Friday Five: internet personalities, ripsters, yum

We're basically into Saturday now, but here's my Friday Five Obsessions. 
1. The Lizzie Bennet Diaries 
Whoa, a day disappeared after I discovered this. At the beginning of this week I was reveling in the magic of 200 years of Pride & Prejudice delight, and crazy-stalking everyone who tweeted about their favorite line/character/cover for Jane Austen's work. (Side note: Hard to have a favorite book, but this one is somewhere in Top Ten for me, hands down.) Anyways, in some post about the best P&P adaptions, I came across this. And I googled, and I watched. And I kept watching. And half a day was gone. But holy crap it's so good! They've done a really good job adapting the story to modern times, with vlogs, cell phones, working women, etc.

The best (worst?) thing about this obsession is that it's on-going! I get a new one every Monday and Thursday. Yesterday's about wrecked me. Relating it to the book, it's at about where Lizzie finds out Lydia has run off with Wickham - but it's modernized so that's not quite the drama. The drama is comparable to the same level of scandal we'd feel in today's world if a woman runnning away with a man had happened to us 200 years ago. But, I'll give nothing away. Just know that if you love P&P or webisodes of good shows you MUST check this out here.
 
2. askageek
I wouldn't consider myself a huge geek (I don't read comics, play video games, or understand the fascination of Doctor Who) but this guy cracks me up. Because of the fact that nerd culture is becoming a huge part of pop culture (who hasn't heard of Game of Thrones?), it's turning fantasy and superhero topics into something "cool". Anyways, the general public has questions and boy, does askageek have answers. I want to believe that he doesn't do research before answer simply because it is impressive to me that he can name all of Spiderman's girlfriends off the top of his head. 

 

I don't understand every question that he answers, but when I have a bit of nerdom knowledge (Star Wars, mainly) it seriously makes me find him attractive. And there are times when he is so serious and cynical that I enjoy his realistic pessimism. There's just something about a man who can make you laugh, you know? See his answers here.


3. Orange Mango Smoothie w/ Matcha
Let me first say I tried the Strawberry smoothie and added matcha powder and - DON'T DO IT. I love strawberry green tea, so I thought that would work, but no. So, then I tried adding matcha to the orange mango smoothie. And now, this past week my craze has been making one of these every Starbucks shift I work. It is so good. (Also, for those who don't know, matcha is ground green tea leaves. And for those who know me, you know I lurve green tea quite a bit.)  Yum.

4. Writing like Hemingway
What I mean, is drinking and writing. Haha. I have never done this, but it surprises me how many writers (specifically Hemingway) swore by doing so. I even think he's the one to thank for the "Write drunk, edit sober" quote. I haven't had anytime to do this, especially since I work basically every morning. But I keep thinking about it. And saying, "Maybe tonight..." I don't know, it's weird. I want to try and see what I come up with. Honestly, I feel like it'll be a bunch of nonsensical drivel. But, like Alice, I have too much curiosity.


5. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
The best way for me to describe this is "hipster rap". (Does that make them rapsters? Ripsters?)

I was listening to Sirius radio and heard them come on, with the catchy beat in their song "Thrift Shop", and a name like "Macklemore", I was really interested. After finding their music video, I realized how awesome these guys were. They're rapping about thrift store shopping - how great is that? I'm pretty sure I alone added at least 300 views to their youtube video views. Ha.

Friday Five: TV, quests, and these pants

Realizing I am not alone when it comes to the blogging lag, I have come across the idea to have a weekly themed post so that I at least have one a week where I have a go-to topic. The topic is my obsessions. If you know me at all (or even slightly, really) you'll know I'm a bit of an obsessive person. I want to talk the crap out of any certain thing/event/topic/whatever that currently holds my interest. It's why I watch entire shows on Netflix (with like, five seasons) in one week. It's why I go read the IMDb message boards when my friends no longer want to discuss why a certain film did a shot from a certain angle. It's why I listen to my favorite song 857 times before finding the next to put on repeat. And it's also why I get depressed when I have run out of pages of the book I'm reading to devour.

I'm obsessive. So I introduce... my Friday Five Obsessions!


1. Buckwild

Okay, wait. I know what you're thinking. I thought it too. But seriously, watch this show for ten minutes and I believe it will only take you five to realize what a gem it is. No, really. These kids are not idiots; they are not country bumpkins. In fact, the one who from commercials might appear like he still can't read (and speaks remarkably like Boomhauer from King of the Hill) is close to genius. No, really. He's a MacGyver who says some of the best philosophical things, I kid you not.

And, yes, they're a bunch of kids who sometimes do stupid stunts or get in drunken fights. But they all seem very real. No, really. They might be a little exaggerated because the cameras are on them now, but I honestly believe they're living lives they'd be living even had MTV not offered them a contract. Try to watch this show and not laugh. Try to watch this show and not relate in some way (mainly speaking to crowd around my age). Go ahead, but you might find yourself with a new reality TV show to waste your time. Yes, really.

2.Odwalla Bars

I stumbled across these one day between classes when I hadn't eaten anything in like 78 hours (okay, maybe only like six) and I only had time to do a quick stop at the vending machine. I didn't want the chips, donuts, or gum, so I went with the bar. And damn, it was good. I got the Berries GoMega kind and have never looked back. Except recently when I no longer have access to the OU vending machines. I was desperate. A mad woman, if you will. I talked to everybody about them, I went to at least five stores, going up every aisle. It was a quest. At the beginning of this week, I found them - oh, thank God.

3. Jennifer Lawrence's SNL 

It's because I love her that I tuned in for SNL for the first time this season (after having watched almost every episode for the past seven or so years). To be honest, SNL has really gone down hill. Their political jokes are tiring, their character sketches are severely lacking, and there is likely to be one laugh from me the entire show. But, with JLaw, I thought we might just let her do her normal funny-girl thing. What. The. Heck. It was not great, and really, it wasn't even good. So this week I've been obsessively mind-writing sketches they could have done that would have killed (in my humble opinion).

I have one that addresses the JLaw vs. Meryl thing that people tried to make happen. It goes something like Meryl (Streep, in case you live under a rock) invites Jen over to show no hard feelings, build a relationship, whatever. Jen is estatic to be there, but Meryl has ideas to show Jen that no matter new vs. old, Meryl will always run the Hollywood scene. She namedrops some of the movies/roles she's done and subtly implies that she told the committee to give the Globe to Jen after seeing that her award shelf was full and needed another panel before accepting any more awards. (Lohan tweets fightin' words gossip from the window and so on, but I digress.)

Another one is a couple of tributes show up for the Hunger Games, unaware the real process and try to "outdo" the other contestants by how hungry they are. Example: "I'm so hungry, I would eat the spoiled milk from the bowl of cereal that got left in your little brother's room." Etc., etc. (Though, I will admit they did a good job making fun of poor Peeta, haha.) In conclusion, I needed a better Jen SNL, grr!

4. Writer Conferences
I'm pretty sure I've been bugging my Henery Press coworkers about this. I have never been to a writer conference and I've been hearing more and more about it, which has got me more and more pumped to go. I definitely want to go to more than one this year (provided I find the money in the wash or rob a bank) but right now I am having a particularly hard time because there are two I really want to go to at the same time.

I am on a quest to figure out which might be the best. One is the one here in Dallas, the DFWcon, which would be awesome because it would save me money and I could meet some local author/writers to get connected to. And the other is Malice, which is in Maryland (I believe) and is specified to mystery writers and will have a majority of the Henery Press authors at (so I can finally meet some face-to-face!). It is a very hard decision, and I am wanting to go with a buddy. Therefore, I've been talking constantly about people's plans and Googling exciting conference info. Sorry, you-know-who-I'm-talking-about.

5. These pants

I hate to be that person that gushes about a new fashion purchase. Who am I kidding, I don't hate that person. Because that person is me. They're Victoria's Secret yoga leggings that I bought because I'm flirting with an Aztec crisis (alert that this might be a slow-building obsession) and they're entirely that print. I do not do yoga in them. (Well, yet.) And I have not gotten crazy enough to venture out in them. (Well, yet). But I have spent the majority of this week lounging and getting stuff done in them. I swear, that's me... super productive.