My Favorite...Music Video of 2018

Already on week three and this time, I actually had an answer as soon as I read the prompt. And then I found out the song technically came out in 2015 and I am just super late to the party.

So this week we are talking about music videos of 2018 and I have to be completely honest here. I am not a huge music video watcher nowadays. I used to be. I remember having three hours of just non-stop music videos before class in high school and I would do my makeup in the living room just to watch the new videos.

But in the age of Netflix and Hulu, I haven't really been a watcher of many music videos unless they show up on a Buzzfeed article. Maybe that should change.

So originally, I was gonna pick Russian Roulette by my absolute QUEENS, Red Velvet. I don't know how I just found this video but clearly I need to be a bigger fan because this video is like 3 years old!

But still I'm linking it because....we all need this video in our lives.

 

Lucky for me though, my queens delivered another amazing video for their song Power Up that came out this year and guys it's just so great!!



Like...can you not imagine D.Va blasting this in her Meka while she's shooting down bad guys? 

Also worth mentioning is this parody of Power Up which I just couldn't stop laughing at.




As an honorable mention, I feel like I have to shout out Ariana Grande's "God is a Woman" because it's just that good. Like, she took so much female imagery and SHE DID THAT THING.



 Okay, I'm done talking about music videos. So now it's your turn. What was your favorite music video of 2018? Let's chat about it. 

And make sure to check out Becca's post here and find some other amazing blogs and music videos!


Always, Raineedayze

How World of Warcraft Saved My LIfe

I've been thinking a lot about writing this post but it was very hard to put exactly into words everything I have been feeling. I've never really shied away from talking about my mental health, both online and IRL and lately I've been having a hell of a time dealing with my anxiety and depression.

I've talked a little bit in the past about how I've had days where I barely could get out of bad, with my house piling up against me or how I've struggled with anxiety attacks in school or at work. For me, my anxiety and depression tend to ebb and flow with severity so I can have a great couple of weeks or even months with minimal issues and then have chunks of time that are just really bad. Lately it's been one of those times, but I've been trying to cope and working to get back to a more manageable level. 

One of the things that has actually helped me cope is video games, more specifically World of Warcraft. 

I've been into WoW for years now, but I struggle a lot with playing games consistently (as evidenced in previous posts). I've had plenty of abandoned characters, never to be seen again. This time however, things just felt so different.

I had gotten off work one day and looked at my game list, scanning the same list that I've seen a bunch of times when I noticed that I hadn't played WoW in months. I opened it up, and decided to start fresh with a new character. Jonathan soon joined me with a new character as well and we just jumped in.

That night, I played for 4 - 5 hours. 

The next day, I woke up for work and felt...accomplished? I headed to work and during breaks at work, found myself looking forward to jumping on WoW later that night. Usually, although I'm grateful to be going home, I never really look forward to anything specific since I usually am just exhausted and dreading the next day.

I headed home and booted up WoW, playing for another 4 hours. 

This cycle continued for the next few weeks, and I started spending my free time at work studying guides and character wikis, trying to piece together pieces I had missed and learning about new things. I even picked up copies of the game novels and started reading them. 

I started looking forward to learning and reading more about the game at work. There between calls, I'd be taking notes and reading about different game mechanics, figuring out different ways to do things I wanted or try new things. I'd then head home and play for hours.

I even created another character to maximize playing time so I wouldn't get too far ahead of Jonathan on my main, since we were working together every night.

Having something to distract me and look forward to each day gave me more motivation. Having a passion, something to be excited about, had me managing my stress because I was focused on something bigger and better than whatever I was dealing with.

Playing also gave me a sense of accomplishment. Doing quests and seeing the rewards helped motivate me to do IRL quests (like cleaning out my house) to get IRL rewards (new figures). Having something to throw myself into and being able to spend time with Jonathan and my friends online also helped me be less inside myself. I used to just get out of work and shut myself in my room. Now, I was texting my friends again and raiding dungeons while chatting in Discord, making plans to visit each other soon.

Every day is a struggle. But World of Warcraft helped make the struggle a little bit easier to get through.




Always, Raineedayze

My Favorite...Book I Read This Summer

This month I wanted to try something new and also support my best friend Becca as she is now the host of "My Favorite", a weekly blog prompt challenge! So, if you haven't yet checked her blog out, definitely go to it as she is just so awesome and then you can also join us in this really cool blog post challenge and we can all follow and read each other's stuff and life would just be great... okay?




This week the prompt is My Favorite Book I Read This Summer. This summer I read about 27 (?) books. I am only counting June - August books even though technically "summer" began for me in May.

I think my absolute favorite book I read this summer was probably Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut.

I've always wanted to read Vonnegut and in July, I went on a pretty big binge of reading books that I had wanted to but been intimidated by. Slaughterhouse-Five was just incredible and I absolutely loved Vonnegut's writing. That book just got me in so many emotions and I just can't describe how moved I was by the book.

If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it. His writing is so lyrical but amusing while still throwing some heavy feels at you. I also know his books do tie in a bit to each other, so I'm really excited to read more of his work.

 Overall, I think it was a shoo-in for my best book of the summer and definitely one of the top books ever so I'm happy!

What was your favorite read this summer? Let's chat about it and make sure to check out Becca's original post here for the prompt list and to find other cool blogs!




Always, Raineedayze

Captain's Log: August Wrap-Up

I know every month I am surprised that the month has ended. But it's super weird that we are already in the fall. It's so surreal that this year has already held so much and it's almost over. So let's recap on August.

Deep and Dark and Dangerous by Mary Downing Hahn | Reality Check by Jen Calonita | Gone by Stacy Claflin | Held by Stacy Claflin | Over by Stacy Claflin | Annie's Baby by Beatrice Sparks | Almost Lost by Beatrice Sparks | Calling Maggie May by Beatrice Sparks | The Book of David by Beatrice Sparks | It Happened to Nancy by Beatrice Sparks | Fallout by Ellen Hopkins | The Dirty Book Club by Lisi Marrison | Push by Sapphire |

This month I read a total of 13 books. As you can tell there was a bit of a pattern with my reading this month. For some reason I was just super in the mood to read dark and PSA type stories. I have a very guilty addiction to Beatrice Sparks' books. She wrote Go Ask Alice and toted it as an anonymous diary but things were pretty shady surrounding it so I usually take her books with a grain of salt. But they are addictive and super cheesy sometimes. Also, this month I finished the Crank series by Ellen Hopkins. Jonathan was super into the books and would ask me to recap them while I read so he could enjoy them as well. Another series I read this month was the Gone series by Stacy Claflin. I actually got the first book free on Amazon last month and I read them at work. Man, they weren't excellent writing-wise but the story was again so dramatic and addicting, that I devoured the last two books in one night! 

Overall, this month's books weren't the best rating-wise, but entertaining nonetheless.

The Darkest Minds | To All the Boys I've Loved Before | Ocean's 8 | I, Tonya |

Little Witch Academia (S1) | Disenchantment | Daria | 

All the movies I saw this month were stellar. Ocean's 8 was so badass and empowering. TATBILB was amazing (I even wrote a review of it) and The Darkest Minds was really interesting. I had never read the series but it really made me want to pick up the books to see if the movie did it justice. I also saw I, Tonya this month even though I had been super against it after seeing an interview with Nancy Kerrigan done during the premiere. However, the movie was entertaining to say the least, regardless of where you stand on the actual case. Also the soundtrack was just....gold. 

As for TV, I finished Season 1 of Little  Witch Academia. I really adored the show as it kind of felt like Sailor Moon meets Harry Potter which is just a great pairing. I started watching Disenchantment which has been really good so far. I am doing another rewatch of Daria as well since sometimes I just want to cuddle with Jonathan and have something familiar on the TV.

World of Warcraft | Overwatch | Project Zomboid | Pokemon Go | 

This month I had a lot of stress pushing me down and what better way to de-stress then video games? I started getting back into WoW and it's really helped me push work and life stress away because it's kind of hard to be stressed when you are a hulking Orc woman on a quest. I also started getting back into Pokemon Go now that you can add friends and send gifts to them. I've been catching some great Pokemon with it as well and I bought a Pokemon beanie from Hot Topic this month which I wear while hunting, which totally gets me in the zone.


Other cool things this month:

- I got a full-time job. (Not super cool but money is fantastic!)
- I started drawing again!
- IGGPPCamp!!
- I finally picked up a new headset and fixed my computer issues!
- I bought the DVa Nendoroid and DVa Figma!

How was your August? Let's chat about it!



Always, Raineedayze