going to be a hermit for a while (with computer issues :\)

I have a test next Monday that I really need to study for and lots of homework and reading to do due Thursday, so I'm probably going to be absent until then. Or I could be updating frequently as I procrastinate. Like usual. XD

We'll see. 

But probably not because my laptop has been acting really strange for the past few weeks not letting me get on the internet. It says that I'm connected to my wi-fi, but something's blocking my laptop from receiving any signal so I haven't been using my laptop lately.

When I tried to figure out what was wrong last week, a pop-up said something about my I.P. address already being used? I'm not sure; I accidentally exited out of it before I finished skimming it since I thought it was a normal spam pop-up.

I don't know. I'll try to figure out what's wrong after my test is over. Hopefully it's just something with the router instead of my laptop. I really don't want my laptop to be broken...

Shows I'm Currently Watching: Supernatural, Game of Thrones, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

It seems like my reading addiction has switched to a TV show addiction... I'm reading a lot less and watching TV shows a lot more. :\

Supernatural

I'm on the sixth season, and oh my godddd, Sam and Deannnnn. They have changed, and I keep on getting hit in the feels because of it. And Bobby! DDD:

Game of Thrones

I haven't really watched more than the first five episodes, but I definitely want to continue this series. It's definitely engaging; the characters definitely have my interest, lol.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

I've only watched the first episode, and it was okay, but I want to continue to watch at least two or three more episodes before deciding to drop it.

I want to start watching Elementary! The new season premiere was last week!

basically fall makes me want to go outside :P

I like how my week starts to unwind once it's Wednesday so that the later half of my week is less stressful unless I have a test on Friday, which rarely happens anymore for some reason, lol. And it's been so long since I've really unwound with my friends that I really missed how easy it is to just hang out and chill.

Like, we had Battle of the Bands Thursday night, and it was so relaxing and chill. I loved it. And that was because it took place outside, so I was laying on a blanket with my friend, listening to great music and enjoying everything: the weather, the music, the atmosphere, the clouds. 

I forgot how much I loved being outside during the fall, too. God, I just want to sit outside and let the sun warm me as I do my homework or read a book, it feels so great.

That's why I wanted to hangout outside when I met up with my other friend after classes on Friday, lol. We sat at tables outside and talked before just walking around campus and talking before taking a detour to the registrars to sort some things out and going to a tie-dye event at 3 before walking around some more before going to eat. It felt really great just walking outside.

Now I'm stuck inside procrastinating on doing some homework while I wait to see when I can come over to my other friend's house, lol. 

Fiction Addiction

I was trying to catch up on my bajillion YouTube subscriptions earlier, and I watched this video from danisnotonfire called "Fictional Friends." In the video, he talks about how he became addicted to a tv show and how it kind of ruled his life...

Basically, Dan's video pretty much accurately sums up how my tv addictions have taken over my life these past few months. -__-" First, my addiction was Kpop before deviating to anime for a short while before obsessing over Teen Wolf this summer, and now I'm stuck on Supernatural. I'm still not caught up with the newest season, but that's because I've only just started getting into the Supernatural fanfiction... -__-"

But yeah, you should definitely watch his video! It explains the fandom tumblr users so well, lol.

Finally Feels Like Fall

Today finally felt like fall. :D The leaves were changing colors, there was wind, and it wasn't 80 degrees. I loved it!

Even though the breeze was a little too strong to have papers out, I really wanted to do some homework outside at one of the tables on Cruz Plaza since it felt so nice. Unfortunately for me, the one time I actually felt motivated to do homework was when I didn't have any homework or any electronic devices on me to do any homework. -__-" It just figures...

But anyway, I love fall! Finally time to bring out the boots and sweaters and cardigans and beanies! I'm actually interested in getting some scarves now, too, lol. Have I finally reached hipster status after all of these years denying it? :P

Not gonna lie though, I've been extremely exhausted these past few days. I know it might be because I only got three hours of sleep Saturday night and haven't been getting more than seven hours the rest of the week, so I'm really behind on sleeping. But I wish I could get out of this unmotivated funk that seems to cling to me along with exhaustion.

...and I'm procrastinating. I need to finish reading this chapter before I goof off and sleep since we might have a pop quiz tomorrow. D:

Top Ten Tuesday: Character Names

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by the Broke and Bookish.

Top Ten Character Names I Love

1. Sebastian from The Year of Secret Assignments
2. Evie from Paranormalcy
3. Liesel from The Book Thief
4. Aria from Under the Never Sky
5. Roar from Under the Never Sky
6. Fang from The Angel Experiement
7. Chace from Catching Jordan
8. Charlotte Silvers from Past Midnight
9. Thalia Grace from The Titan's Curse
10. Tucker Avery from Unearthly

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I'm so sleep deprived and tired...

It's a good thing I did most of my homework that's due tomorrow yesterday. :P

Dusty Reads: Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

Dusty Reads is a weekly post featuring a book that has been sitting unread on my home shelf for some time.

Title: Howl's Moving Castle
Author: Diana Wynne Jones
Pages: 429
Publication: 1986
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Summary taken from goodreads:

Sophie has the great misfortune of being the eldest of three daughters, destined to fail miserably should she ever leave home to seek her fate. But when she unwittingly attracts the ire of the Witch of the Waste, Sophie finds herself under a horrid spell that transforms her into an old lady. Her only chance at breaking it lies in the ever-moving castle in the hills: the Wizard Howl's castle. To untangle the enchantment, Sophie must handle the heartless Howl, strike a bargain with a fire demon, and meet the Witch of the Waste head-on. Along the way, she discovers that there's far more to Howl—and herself—than first meets the eye.

I loved the movie adaptation, and apparently, everyone agrees that the book is just as fantastic, if not better. I think that the movie had some major differences from the book, so I won't know the exact plot when I finally get around to reading this book, which is a plus for me since I won't know what to expect.

But I'm definitely going to read this book eventually. I think what held me back in the beginning was the fact that it's the first book in a trilogy, and I owned the first and third book, so I was waiting to buy the second book before starting it before I stopped buying books once college started. That, and I wasn't ready to read the book so soon after finally watching the movie since I didn't want to deal with so many comparisons.

But one day! I will finally get around to reading this! :D

Some More Upcoming TV Shows I'm Interested In

Because my brain seems to believe that I have all the time in the world to start watching a bazillion new TV series, here are some more TV shows I'm interested in. I really doubt I'll get around to watching them until they get on Netflix though, lol.

Ground Floor
There's no summary yet, but I'm interested because it stars Skyler Astin, and I loved him in Pitched Perfect. Plus, this is supposed to be a comedy, so it can't be that bad. :P

Black Sails
It deals with pirates. Enough said. :D

Bloodline
Seems very action-y and dramatic since the families are mercenaries and killers. :D Hopefully there won't be any political struggles, because those always confuse me.

Believe
I don't know why I'm interested. I guess I'd really like to see how the relation between the girl and the prisoner develop. Obviously not in a romantic way though. :P

Gothica
It's a modern day retelling of old mythological classics that I've never bothered reading but know the general stories of! Maybe the show will influence me enough to finally read classics like I've been wanting to for years.

Super Fun Night
It has Rebel Wilson in it. It's bound to be hilariously entertaining.

Mind Games
I've been really into watching the complicated relationships between brothers this summer, and the fact that this show involves solving problems using manipulation and motivation makes it even better. It also reminds me of Criminal Minds, another TV show I've been meaning to get into.

Intelligence
The basic summary is about a Cyber Command agent who has Wi-Fi in his brain and how he has a pretty partner to keep him in line. Seems like a futuristic version of Elementary, lol, so it caught my interest.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine
This one seems like a really funny cop show unique characters. I'm expecting them to become something like a family like in Community while in the process of solving crimes. I've been really interested in crime shows lately, lol.

So yeah, I am obviously way over my head if I try to watch all of these shows as they premiere--I'm already behind because some of these series have already premiered! Who knows if I'll even try to watch any of these until the summer, lol.

Also, for all you TV fans who don't know when your favorite TV show is premiering this fall, TV Line has made this great calendar of all of the big premieres. The ones in bold are the new series. Click on the picture to enlarge.

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Was Forced to Read

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by the Broke and Bookish.

Usually, I'm the one who forces my friends to read books, not the other way around, lol. But my teachers actually made us read some pretty great books during high school, my friends know that I devour books so they usually make me read a book that they liked, and I can't avoid sparkling reviews. Okay, that's a lie; I haven't really been keeping up with my book blogs ever since Google Reader announced its shut down, but before I had my reading slump, I could never not read a gushing review. :P

Top Ten Books I Was Forced to Read

By teachers:

By friends:

By reviews:

things suck.

responsibilities suck :/

procrastinating sucks :/

dogs are adorable

I hung out with Shanice and Meethu today, which was fun.

Meethu's family had officially finished moving everything to their new house last Friday, so we went over to see it and Sophie, her puppy who has grown three times as big as the last time we saw her in the summer. She's a pyrenees, so she really grew quickly during the few months that we haven't seen her.

After finishing watching this Thai horror movie, Shanice brought her dog, Momo, over, and it was the cutest thing ever watching them interact. Even though Sophie is like, four times as big as Momo (she's a shiba inu and kind of small for her size), Sophie was still kind of afraid of Momo whenever Momo ran towards her, lol. Then they would take turns following each other around. Super cute. It makes me long to have pets around again. -__-"

I'm really sad that I didn't take any pictures, but they were running all over the backyard when they first met, lol. But here's a really cute wolf and her pups gif that I found yesterday instead. Totally irrelevant, I know. :P

Book Review: Game (Jasper Dent #2) by Barry Lyga

Title: Game (Jasper Dent #2)
Author: Barry Lyga
Pages: 528
Publication: April 16, 2013
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Summary taken from goodreads:

Billy grinned. “Oh, New York,” he whispered. “We’re gonna have so much fun.” 

I Hunt Killers introduced the world to Jazz, the son of history’s most infamous serial killer, Billy Dent. 

In an effort to prove murder didn’t run in the family, Jazz teamed with the police in the small town of Lobo’s Nod to solve a deadly case. And now, when a determined New York City detective comes knocking on Jazz’s door asking for help, he can’t say no. The Hat-Dog Killer has the Big Apple–and its police force–running scared. So Jazz and his girlfriend, Connie, hop on a plane to the big city and get swept up in a killer’s murderous game.

5 STARS - IT WAS AMAZING

MY REVIEW:

You have no idea how excited I was to get my hands on this book! After reading (and loving) I HUNT KILLERS last year, I was already dying for the sequel to come out because I thought that the cliffhanger ending of I HUNT KILLERS was bad, leaving me constantly anticipating for the sequel's release. 

I was wrong.

So wrong.

GAME's cliffhanger ending took its predecessor's ending and put it through shock therapy for a month. That's how shocking and twisted and crazy this whole book was--not just the ending. The ending was unexpected, and while some people could have seen it coming, I did not and was therefore thrown for a complete loop when I reached the last page and found out that the book was over, leaving me with ten times more questions than I started out reading the book. 

But like I said, this book is like shock therapy: there's so much craziness happening trying to figure out the big picture that you're pretty much reeling from everything, dazed and disoriented from all of the events occurring one after another. The quick pacing and back-to-back events leave both you and the characters tense, on the edge of your seats, hardly giving you a break to process everything until the end when it's over, and you're still full of questions. For such a thick book, it doesn't take long to finish it because the story's so gripping.

And the characters! I'm glad that the book was split into so many different perspectives. While I HUNT KILLERS was Jazz's show, GAMES wasn't just about him, so I was happy to see Connie and Howie's perspective too. Although they're still side characters, the two are definitely more real and important than just comic relief and the voice of reason. In GAME, you find out just how awesome Connie is, using all of those lessons Jazz taught her, and about Howie's heroics and fragility--and I can't say anymore because spoilers! D:

So if you haven't read I HUNT KILLERS yet, get to it! And if you have, GAME does not disappoint, so grab a copy when you can! 

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I'm gonna start posting only 10 pics now because 15 is so long, lol.

God I hate my Visual Communications class. I made a 65 on the midterm! And that's with a grading curve! D: I'm so unprepared for that class, and he wants us to know every little detail out of the book, it's so ridiculous! DDD:

But I finally got to meet my SNT group today, and everyone was really awesome. Such a diverse group of people, but we meshed together really well! :D We only have one required meeting left, which makes me sad. I hope that we continue to meet up after this is all over.

how is it only wednesday???

This week feels like its been forever long... 

That's probably because I've had two group projects to work on and studying to do for a midterm, but still. I feel like this week should be over already. :P

I really need to cut back on the fics and catch up in all of my classes and stop doing group projects last minute...

On the bright side, I got to hang out with Cam today! :3 I haven't seen him in weeks, lol.

Why I Like Reading Fanfiction

So the other day, I just finished reading an actual book for the first time in a long while (manga does not count, lol), and it made me realize why I like reading fanfics so much.

Like I've said many times before, I like reading fanfics because they're short and easy to read when you're on a time-crunch, when you want to read something quick during a break before continuing studying or something. But when I was started reading the book, From What I Remember by Stacy Kramer & Valerie Thomas, I realized a couple of other reasons why I like reading fanfics.

The main reason is that it's easy to get into fanfics since you already know the characters and the general plot. If the fanfics are canon, then it literally takes a paragraph or two to set up the story and get the plot going, whereas starting a new book or series requires pages and pages of lead up to get the characters fleshed out with backstories and the setting down. Don't get me wrong, I like that about books, the slow buildup and getting to know the characters and setting through their actions instead of longass info-dumps in the beginning, but sometimes, the mystery or buildup take too long for my liking or they try too hard at being mysterious that it doesn't really even make sense.

Also, even if the fanfics are in alternate universes (AU), the characters mainly retain their identities so it's not hard imagining them in different settings. And I think that's what makes fanfics so great. You can put the characters that you love so much into different settings and see how they react in that type of environment, different from anything you've read or seen in their canon verse. And people write the cutest AUs; god, I love bakery and college AUs. XD

Another main reason why I love fanfics is the fact that you get to continue seeing your favorite characters even after the book or show is over. I mean, wasn't that the reason why fanfiction was created? A lot of fans were disappointed that their series was over and wanted to somehow continue it or have their own spin to it? Some series are just too great to just be over, or they left a lot of loose ends that could be intentionally interpreted, or they have noncanon pairings that fans would love to ship (yeah, I'm looking at you Teen Wolf and Supernatural), so where else can you ship them but in fanfics and fanart? But really, fanfics are there to satisfy your cravings of your series because they legit have basically everything you can think of: other interpretations of scenes or afterwords, noncanon pairings, AUs, podfics, etc.

I had a couple of other reasons why I like reading fanfics, but I seem to have forgotten them whilst getting caught up in reading the book, lol. But these reasons are the main ones anyway. Maybe I'll write another post if I can remember them. :3