YouTube Picks!

    Hey guys, I apologize for not posting yesterday.  I actually had to got to work!  I know, I have at least a temporary job agreement with the local comic book store, but how cool is that?!  My employment situation has been a bit up-in-the-air as of late and I'm really hoping to change that within the next week or so.  For now I'm looking forward to getting out of the house and making some much-needed cash.  I had an interview today for a big girl job that I'm really hoping I get, so fingers crossed.  This job is more in line with my educational background and I thought it went alright, but I tend to psych myself out a lot with important things like this and get really down on myself, so I'm hoping this weekend will give me a chance to relax and take it all in before I find out for sure.  That being said, I was at work pretty much all day Thursday and then when I got home I totally forgot about the blog, so whoops!  And here we are.  On to it then.

    Today we're going to discuss my favorite YouTubers that I've been loving as of late.  I've been really engaged with YouTube for a few years now and it's been a great resource for me.  It's a place where normal people can upload their own content and a select few have moved on to bigger things already.  I will say that this is only a list of channels I've been watching lately and frequently, not an entire list of my subscribers, which would be about 50 at the moment, so I obviously can't include everyone here.  I've sort of fallen out of watching most of the videos I'm subscribed to and I'm trying to make some time for a little YouTube every day.  These are some of the channels I've been loving, which include some BookTubers as well as some channels I watch regularly.  I'll provide a link to each channel in their descriptions, (the title of the channel should be highlighted, meaning it should be a different text color).

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    This is Regan and she is the vlogger behind "Peruse Project."  This is probably my favorite BookTube channel at the moment.  She is an incredible person, extremely entertaining, a little quirky, and she reminds me a lot of myself actually.  I've gotten most of my book recommendations from her as well because she's very fantasy-oriented.  Just because she bleeds high fantasy doesn't mean she doesn't like other genres.  Her book reviews and hauls are very helpful and I've enjoyed every book I've gotten based on her recommendation so far.  Definitely a good channel to check out if you're new to BookTube and want crisp and witty content.

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    I was originally drawn to this next BookTuber by her incredible channel name "Padfoot and Prongs07."  Clearly, she is a fellow Harry Potter fan and a huge nerd.  Raeleen is from Canada but the books she features on her channel can also be found in the US.  Her reviews have also been very helpful when deciding what book I will read next.  I love her energy and her enthusiasm for the books she reads or wants to read.  She is very similar to Regan in the fact that they are both a little awkward, but they make it work and they are always themselves.  I admire her so much and I think she's adorable!  We also look a lot alike I think, (especially when my hair was longer).  As my unofficial twin, I recommend her channel for all your bookish needs.

(youtube.com)

    Jesse is a different kind of character all together.  "Jessethereader" has some incredible book hauls and I'm surprised that one person can read that many books in any given month or so.  Jesse is so funny and animated when he's talking about the books he loves and he also does really great in-depth book reviews.  He's also recently started reading graphic novels and comic books, which other BookTubers have already started doing.  I think he's a great resource if you're just starting out with comics, like he is.  His recommendations mirror others found in the BookTuber community.  Overall, if you find Booktube, you not only find a great resource for book recommendations, but also a great group of friends who help each other and recommend books to each other.  I really love this YouTube community, so I hope you check it out!

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    I couldn't make a list of YouTubers I watch on a regular basis without including Grace Helbig.  Her channel has been a favorite of mine for the better part of 3 years or so.  She has done very well for herself as of late and is currently doing commercials for Marriott as well as hosting her own show on E! called the Grace Helbig Show.  She's one of the funniest people I've ever seen and I hope her success continues.  Her good friends Hannah and Mamrie Hart, (no relation), are also on my subscription list, but I definitely watch Grace the most.  She typically posts her videos every other day, so if you seem interested, I would definitely recommend her channel!

(youtube.com)

    The last YouTube channel on my list of most frequently watched is Nerdist News.  I watch this channel every day just to get my nerdy fix.  Hosted by Jessica Chobot, this channel brings you the most nerdiest news out there, including updates from your most anticipated movie sets, changes in popular TV show theories, gaming reviews and much more.  The schedule goes as follows: Nerdist News airs an episode Monday through Friday, Nerdist Play airs Tuesdays and covers gaming-related news, The Dan Cave, (my personal favorite), airs Wednesdays and has a plethora of random topics, and Because Science, which covers science-related and experimental things.  There's literally something for everyone and they are usually pretty in-depth.  Not to mention everyone is hilarious!  I go to them as my first source for news coverage because that's all I really care about.  You can also check them out on their website Nerdist.com for more Nerdist News.

    That's all I have for you guys today!  Check out those YouTube channels and if you enjoy what you find, make sure you give them a thumbs up or subscribe.  All the links should be posted above.  If you want to follow any of those YouTubers on other social media platforms, those links should be somewhere on their main channel pages.  If you have a favorite YouTube channel or like any of the ones I've posted here, let me know in the comments!  Until next time, I remain your faithful correspondent.

Starting Over

    As some of you may have noticed, I haven't been seen around here since February.  Since then I've begun to heal health-wise, (slowly but surely), started to improve my eating habits, become happily unemployed for the summer, I almost failed my internship, and I've gone on a much-needed vacation.  Needless to say there's too much to catch up on, so I'll keep this brief.
    I want to start this thing over.  I want to be better at posting here and I want to document as much as I can.  I'm not sure what this will be about yet, but I know I'm going to play to my strengths.  I'm going to be making up a schedule for the end of this week and hopefully start off on the right foot.  Instead of one large post a week, I'd prefer to do smaller ones twice a week, if I can manage.  I'll most likely be posting TV highlights, book reviews and daily life occurrences, like how I'm doing with my clean-eating plan or what's on deck for my future job.
    As I've said before, I won't promise anything, but I'm going to try to do better, at least for whoever reads this blog.  I'm hoping to open up more time in my life for my passions and writing is one of them.  So here's to turning over a new leaf and hoping that leaf gets carried away by the winds of change.  Until next time, I remain your faithful correspondent.

Updates!

  I'm back!  Sorry that took so long, but I really needed a break.  A lot has happened since the holidays, so I'll try to catch you up to speed.  I have announcements, health updates and even a review of The Bachelor so far, which I've missed terribly!  I'm also going to be updating my "Book Reviews" tab with my most recent finished novel, The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon.  At this point, I'm going to try to get back into my regular blogging routine so I don't lose my luster, so we'll see how that goes, but I'm at least going to give it a shot.  Can't hurt, right?

  First things first: health.  Not that I really need to update you all on this, but I've been doing alright.  Over the holidays I did have a serious flare up situation, (just Christmas Eve and Day mostly, you know, the important days...), in which I could barely walk and that is not an exaggeration.  My husband had to carry me around at times, (which was less than stellar and incredibly degrading), but it was all due to a lack of drugs and once I got those back I went back to "normal."  Needless to say the holidays were a lot more stressful than I had originally anticipated, but I'm glad I survived.  More recently I've been battling the ever-present virus that keeps circulating around my profession.  Working with kids has its downsides and constant exposure to various illnesses is only one of them.  I ended up catching some sort of upper respiratory virus, which was actually the flu in disguise, and gave that to my mother, who has been miserable.  We currently have at least three boxes of Puffs Plus Vicks going downstairs as well as two boxes each of DayQuil and NyQuil, among other things.  Luckily I haven't been working because of back-to-back snow days, which have picked this week to drop at least two feet of snow on us.  So I've been spending most of my time inside, in comfy pants watching Netflix, reading and working on my colloquium for my internship.

  Nice segue, self!  Right now my internship is at a stand-still.  I recently made the decision, after the holidays, to forgo teaching at the high school level in favor of having the opportunity to teach at the middle school level.  Although I'm glad to be out of my high school nightmare, I'm currently in limbo regarding my middle school placement.  It's been about two weeks at this point since I officially left my freshman and although I miss some of them, I miss being in the classroom more.  I've been trying to be as patient as I can, but it's difficult when you aren't in control and there's literally nothing you can do to speed things up.  I've been trying to keep myself busy, but I feel like I'm slowly losing my sanity.  I don't want to lose anything I've built up over the last few months.  I feel like I haven't done anything meaningful with my life in awhile and that I need to do something productive to help reaffirm my passions.  That's partially why I've been trying to read more for leisure, just so I can become a more literate English teacher, (which should be a no-brainer).  I don't want to lose the connection I have to my subject matter and I don't want to lose my excitement over the prospect of teaching my preferred age group, but it's slowly getting less bearable.  I've been trying to come up with curriculum units I could do with an imaginary class, seeing as all my other intern friends are either planning or currently teaching their solo week plans.  I feel like I'm falling behind, but not by choice, and it's frustrating.  Hopefully I hear something about where I'm going by next week, but at this point I'm not holding my breath.  I'm just hoping something happens for me so that I can continue to improve and finish strong.  I didn't realize just how close we were to the end up until a few weeks ago, but by April I'll be expected to look for jobs for next year.  By May I'll hopefully have my Masters degree and register for graduation.  My final months of university are approaching.  YIKES.

  As I said before, I have a lot more free time on my hands at the moment, so I'd like to use it accordingly to improve on and rediscover my passions.  I got a lot of books for Christmas, so I plan on trying to get through as many of them as possible and add to my collection along the way.  I've been spending a lot more time on Goodreads, updating my profile and my lists so that I can get more accurate recommendations.  I've also been watching more BookTube YouTubers to get book recommendations and to see what's out there, what's popular and what other readers are most excited about.  I was seriously considering turning my YouTube channel into a BookTube channel, but I'm still working on that.  I've determined that I really don't like being on camera, especially now that I don't look my best when I'm sick and I'm very self conscious about my appearance.  I would, however, like to continue to blog and write about books, seeing as that's my area of expertise.  I will see if I can update my tabs to include a link to my Goodreads account, but until then you can find me here.  I will try my best to keep up with this and hopefully my love of books will continue to grow.

  Lastly, we have reviews.  I have been watching this latest season of The Bachelor with much enthusiasm.  Starting with over 30 women was exhausting, but now that we're already down to 11 it feels manageable.  The most important things I took away from the first three episodes are that Ashley's are still my least favorite kind of people, Canadians are awesome, there IS such a thing as too much country, (and whiskey), muscles and competition aren't everything, and there can be more than one virgin in the house at a time.  Needless to say it's been an interesting season so far, culminating into what I believe are the three top ladies at this point: Kaitlyn, Whitney and Jade.  It's obvious that Chris has a natural connection with Kaitlyn.  She's obnoxious, care-free and ridiculously funny.  She's not afraid to get down and dirty outside or open up about her feelings.  She seems like an all-around great girl and a great fit for Chris, who seeks normalcy above all else.  She's my front runner at the moment, so I'm rooting for her.

  Jade is my second favorite, solely because of her genuine nature and girl-next-door vibe.  She's quiet, but respectful and patient, and Chris notices her anyway.  I also think they would be great together, but we'll have to see if she stands out over Kaitlyn.  Jade totally deserved that Cinderella date!  Ashely I. was getting on my nerves, complaining about her lack of pampering.  The reason the sisters chose Jade is because she doesn't normally get this sort of treatment and deserved to get some, not because she would look good in the expensive, outlandish ballroom attire.  That wasn't the point and the fact that Ashley somehow missed that makes me think she's not long for this show.  Obviously she's not right for Chris.  Those Jersey girls can't be trusted around shiny objects...

  Whitney I'd rather not like, but I can't deny that her and Chris had a pretty rad date crashing that wedding.  Their connection is also obvious, so I'm curious to see if it will eventually outshine or succumb to Kaitlyn's or Jade's.  Next week's episode looks like we'll be seeing more drama unfold from unlikely sources, so anything is possible!  If you'd like another place to get recaps of The Bachelor, I particularly love Mel Got Served.  She's hilarious and has a unique approach to reviewing each episode.  She also does recaps of other popular reality television programs, so if you're into that, please go check her out!
  That's all I have for this week.  I think that's enough actually...  If I'm still not doing anything next week, I should be able to upload my blog on time, or at least at a decent time.  I'm thinking about adding one or two more shows to recap along with The Bachelor, but I'm having trouble narrowing it down.  I just started watching Agent Carter, in addition to Arrow, The Flash, Gotham and Agents of Shield, which are all returning from their mid-season finales.  I've gotten to the point where I have too many shows to watch that I've gotten behind, so I'm trying to catch up.  The Amazing Race is starting again soon, as is Vikings, which I'm very excited about, so maybe I'll leave it at that.  Let me know what you guys think and what shows you'd like recaps and/or reviews of.  Until next time, I remain your faithful correspondent.

I'm BACK!

    Hello everyone!  Welcome back!  I know I said that I would be back at the beginning of September, but a lot has been going on and I honestly haven't found the time to post until now, so I apologize.  Things have been crazy lately and I have every intention of telling you all about what's been going on with me during the last few months.

    First of all, we've started school!  I spent the last months of summer at our local summer camp and it was so much fun!  It's been about a month since school, (and my internship), officially started and I'm just now getting more comfortable and relaxed with the kids.  I'm hoping this will kind of turn into a space where I can vent and discuss my internship experience in full and maybe work through some of my problems or concerns about my teaching future.  We'll see!  So far, so good though.  I was getting worried for awhile because they still have trouble listening to me and I have problems with projection, (which I initially found hard to believe given my naturally loud voice).  As of right now, they seem to be more comfortable with me, so we'll see how that keeps up.  I'm doing a rotating seating chart to help them quell the talking and to get them to meet each other as well.  I have a few students who insist on sitting near or next to each other and that's never a good idea.  We've been slowly progressing through our short story unit and they have a test on Friday, so we'll see how that goes.  Right now I'm more concerned about their writing and grammatical issues that I will have to address at some point...  The one main thing I have been loving about my class is the emphasis on Penny Kittle and independent reading choices.  The kids have really had fun picking out and reading their own books, and, even though this is a new curriculum for everyone, I think they're getting the hang of it.  So for now, that's what I've been doing in school, with plenty more to come.

    Part of my internship is a weekly seminar, which is a space where the interns can vent and voice their aggressions with the rest of the group.  It's been awesome so far to hear all the other stories from other departments.  I'm the only English intern, so I've felt sort of secluded from everyone else here at the school.  It's nice to talk and discuss with other like-minded college grads.  Our internship coordinator is pretty cool too I guess.  He's been more than a huge help, especially lately, so I will have to remember to get him a card as a thank you at the end of all this.  Especially if he helps me find a job too.  I will most likely post my blog entries every week after seminar on Thursdays because I still want it to be during the week so I can talk education, but I don't want to feel overwhelmed or pressured by it, so I'll try that out for next week.  I know it's Tuesday, but I have some downtime between periods so I figured what the heck.

    Now for the bad...  As you know, I've been struggling with random severe flares from my Lupus ever since last summer.  Lately, they have escalated to the point where I've had to seek alternative treatment back at Massachusetts General Hospital.  This summer, though very enjoyable, was also very tumultuous in the sense that I was very sick for most of the three months I worked and had to take some time off to recuperate.  I'm not the type of person to take time off because of sickness or anything like that, even though I probably should sometimes.  With the internship now, I have more flexibility and if I need to, I can take some time for myself and my health.  I've already had the discussion with my coordinator and my cooperating teacher and they are both on board with me getting my health back on track.  Last night was especially difficult for me...  In the last 13 years, I can never remember crying or getting emotionally upset over the pain I have.  Last night was the first time I just broke down and let all of my frustration out.  I could barely move and I'm actually surprised I made it to my apartment alone.  My left leg hurt so bad I had to physically lift it into and out of my car with my own arms, which also hurt a great deal, (obviously a little less than my leg).  It's gotten to the point where I'm literally sick and tired of feeling like this.  I've never had a flare last THIS long.  It's scary to think how badly this has progressed over the last year.  It makes me fearful of my future and what's to come.  On top of my body shutting down, I've also developed the butterfly rash on my face, been having trouble breathing due to my pericarditis, and had a resurgence of kidney problems that I'm currently working on with both my primary Rheumatologist and the clinical doctor at Mass Gen.  I'm hoping to get in to see a kidney doctor this week before I go back to Boston for my follow up a week from today.  I'm hoping to get this sorted out soon so I can finally have some relief.  I have found solace in a support group known as the "Spoonies," who are other people with chronic illnesses.  They call themselves "spoonies" because of a blog written by Christine Miserandino called "The Spoon Theory."  She writes about her experiences trying to explain how her illness works to her friend and the results are astounding.  It is a great piece of writing and I'll link it here.  I totally recommend it to anyone who wants to know more about chronic illness.

    That's basically it for me.  As far as TV goes, I'll try to keep my reviews to a minimum, but my shows are all starting up again, so we'll see how that goes.  I'm currently watching Face Off, but Gotham just premiered last night and I'll be watching that with my husband probably tonight.  Also, I have been on the fence about Dancing With the Stars this season, but I might watch just in case Bethany Mota wins.  I believe the only other shows I'm waiting to start again are Castle, Bones, and The Amazing Race.  I'm thinking about adding another page to my blog just for TV reviews, so let me know what you think about that in the comments below.  I would also like to revamp my book log and let you guys know what I'm reading right now and what I think about it, kind of like what I'm doing with my students and Book Talks.  Let me know!  Until next time, I remain your faithful correspondent.