Reflections on 2013

I can’t believe today is the last day of the year!

This has been a packed year. I saw on tumblr people were posting reflections on the past year. I decided to join in and post it on my blog.

1. What did you do in 2013 that you’d never done before?
   I went to New York, that was amazing although a very short trip. I was the assistant editor for Imaginary Gardens at Pellissippi and I planned an event as well.
   

   On the Empire State Building

   

   Right before Imaginary Gardens Gala

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
   I honestly don’t remember my New Year’s Resolution for 2013.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
   Nope
4. Did anyone close to you die?
   Nope
5. What countries did you visit?
   I sadly did not visit any countries this year. Although I will be going to Japan in 2014! I will keep you posted on that!
6. What would you like to have in 2014 that you lacked in 2013?
   I would like to be less anxious and to keep my depression away. Oh I would also like to have money. Lots of money.
7. What dates from 2013 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
   -Feb. 14, 2013 Valentine’s Day.It was one of the best dates my boyfriend and I had in a long time. Between money problems, me being stressed about college.
   
   -March 10, 2013 the day I got my acceptance Letter to UT the week before I went to New York!
   -For my birthday a couple of friends surprised me and took me to The Library. A Very nice bar.
   
   -May 10, 2013 I graduated from Pellissippi. Granted the ceremony itself was underwhelming, but seeing my family and friends there, that was my favorite part.
   -Going to Walt Disney World with my family and boyfriend a week after I graduated.
   What a wonderful time.
   -Sept. 1, 2013 – Boomsday!  I had a great time hanging out with old and new friends!
   
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
   Graduating from Pellissippi State
   
   
9. What was your biggest failure?
   I really can’t recall my biggest failure. I guess that is a good thing.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
    I still deal with tendinitis in both of my knees after 3 years. Yah.
11. What was the best thing you bought?
    SIMS 3!
12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
    Pope Francis vow of poverty. I wish all priests, bishops, etc. would take this vow. 
13. Whose behavior made you appalled?
    

    I am appalled by both of them. Both of their actions and for Blurred Lines.

14. Where did most of your money go?
    College and makeup.
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
    Graduating from Pellissippi, Walt Disney World & Islands of Adventure, and Going to UT.
16. What song will always remind you of 2013?
    I CAME IN LIKE A WRECKING BALL!!!!!
17. Compared to this time last year, are you: (a) happier or sadder? (b) thinner or fatter? (c) richer or poorer?
    I am a happier and definitely poorer.
18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
    I wish I had written more and relaxed.
19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
    Procrastinate.
20. How did you spend Christmas?
    Read all about it here!
21. Did you fall in love in 2013?
    I have fallen in love with my boyfriend every day ever since I have met him back in August 2009.
22. What was your favorite TV program?
    Sleepy Hollow & Doctor Who
    
23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
    No, I don’t hate anyone. Hate is such a strong emotion and takes too much energy.
24. What was the best book you read?
    World War Z
25. What was your greatest musical discovery?
    “Let It Go” from Disney’s Frozen
26. What did you want and get?
    Basically my all my Christmas gifts.
27. What did you want and didn’t get?
    A car. Maybe someday.
28. What was your favorite film of this year?
    Frozen
    
29. What one thing made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
    Having true friends.
30. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2013?
    Comfortable and exploring my style.
31. What kept you sane?
    Friends, family, my boyfriend, and prayer. And exercising occasionally.
32. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
    Jennifer Lawrence and Anne Hathaway
    
33. What political issue stirred you the most?
    Obamacare, the Government shutdown, and the gang rape case that occurred in India.
34. Who did you miss?
    An old friend, Jessica. We don’t talk as much as we used to. Our friendship has changed.
35. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2013
    It is okay to quit sometimes, it doesn’t mean I have failed and I should make a habit of it.
36. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
    I try twice as hard and I’m half as liked
    ~Some Nights by Fun

Knowing When To Quit.

This past semester I quit my first job and I dropped a class (not for the first time overall, just a first at UT). As you can imagine I don’t feel great about either decisions.

Whether you are about to quit your first job, drop a class, change careers or quit one major and switch to another; quitting is hard. At least it should be in my opinion.

Why I think quitting should be a difficult decision.

*If you have a Job/Career*

In this job economy, many people are hesitant and nervous when it comes to quitting jobs. Understandable. Many people have given up looking for jobs at this point and have just decided to go back to school or do nothing at all. The economy is in shambles., Everything is a mess. If you think things are getting better, well I will have to disagree. The rising prices of food at the grocery store and the rising gas prices say otherwise.  But, despite the economy, you have gotten to the point in your job where you can’t take it anymore.  You are sick of of the job, you want to be gone.

Consider this before quitting your job

• You signed a contract
• You have been trained
• It takes time for the company to find people to replace you
• You need to find another job in the meantime
• It’s the right (and mature thing) to not just walk out on a job.

*If you are dropping classes or switching majors*

No one wants to be in college forever (save for those students that really do and try to stay, because they are afraid/can’t handle the real world). College costs money, time, and the longer you are in it, the more you stop caring about it. Seriously, I know.

Also you want to be able to have a career, make money, and have a life. I know I do.

Things to consider before dropping a class/switching majors:

• You will probably have to start all over again next semester
• You will probably have to take more gen ed classes
• You spent (insert amount of time) preparing for that major already
• You can still pass the class if you just work hard enough and focus
• Will you get a “W” if you withdraw from classes? Will you get an F? Will you have to drop them all?

To know when to quit!

1. Affecting My (other) Classes
2. Affecting my health
3. Unhealthy Work Environment (could go with affecting my health, usually this means on a emotional/mental level. It can mean physical health as well).
4. Really Bad Management.

All of these all depend on you. I can’t tell you whether or not to quit. Everyone has their breaking point. You just have to weight the pros and cons.

Anna’s Birthday!

Saturday night was Anna’s birthday. So all 7 of us, decided to hang out in downtown Knoxville for the evening. I was the first to arrive at my friend Christina’s house around 9. Anna arrived with her guy, Mike and then Jenny came about an hour or so after. We were trying to figure out where we were going to go all the while getting ready. Doing our hair, nails, and putting on makeup all the while the guys were playing video games, specifically a new game on PS4 called Knack.

After we finished getting ready and dressed(around 11:30) we all finally decided to go to Hanna’s Cafe in the Old City, when we got there it was packed. I was genuinely surprised by this because it is the weekend before New Years and I thought there wouldn’t be as many people cause they would want to save money for spending it on New Years, it is Christmas break and many people were away for the holidays, and it was raining, like nonstop all night. So I really thought it would be dead.

Yeah, I was completely wrong.

We went to Hanna’s and there was a pretty good crowd. We went to the one in the Old City and stayed on the first floor a little bit which composed of 80s and 90s. I always love listening and dancing to 80s and 90s. Seriously, I should have lived through the 80s because I love their music, movies, etc.  We soon migrated upstairs to dance a little bit, they play more current music on the second floor. There was this really cool with short hair dancing like no one was watching and she was awesome. She landed in a split twice on the dance floor, I mentioned to her later her splits rocked.

After we finished up over at Hanna’s we tried to see if Blackstock was open. They weren’t at all. No loss, as we than went to Sassy Ann’s. This was my first time at Sassy Ann’s and I really enjoyed it. We weren’t there long because we were all getting hungry and their kitchen was closed, but we danced and had a drink or two before we left.

Once we left we went to IHOP. We ate, talked, and I got hug from behind by a gay guy I didn’t know. That was the weirdest moment of the night.  I ordered chicken tenders and fries because I like chicken.

Our relationship in a nutshell, he says something ridiculous and I look at him with sass thinking “Are you ridiculous?”

After we were done eating we went home. It was a long night Chris and I didn’t get home until 4:30 in the morning and we had to get up in a few hours for church. Still though I had a lot of fun this weekend.

What did you do over this past weekend?

 

 

A First for the New Year

I know many find this strange, but for the first time as long as I can remember I feel hope. I feel hope for the New Year.

It is really a strange feeling, hope. A nice feeling too. I’m surprised that I feel this way. Living with depression and anxiety I rarely feel hope. But for some strange reason I have a lot of hope for 2014. I am not hopeful for any particular reason, just hopeful. It is a good feeling.

What are you hoping to accomplish this year? Are you hoping for something special to happen this year? Let me know in the comments below. 

New Years Resolutions

Every year people around the world begin coming up with New Year resolutions. We all know them, I will exercise more, be more organized, try to eat healthy, stick to a budget, etc.

I will try to exercise more, I will try to be more organized, and I want to be able to do a better job at sticking to a budget. But my New Years Resolution is going to be a little different.

My New Year’s resolution is that I want to work on being less critical of myself. For those that may not know I suffer from depression and anxiety.  As a result I am usually hyper critical of myself.

I am not talking about being normal critical like of you should have done that or I should be doing homework. No, I am talking about a constant barrage of critics telling me I am not good enough, I suck at homework, I need to be perfect, why can’t I be perfect, I can’t make a mistake, why do I procrastinate so much, I shouldn’t let my depression be an excuse, what’s wrong with you, why can’t you do anything right, why can’t you chill out, why can’t you be normal. What is wrong with you.

I live with this on a daily basis, I have lived with this on a daily basis since I was 12 years old. I have been dealing with this for over 10 years.

As a result it can be difficult to function on a daily basis. Whether it comes to classes, hanging out with friends, or just writing on this blog. So this year my goal is to do my best to not be as hyper critical of myself.

I really want to learn to accept the fact that I am not perfect. That it is okay to make mistakes. It won’t be easy I have been living with this going on for over 10 years.

My goal for the end of this New Year, for 2014…. is that I want to improve and not be as self critical of myself. It won’t be easy I know that, but it would be a start. I also want to try to seek some help, some professional help just to assist me get through the process. That will not be easy also, but we shall see how it goes.

So that is my New Years Resolution, what are your resolution(s) for 2014? I would love to hear them.

My Theory on Tauriel, Kili, and Legolas

This is done by EmilyEretica on deviantart.com
Click on it to go directly to her page!

Most people who are die hard Tolkein fans have had their issues with Tauriel being thrown into the movie. Before I begin I will say she is a Captain of the Guard and we are never told in the book whether it is a male elf or female elf. Seriously, just because she isn’t showing her boobs while fighting doesn’t make her less of a character. I didn’t hear people complain about how much screen time Arwen got in the Lord of the Rings trilogy even though she didn’t show up nearly as much in the books.  But enough with that discussion, onto my theory!

I am going to talk about why I think she is more vital to Legolas‘ character development.

You are probably wondering how does Kili fit into the picture. Don’t worry I will get there.

When we first see Legolas in The Hobbit he comes across as very snobbish, a nasty individual, and he is definitely not friendly towards the dwarves, he actually compares them to orcs (a huge insult by the way for some orcs are mutant elves I believe, I am not a Tolkien expert).

With the interactions that go on in the movie we can see that Legolas loves and respects both his father King Thranduil and the Captain of the Guard, Tauriel. Here we see two conflicting outlooks on life. Thranduil hates dwarves and doesn’t care about anything that doesn’t affect his people. Tauriel on the other hand believes that we should go beyond the borders and help others. She doesn’t look upon the dwarves with hatred like Thranduil does, in fact she has fallen in love with one of them.

Now back to Legolas.

We know in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy that he is not as adverse to dwarves.

If you watch the video at 1:53 you see Legolas is holding back the other elves. He is trying to stop the fight with the dwarves. He may not be happy with them, but the Legolas we saw in The Hobbit, the one that said, “I won’t hesitate to kill you, Dwarf” is gone, the hatred and anger is no longer in his eyes. So what happened to cause this?

He had a change of heart.

___________________________________

*SPOILERS BEGIN*

Seriously though this book has been out for 50 years and the 1970 animated movie has been out for about 40, so I’m really not spoiling anything at this point. Also you should just read the book.

If you don’t want to be spoiled don’t go any further.

I did warn you.

______________________________________________

Tauriel dies.

That’s right she will not live beyond the last movie in the Tolkien universe. The fact that she is never mentioned in the books is a big indicator of this. Also Kili dies (spoiler) at the end of the series, as a result we can safely assume she will die as well, maybe trying to protect the dwarf? or Legolas perhaps? Both? Although I believe it would be great if she sacrificed her life for Kili. After all an elf sacrificing their life for a dwarf; that would definitely leave an impression.  Especially on Legolas who loves, respects and admires Tauriel. There is the Battle of Five Armies, so her death will probably occur during the battle or as a result of injuries received from Battle.

Throughout the last story there will probably be more conversations between Tauriel and Legolas about her feelings for the dwarf, there may be some jealously and anger. There will probably be a rift between them until the end when the Battle occurs. Than and only than will Legolas learn and realize that fighting amongst ourselves will get nowhere, we need to be allies. We need to get along to battle the great darkness that is growing.

Since someone he loves and respects saw value in a dawrf ,of all races, than he might begin to question his thoughts (and his fathers) on not only dwarfs, but about helping others. If you truly loved someone would you disregard their opinion or would you maybe try to see life from their perspective? I think he began trying to look at life from her perspective and in the 50 years or so between the events of The Hobbit to events in The Lord of the Rings Legolas had a lot of time to grow and develop as an individual.

On a side note it would also be a great tie to the dwarves as well, an elf sacrificed her life trying to save one of the line of Durin. That is a huge deal. Even if Kili dies, the fact that she tried will leave an impression on the dwarves and maybe help them reconsider their relationship, they may still think of them as an annoyance, and be distrustful of them, but the level of hostility will decrease between the two races.

If you have any ideas or theories on the matter just let me know below in the comments.

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My Christmas!

So I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!

My Christmas was amazing! I didn’t get a lot of sleep the night before because I was working on my dad’s gift. I will tell you all about dad’s gift here.

I had a great Christmas and not because I got awesome gifts. No it was just nice to be home after my first semester at UT. Thanks to my brillant idea to send the link to my pinterest board of things I want it helped with their Christmas shopping, so I did get a lot of awesome gifts.

My family and I went to Christmas Eve Mass, had dinner, and we opened our 1 Christmas Eve Present.

My Boyfriend & I

The Manger from the Church we go to.

It’s a tradition we have been doing for almost 8 years now I believe. We had started doing it because my dad and his family used to open one present on Christmas Eve. Every Christmas Eve I get new pajamas!

I love Onesies! Go UT!

All right so here is everything I got for Christmas!

I have been wanting a bubble umbrella.

Underworld Awakening, SIMS Medieval, Sims 3 University Life, Time & Eternity with the Soundtrack CD included!

Sally Hanson Complete Salon Manicure Overcoat 620 Glare Necessities, Sally Hanson Complete Salon Manicure Overcoat 610 Over the Rainblue, Hard Candy Top Ten Eyeshadow Palette Green with Envy, Hard Candy Lip Def 588 Bashful, some Makeup from Covergirl’s Hunger Games makeup Collection- Covergirl Flamed Up Mega Curl 800 Very Black Blaze, Outlast Stay Brilliant glostinis 600 Sulfur Blaze & 640 Black Heat, and 2 of these- Nail Art 105 Tawny Flame and finally Maybelline’s Baby Lips Electro Lip Balm Pink Shock

Those Wonderful Women In Their Flying Machines” The Unknown Heroines of World War II (nonfiction) & University of Tennessee: Campus Series History books

Writing Pad, Pen, and Disney Princess Tattoo inspired cell button. I already have the Belle one on my phone 🙂

From left to right:
“It’s only forever” by Karen Hallion t shirt, Sleuth of Baker Street by Winter Artwork, and the 50th anniversary Doctor Who shirt

From left to right:
Ouran High School Host club (love that show, look it up), Harley Quinn, and another Doctor Who shirt.

Black sweatpants, red and white socks with aloe in them, batman socks with batman, robin, the joker, catwoman and harley quinn on them, tan jeggings and a tan sweater!

My neighbor gave this ornament to me. Go Tennessee!

Beauty and the Beast IPhone case. My mom got this for me from Etsy. I love it so much!

Basic Japanese CDs for my boyfriend and I from his Sister, traditionally made Japanese shoes ( I don’t know what they are called, if you know please let me know), a scarf, a wristlet purse, and the rectangle with the sea painted on is actually a mirror on the other side.

My mom says there is another gift in the mail for me that has yet to arrive so you will just have to wait for pics of that.

After we opened presents we relaxed for a few hours until the stuffing war commenced. Every year around Thanksgiving and Christmas my father and I battle it out to see who will get the first bite of stuffing. This Christmas I won! I was very happy.

Soon after the stuffing war was over we had dinner. It was excellent.

From back left to right, like you are reading a book -In the far back on the left is a cheesy cheesy broccoli casserole ( really delicious), homemade apple pie right next to it, cranberry and mandarin oranges, rolls, pepper cabbage (its northern thing), regular cranberry in the weird turkey class container, sweet potatoes, turkey in the center of the table, green beans, cole slaw, gravy, and at the corner of the photo stuffing!!!!!

It was a wonderful Christmas. I can’t believe it’s already over. I hope you had a wonderful Christmas!

What did you get for Christmas? What did you do for Christmas? Let me know in the comments below!

 

 

#BELIEVEINSHERLOCK

Sherlock is Real. Sherlock is alive #BELIEVEINSHERLOCK

While browsing on tumblr I came across a post by justonelasttrick (that reads just one last trick if you are wondering) and he came up with an idea I fully support and if you are a Sherlockian I think you should support it too.

The plan is the night before the British release of it, December 31, 2013, all day post, blog, tweet, instagram, etc. #BELIEVEINSHERLOCK.

To spread to word the fandom needs help. If you can post flyers around town, wear shirts with the phrase, etc. Do it!

I even have this image all ready for you so you can print it off and put up around town. No, I didn’t make this.

Tell everyone you know. #BELIEVEINSHERLOCK

TV Show Review: Sherlock Mini Episode

TV Show: Sherlock

Episode: Prequel to Series 3 Episode 1: Many Happy Returns

Thank you whoever thought to do this. Thank you, I needed this after my emotions were assaulted by Doctor Who. Thanks.

If you haven’t watched it by now, here you go. You’re welcome.

My thoughts  on this are very brief, for this is a mini episode.

When first watching this I was excited to see Mountain and a Buddhist Temple and once Anderson pointed out that this happened in Tibet, it reminded me how when in the Story when Sherlock came back he had mentioned he had been in Tibet with monks.

I will say I couldn’t believe the man with the beard that sounded like a conspiracy theorist was Anderson. Even though I still don’t like Anderson for what he did to Sherlock and I am sad that he lost his job, I still for sorry for him. I will definitely have to go back and rewatch the whole series and keep an eye on Anderson.

Especially when I saw his eyes when Lestrade said, I’m sorry he’s dead. Anderson’s eyes, they looked so hurt and upset. Maybe Anderson is smarter than we think and I almost wonder if he secretly admires Sherlock. My question is why did Lestrade say Anderson want Sherlock alive? Is it to apologize?

When I see John in that sparse and empty looking flat, it was haunting. You can feel the awkwardness between John and Lestrade. I felt so bad looking at John, you can tell the death of Sherlock still hurts him. When he is watching the video and the doorbell rings I almost wonder if that is when Sherlock comes in. This is John’s new place or will it be Sherlock all dressed up in a costume and reveal himself in a dramatic way.

I wonder if we will see a part of this episode in The Empty Hearse.

The Ending is what I love the best, the title of the newspaper is perfect! Oh Lestrade, if only you believed!

Can’t wait for Sherlock to come out! I wish I had BBC America and BBC One in the US.

5 stars of course, for a mini episode it was perfect! 

TV Show Review: Doctor Who Christmas Special

Doctor Who

Episode: 103 (Christmas Special)  The Time of the Doctor

Writer: Steven Moffat

Director: Jamie Payne

Producer: Marcus Wilson

———————————————————

Goodnight Raggedy Man.

Last nights Doctor Who Christmas Special left me with heartbreaks and tears for sure.

Matt Smith was my first Doctor for me and though Nine is my favorite, I have been told you never forget your first Doctor and I don’t think I will ever be able to forget him.

I don’t have BBC America and neither do my friends, so we all went to Green’s Tavern which was open on Christmas Day and having a special showing of Doctor Who. My Boyfriend and I arrived at Green’s around 7:30. I thought this ridiculously early myself, but I was proven wrong when seats were already filling up around 8:00. So for about an hour with some new friends and old friends we played Cards Against Humanity.

It eventually became too loud to play so we just watched the behind the scenes footage of Doctor Who all the while reading the subtitles, yah for subtitles!

Soon we were watching the show. Now because it is Moffat I will talk about what stuck out to me rather what I liked and didn’t like.

~My Immediate Thoughts While Watching:

• OH MY GOD! We have had Daleks, Cybermen, Silence, and Weeping Angels all in a span of 15 minutes. What the hell Moffat?!
• I would hate to live in the Town of Christmas, I would have no friends.
• The Crack is Back.
  
• What the…Don’t do this to Clara! Idiot.
• The Tardis has been gone for 300 years and you have been okay with that? I freak out when I can’t find my phone after 5 minutes.
• What I’m having feels for Handles. I’m having feels for a Cybermen’s head?!?!!? OMG! I can’t- I can’t handle this.
  

  This was the image I had when I began crying over a Cybermans head

• Wait what, I’m confused.
• We are going to see the New Doct- wait its young Matt Smith again.
• Oh great so I have to see young Matt Smith only to see him regenerate.
  
• He just asked to fly the TARDIS?!? Oh God.
• WHAT THATS THE END OF THE SHOW?!?

Honestly after the episode my brain froze than crashed like my old dell computer.

All the questions I have:

• What about him dying on Trenzalore? Does that mean he will be coming back here?
• Were all the silence on that ship? if so were they all inhabited by the Daleks? How is that even possible?
• How did the Doctor remember the silence were confessional priests?
• When were the silence inhabited by Daleks, before Clara saw them the first time or after?
• Where did The Doctor get Handles?
• What happened to the little boy who was guarding the TARDIS? I hope he didn’t die, but I got that impression.
• How many new regenerations does The Doctor now have?

I overall thought it was a great Christmas Special. It wasn’t my favorite Christmas special, but I enjoyed it immensely. Between crying over Handles, seeing Amy Pond again, and of course The Doctor regeneration I’m definitely feeling emotionally drained.

I’m still processing it, so I may be posting more about this episode later on. For now though I give it 3.5 stars out of 5. 

Hope all of you had a Great Christmas.

Happy Boxing Day and Happy St. Stephen’s Day!