had this show on pause for a while now (and for no particular reason, I just can’t focus on one thing for too long 😅). But, for what it’s worth:

Lucifer is a very entertaining show which plays with the idea of “what if the devil left Hell?” According to this show, he would move to Los Angeles and become a Civilian Consultant to an attractive police officer. The screenwriters clearly have fun with the fact that the main character of their show is the King of Hell as there are countless of “wtf” and “is this guy okay” moments as Lucifer takes no action to hide his identity.

𝓶𝓸𝓿𝓲𝓮𝓼

🌱 𝐄𝐧𝐝𝐠𝐚𝐦𝐞

Does this even need any further explanation?

Now that I’m done with school, you can bet your bottom that I’m going to be binging years worth of Marvel content.

🌱 𝐀𝐥𝐚𝐝𝐝𝐢𝐧

Aladdin is one of my favorite movies and Will Smith is a pretty cool ~~(un-problematic~~) celebrity, so I was excited when Disney revealed they were filming a remake with Will Smith as the genie. I ended up watching the movie twice in theaters because I loved it so much, and it was one of those big-production movies that deserves to be seen on the big-screen. Will Smith definitely didn’t disappoint, and the other characters carried their weight as well. I also really liked that Jasmine played a bigger role in this movie—she was even given her own song!

𝓽𝓻𝓪𝓿𝓮𝓵

I’ve been super lucky to have had the opportunity to do a fair amount of traveling this year, and have a plethora of shots of some naturally beautiful places. Now, a photo dump❗: