PurpleMist's Life Update #2

I love this!

I haven't posted in ages... I'm not sure if I even know how to blog any more...  A lot has changed since my previous life update, so I guess its time for another one :)

The super long holiday is finally over! My university course started in late September so that's what I've been up to for the last 3 months. I'm now studying business management and marketing.

My first semester is ending soon which means I have exams coming up (starting exactly a week from now, yay -.-). I still procrastinate way too much. But it's hard to find the motivation to study when pretty much everyone I know is on holiday.

On a more positive note, I've met some lovely people and college life is surprisingly good! :D

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I shared a quote in my last life update and now I'm reading the book it was from: Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer. I fell in love with the author before even reading his work because on the dedication page. It said: For Nicole, my idea of beautiful.
Nicole is his wife. Awww.
The author truly has a way with words. Sometimes I read a sentence, pause, then go back and read it again, simply because the way it's written is too perfect.

“I like to see people reunited, I like to see people run to each other, I like the kissing and the crying, I like the impatience, the stories that the mouth can't tell fast enough, the ears that aren't big enough, the eyes that can't take in all of the change, I like the hugging, the bringing together, the end of missing someone.”

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I was in a street market when I came across a cute little stall with all this pretty vintage jewellery. After looking at the card (picture below) I realised I knew this blog because of a giveaway I entered a couple of months ago. I remembered falling in love with everything in this blogger's Etsy shop. I didn't win the giveaway so when I realised she was at the street market, I felt so happy! Below is the picture of the necklace I bought, it was so hard to pick one. If you're interested in this kind of stuff, check out her blog or etsy shop.

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HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Like most people, it's hard for me to make new years resolutions and actually stick with them. So I was glad when I came across this wonderful idea:

It's such a nice concept. Reflecting back on 2012, I can remember a lot of good things that happened, but I'm sure there are tonnes that I have forgotten already because I never thought to write them down. I think I will use this 'memory jar' not just for good things, but also to write about little moments that made me smile. I wish I had done this in 2012 so I could read and remember all the memories of things that happened.
If you guys like this idea, give it a go :)

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I wish you all the best of luck for 2013 :) And hopefully after exams I can get back to reading your blogs. Can't wait! I've missed this ♥

I like YouTube.

Two years ago, I was one of those people who only went on youtube to listen to music and maybe watch the occasional interviews or movie trailers. A lot of has changed since then! My friend, Twefrence, introduced me to a couple of youtubers and I realised this website is full of entertaining and talented people. So here's a list of some youtubers that I enjoy watching! 

AmazingPhil ~ danisnotonfire

I only started watching Phil and Dan recently. They're friends and they also live together so they often make videos together, which is great! I've spent so much time watching their videos in the past few days. 

      

Nerdz4L ~ catrific

Both of these youtubers are daily vloggers (they record their every-day life). They have separate channels for their daily vlogs: NerdzRL and morecatrific. Cassandra (Nerdz4l) is probably the only daily vlogger I'm willing to watch everyday. As for Cat, I watch her pretty often, she's also the host of the segment 'Non-Expert Advice' on TEENcom which is super cool!

     

charlieissocoollike ~ nerimon

These two are probably the first people I followed on YouTube, thanks to Twefrence. I liked Charlie because he was funny and did/talked about cool stuff in his videos. And I liked Alex for this 'Alex reads Twilight' videos. 

     

vlogbrothers ~ ItsWayPastMyBedTime

Vlogbrothers is the collab channel of brothers Hank Green and John Green. They talk about all sorts of nerdy and cool stuff in these videos and their slogan is DFTBA (don't forget to be awesome). The video below is actually their 1000th video!
I found Carrie (ItsWayPastMyBedTime) through one of Alex's videos and I'm so glad I found her channel because she's amazing. Also, I love her hair!

      

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Hope you guys watched and enjoyed some of those videos! Do you watch any of these people on YouTube? What other channels do you think I should check out? 

Also, BONUS: if you like the novel Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, or even the movie/TV-series, you should check out The Lizzie Bennet diaries! It's a modernised adaptation of the story and it's SO GOOD! 

LizzieBennet 

  

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I mentioned the book Fractured Light by Rachel McClellan in my mini reviews post and some of you were interested in it, so just letting you know that I wrote a proper review on it. Check it out if you'd like: Book Review: Fractured Light by Rachel McClellan

Annoying Facebookers #2

Seems like the 'Annoying Facebookers' post I did last year was not enough to cover all the shit that happens on Facebook, so I decided to do another one!

- People who delete statuses and comments.
Basically, they post something stupid and someone comments on it and that makes them realise how retarded it was so they delete it to save themselves the embarrassment.

- Excessive PDA. Couples who communicate via Facebook.

I honestly don't get this one. I mean, it's great that you two are happy and blah blah, but seriously, aren't relationships supposed to be more personal?
I don't get why couples these days are always writing on each others walls or dedicating personal statuses to each other. I mean, if you have something to say, I'm sure you have each others phone numbers. You can have these conversations in private instead of with the rest of the world.


- People who are fake/ attention seekers.
There are so many examples of this but the one that bugs me the most is when people write something like:
"Happy birthday mom, I love you so much, you're the best!", when they don't even have their mom added as a friend on facebook -.-
Please show your love in real life and not on a social media site just to get attention.

- People who are obsessed with their children.
There's nothing wrong with loving your kids but uploading photos of them all day and writing a status about EVERY cute or adorable thing they did that day can get kind of annoying.

- People who fish for compliments.
They upload a photo of themselves and caption it 'no comments, I know its ugly'. Well then you shouldn't have uploaded it in the first place. I usually ignore such people but if baffles me when their friends comment things like 'no way, if ur ugly then what am i?' or 'you're gorg hunny! xx'. (These are actual comments I saw on such a picture last week).

Do you guys find these things anoying too or am I just being overdramatic? :P Anything else that bugs you on Facebook?

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I finished reading The Perks Of Being A Wallflower. It was amazing, definitely the most quotable book I have read. Have you guys read it? Let me know in the comments what you thought of it! :)

“So, I guess we are who we are for alot of reasons. And maybe we'll never know most of them. But even if we don't have the power to choose where we come from, we can still choose where we go from there. We can still do things. And we can try to feel okay about them" - Stephen Chbosky

Every book does not need to be made into a movie.

Is it just me, or does it seem like every well-known book is being adapted into a movie? A lot of times when I talk about about a book I have read or want to read, the response I get is:
"Have you watched the movie version?" or "Did you know they're making it into a movie?"
To this, I have two reactions. Either I'm a) happy because I think it will be interesting to see how the plot will be adapted onto the screen OR b) confused and frustrated because people don't get that some books should be left alone.


Popular books have an already existing fan base which means higher potential profits and viewings etc, I get that. And yes, a lot of the time, the movie actually encourages people to read the book. But a bad movie adaptation can easily ruin the book. 

Movies and books are two separate things and we shouldn't be merging them together all the time. I'm not saying we should stop turning books into movies; some books are great as movies but others are better left untouched. There are certain stories which can't be captured on film as well as they're written on paper. Books are mysterious and obscure, which makes them more personal. Because how you understand or imagine the story is all up to you, so everyone who reads that book has a different experience with it.

What do you think about books being made into movies? I admit that movies like A Walk To Remember (based on a novel by Nicholas Sparks) are great, so I'm not completely biased in my opinion :P

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If you were wondering where I disappeared to, I was on a family holiday. I haven't been doing much since I came back home over a week ago. Even though there is so much stuff I need to/want to do. And one of them is catch up on your blogs, I'm always falling behind :/

PurpleMist's Life Update #1

Cupcakes make me happy.

So, as some of you may know, I'm on a pretty long holiday at the moment. 10 months, to be exact. I know it sounds like a lot but this year has passed by SO fast! I only have 3 more months until my university course starts.


The thing about having so much free time is that you're always going to worry that you're wasting it. I had a pretty long holiday two years ago and at the end of it, I regretted not doing more things during the free time that I had. The only things I did during those school-free 6 months were that I started this blog and participated in NaNoWriMo.


During this holiday, I've been trying to do as much as I can, but I still get lazy and end up wasting hours on the internet almost everyday every now and then. I want to do things worth mentioning and so far I have:
- got my driving license
- joined a volunteer program
- watched way too many movies and tv shows
- became an editor for a young writer on wattpad
- met a LOT of new people
- read some amazing books
- became part of an online writing team


I think I'm quite happy with the things I've been doing but there was a lot more stuff I wish I had done. Like, I wanted to learn photoshop and work on my novel regularly (sort out the plot, write a second draft and clear things up so when people ask me what it is about, I actually have an answer!).


Most of you don't know this but it was my birthday a few weeks ago, on the 7th of June. I was supposed to publish this post somewhere around that time but it took longer than I expected. Yes, I procrastinate THAT much.
Anyways, my brother (it happens to be HIS birthday today!) gave me an awesome birthday gift, these two books:

I had been dying to read Mitch Albom's books because a friend of mine had told me so much about them. I completed 'tuesdays with Morrie' a few days ago and gosh, I honestly think every one should read this book. And if reading isn't your thing, then watch the movie!
I can't wait to read 'the five people you meet in heaven' next.


Speaking on books and reading, I'm going to be part of a book blog tour next month. Not sure how these things work because it's my first time but I've been given a copy of the ebook which I haven't started reading yet. It's a collection of short stories by multiple authors. I will be reviewing it on this blog soon and the awesome part is that I get to interview one of the authors!

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To the person who sent an email asking me to do a life update post: thank you! I was getting lazy running out of ideas so your suggestion got me writing.
I'm not really sure what to write about in a life update post so I just ranted on about all the stuff I've been doing.


I love getting emails from followers, it still amazes me that people actually go out of their way to talk to me via email, you guys totally make my day :D

I have SO many blogs to catch up on, sorry I haven't been reading/commenting, I'll get to it asap!

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I have so much to tell you, the problem isn’t that I’m running out of time, I’m running out of room, this book is filling up, there couldn’t be enough pages, I looked around the apartment this morning for one last time and there was writing everywhere, filling the walls and mirrors, I rolled up the rugs so I could write on the floors, I’d written on the windows and around the bottles of wine we were given but never drank, I only wore short sleeves, even when it’s cold, because my arms are books too. But there’s too much to express. I’m sorry. -Jonathan Safran Foer

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I need this.

Mini Reviews: Books & Movies :)

The DUFF: Designated Ugly Fat Friend by Kody Keplinger

I liked this book better than I thought I would. At first, some of the characters pissed me off with the silly things they did and the stupid decisions they made. But as I read further into the story, I got more intrigued by how complex the plot really was and I loved how the author dealt with the issue of self-esteem amongst teenage girls.

“No matter where you go or what you do to distract yourself, reality catches up with you eventually.” 

Forget You by Jennifer Echols

Despite the fact that I was pretty much hooked after reading the first few pages and finished it in a couple of hours, I wouldn't recommend this book. Zoey's character made me want to pull my hair out and I didn't like most of the other characters because they were too one-dimensional, specially her father. This novel is character-driven so I wish it had better characters and personalities.

"I understand I can’t have you. But I want to know you’re in the world with me.”

Fractured Light by Rachel McClellan 

I almost never read fantasy novels because I prefer to read about real life and not some made up fantasy world. So I didn't think I would like this book, but I found myself actually enjoying it and completed in a few days time. There were some plot problems but overall it was a good read and I'm looking forward to reading the sequel. (I'll be writing a proper review of this book later.)

“When it comes to matters of the heart, rules don't matter.” 

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21 Jump Street (2012)

I wanted to watch this movie for two reasons:

1) I heard it's hilarious and 2) Channing Tatum is in it. 

And guess what? I loved it! I was actually laughing out loud, which doesn't happen very often during movies. I wouldn't even mind watching it again.

Chalet Girl (2011)

Honestly, the only reason I wanted to watch this movie was because the male lead was Ed Westwick (he plays Chuck Bass in Gossip Girl). It was a fun movie, not exactly as chick flick-y as I expected it to be. The actors played their roles perfectly and the story line was great. And of course, all the English accents were very attractive.

Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind (2004)

This movie was amazing. Very unique storyline and the directing  was wonderful. Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet played their roles perfectly and I fell in love with their characters just a few minutes into the movie. I still don't really know how to describe it, it was just different from anything I've ever watched, but in a good way. It showed how fragile relationships can be and how difficult it really is to run away from memories, specially the good ones. 

Makes me think of this quote by Maya Angelou:

“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” 

I didn't want to make this post too long by adding summaries, so just click on the titles to read more about the books and movies!

If you have watched/read any of these, share your opinions please :)

3 Things I Don't Like About Your Blog.

I follow a quite a lot of blogs and it gets hard to keep up so when I get the time, I try to read a week's worth of posts on my dashboard all in one go. If you haven't figured out already, that's a LOT of reading. So it takes a couple of hours and usually I don't mind because I like reading blogs just as much as I like writing them. But there are some things which kind of bother me when I'm trying to read or respond to a blog post.



1. Annoying background music.
Or any music actually. I hate when a song automatically starts playing when I open your blog. And I really hate when I can't even find where on the blog the music player is! I don't get why bloggers want to force us to listen to music that they like. I mean, what if I already have my own music playing, don't you see how annoying this could be?
Also, most of the time, I open a couple of blogs at the same time in different tabs. So when music starts playing from ONE of them, I have to check which one it is then find the player then pause it. Very inconvenient.

2. Confusing design and layout.
I don't like it when it's difficult for me to find my way around a blog. Like when I can't find old posts or the 'post a comment' link. I also don't get the point of having loads of unnecessary stuff on your blog. Sometimes it's difficult to actually read the content of the blog due to colours or small font. Also, I know people who have lots of widgets and other stuff at the sides of the page. This makes the page load super slow, which sucks for the person who actually wants to read and comment on your blog.

3. Captcha (word verification) on comments.

I know you're trying to prevent getting spam comments and whatnot but I removed the captcha on my blog a long time ago and haven't had any problems at all. I think people are more likely to comment if they don't have to bother with typing in the code. And for readers like me it's very tedious to type in code after code as I go about trying to read and comment on as many blogs as I can.


I could add more to this list but I don't think it would be fair for me to critisize the content of people's blogs because it their blog, they can write whatever they want on it and I have no right to judge them. I mean, if I don't like it or find it interesting, I just don't have to read it. That's why I don't get people who bother writing hate comments on blogs.

Anyways, what are some of your pet peeves when it comes to reading blogs?
Anything you don't like about mine?
I'd love to know!

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I recently joined the writing team at an online magazine called High School Pieces. Check out my first article on 5 Ways To Overcome Insomnia.

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I think I'm going to write a post with mini reviews of some books and movies. Because I've been reading a lot of books and watching a lot of movies recently. 

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I wrote a guest post for Albert, he's doing this really cool A-Z guest post series. I got the letter "E", so I wrote about Ed Sheeran, click here to read it :)