Thursday, December 15, 2016

JavaScript Fun + Gilmore Girls

My day was alright. I still can't believe its the end of the year again, and yes I think I do exclaim this same sentiment every December. Haha. TIME FLIES AND YOU GOTTA TAKE LIFE BY THE REIGNS.

Javascript 30

I made use of my Github account, and finally made myself a basic website template that I can use as a base for every project. Let me tell you. Wes Bos' new series Javascript 30 is amazing. He's an engaging speaker which makes it pretty fun learning code from him. I really wanna get better at JavaScript but I guess it was pretty boring reading about data types, arrays and objects over and over again in such a bland fashion. It's more enjoyable when there's a fun little project you get to build while learning. And then you end up picking up tidbits of knowledge along the way. Since you're engrossed in a project, you don't even realise that you're expanding what you know. That's the best way to learn IMO.

I've also been watching more series on Netflix since we now have unlimited internet! Am I ever grateful that it finally got upgraded!?


Gilmore Girls

I have FINALLY got into Gilmore Girls after some of my Glee friends kept bringing it up as some kinda cult series of the 90s. As a kid, I wouldn't have understood what was going on. They banter a lot, with several pop culture references in tow with almost every conversation they have (which I would not have gotten) and the focus of the series was a bit too mature and unrelatable to me at the time.

I am liking it a lot now though! It's very female focused. You would almost say its like the opposite of the Bechdel test. The Bechdel test indicates if there is an active presence of woman in a work of fiction. All it asks is "Are there at least two women who talk to each other about something other than a man?". Well, they do talk a lot about everything! It would be very tiring to talk the way they do on the show in real life, that's for sure. How is one armed with a zillion comebacks every time? Or the perfect pop culture reference for every situation. Like damn, I wish I could roll words off the tongue like that haha.

A great companion while watching Gilmore Girls is the Gilmore Guys podcast. I've been listening to it while at work, but only if I've watched the episode in question!

Black Mirror

My boyfriend introduced me to this series called "Black Mirror". Sometimes, I'm not sure about his choices because we are generally into different genres unless its those mainstream top movies/series. So I skeptically watched an episode with him. It was really good! Yes yes, you were right.

Each episode is a different story, where the antagonist is technology. I've only watched three epsiodes so far but each of them was so jarring! I was on edge for most of the episode because the subject of technology is so personal, and to think that shitty things might happen if it goes a step too far is frightening as fuck! Almost too real.



The first episode was "Nosedive" with Bryce Dallas Howard as the main character "Lacie". It's a world where you can rate each other out of 5 every time you interact. And whatever rating you get affects you in life. This is so frightening because its a believable reality! Our social media platforms are becoming so prevalent, that what you show on your feeds could possibly dictate how people judge you as a person even though those two things can be totally removed from each other in reality. (ie. People usually post their highlights on social media and pretend their problems do not exist).

Lacie needs a rating of at least 4.5 to be able to afford renting her dream apartment. The thing is she's only 4.2 so she speaks with a consultant to get advice on how to increase her rating quickly. Long story short, it ends in turmoil. To keep a high rating, you would have to sort of live a lie. You'd have to keep living up to other people's expectations to maintain a good rating. And if you associate with people less than a certain rating, you could be ranked down too. This episode stressed me out so much, its insane. It just reminds me of society's inequalities based on your privileges. Something that is so scary especially with Trump being America's president-elect in reality. *shudder* (That is a whole other discussion) But powerful stories like these send a great message to the viewer and provoke discussion.

Plus, I am so OVER living up to other people's expectations. It's just never gonna work out. People are always gonna find something wrong with you, and those people probably aren't the ones you wanna hang out with anyways. I live in comfort knowing there are a select few who accept me while not having to change a thing. On the contrary, I do realise there are things you gotta do for survival but I don't think you have to lose yourself in the process of it all.

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Anyways, I better go to sleep because its getting late zzz. It's nice being able to articulate my thoughts into written form again.

If anyone is still here, thank you for reading! :)

Monday, December 12, 2016

Hairspray Live!

Just came back from watching Hairspray Live with my fellow gleeks! It was so much fun seeing the 2008 movie and the live event back to back.

Screenings with people from Glee are the best cos we all have no shame singing along as loud as we can!

Some thoughts from the screening:

☆ Like whoa! Jennifer Hudson's voice just blew my mind away especially in "I Know Where I've Been"

☆ On the topic on amazing voices, Kristin Chenoweth killed it too

☆ Garret Clayton was so unbelievably handsome as Link Larkin. He was totally made up to look like a young "Ken" doll hahaha

☆ I kept hearing out for Ariana Grande's voice (cos she's amazing!) but as P said, her soundcheck must not have been accurate since she was belting out in the rehearsals.

☆ I was late to our Rocky Horror screening so I missed out on the beanbags that time but DAYUM ARE THEY COMFORTABLE. To be truly honest, I was a bit hesitant to sit on one thinking "You mean, I CAN SIT ON ONE TOO!?" Haha, I have such a silly habit of thinking I don't deserve to do things, even with simple stuff like this. Doh. It was so relaxing~~

☆ I forgot how emotive the songs were. I just love musicals so much for this reason.

☆ Reminds me how much I love movies where the main character is 'supposed to be' outcasted from society but rises up above the top! Hooray for the underdog~

I really wanna belt out some songs, but my flatmate is probably sleeping right now. My favourite is "Without Love"!

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This weekend, our zine circle had a table at the Auckland Summer Zinefest. It was hardly summery with the rain pouring down like crazy! But once we got inside, it was real chill. Met a cool zinester (@peels_peels) who we were sitting next to, and ending up geeking out about Kyary Pamyu Pamyu and Grimes because it was the first time we both heard of this music playing out loud anywhere! I was so happy. It's also great hearing why people got into zines in the first place and finding kindred spirits.

As I walked around the stalls, I got more and more inspired to create a personal zine. There were all these people who shared such raw feelings and visuals in their zines. I love it. There's no restrictions or rules.

I guess the scariest thing about making a perzine is how you have to make yourself vulnerable. That is one of the things that I feel is holding me back from creating even better artworks. It's still scary to bare my soul even in a creative medium. I've had bad experiences from sharing my views. Sometimes, I feel like I have the most unpopular opinions and it stresses me out both mentally and emotionally to defend them all. I'd literally be typing and crying at the same time if I have strong views about a topic. At least with a zine, its a physical product with no comments section? Haha.

Maybe after sharing the whole truth, I will feel lighter from the emotional torment I've been pretending doesn't exist.

On the contrary, the few comics I made that I was the most embarrassed about sharing were the ones that people liked the most? It's funny how that works. Little me will just have to suck it up and post more of those!