As part of my revamp of my blog, every week I’m going to update what I’ve been doing, listening to, watching, reading, etc.; this is what I’m going to call “My Recencies”! This is what I’ve done this week!
Doing
- Saturday: Here in California, we have a huge annual garlic festival in Gilroy, CA; they close streets off, organize shuttles to and from the parking lot, all for this festival. This was the third year I went, and it was super delicious as usual! I’m actually not a huge garlic fan, but who can resist garlic sausage sandwiches, garlic marinated mushrooms, garlic shrimp scampi, and trying some free garlic ice cream! There’s also tons of vendors like any other festival (not all of them have garlic related stuff). At night, my good friend Diana hosted a game night at her house, and I played Munchkin for the first time! That game was not my cup of tea, honestly; I’m more of a co-op person than a VS person, because I get way too competitive.
- Tuesday: Episode 28 of We’re The Worst Podcast was posted; Sowmya and I talked about animé. And I posted a fact page about me on this blog!
- Wednesday: There was a Beer Walk in Santana Row, a super fancy outdoor mall, so I went with my friends Julie, Ally, and Sarah! It was a ton of fun, and I’ll share some pictures soon!
- Thursday: I saw Sowmya and we went window shopping! She had to get some stuff for a party, so we wandered around Santana Row but eventually we just went to Daiso with my persuasion. Daiso is basically a Japanese dollar store, except everything is $1.50 (unless otherwise marked). I bought some cute dot stickers and hope to share the pictures soon!
Listening
Spotify
Spotify is my main music app of choice, because it lets me have a “library” and I can add artists I like and albums that I own. It’s like an online iTunes, which is what I was using before. I don’t pay for Spotify because I don’t listen to it enough offline, but maybe in the future!
Spotify helps me discover new songs, because sometimes I just need something I’ve never heard before, but is similar to artists I like. For this reason, I’ve been particularly enjoying their newest feature: Discover Weekly. It takes your Spotify likes and play history to create a list of songs that you might like. I can’t link to it, because it will just show you my list, but if you look in your playlists it should be there! Also try searching for “Discover Weekly.” Another playlist I love is “New Music Friday” for the same reason. These always update, so you never have to look anywhere else for new music. Just remember to save the song if you want to listen to it after the week is over!
Other playlists I’ve been listening to:
- Recreational Love – This is the bird and the bee’s latest album!
- This Is: Kendrick Lamar – I love Kendrick Lamar, and Spotify put together a great playlist for his birthday on June 17th.
- Indie Electronica – I listen this at work or while blogging because it’s nice noise to have in the background!
SiriusXM
I mentioned before that I bought a new car, and I’ve been listening to SiriusXM during my free trial. One of my favourite stations, and has been a big hit with my friends, is Station 10, Pop2K. It plays music from 2000 to 2009, and it just hits nostalgia hard with music from middle school, high school, and college! It’s been a couple of years since I got out of college (it’s already 2015, so it’s already been 5 years since I left New York!) so I think it’s a great station to reminisce about those years. My free trial ends tomorrow, August 1st, so I only have a day or so of it left! I definitely don’t listen to it enough to pay for it, as I just listen to it on the way to work, which is a mere 15 minute commute.
Podcasts
I’ve been listening to a ton of podcasts! I just started listening to some marketing and blogging podcasts for this blog, so you’ll see that reflected in my list.
- Editor-in-Chief – a marketing podcast about learning how to write for the digital age. I like it because it’s short and gets to the point quickly! I’ve only listened to the first couple episodes, but I like it so far!
- Hack the Entrepreneur – a business podcast where the host interviews popular entrepreneurs to get some advice and tips for the rest of us! I’ve listened to two of them, they’re pretty interesting! I’m gonna keep listening but I really like it so far!
- Hit Publish – a marketing and copywriting podcast that gives you tips on writing content better. I’ve listened to two episodes so far, they’re pretty interesting so far!
- The How They Blog Podcast – a blogging podcast where the hosts interview bloggers. I’ve listened to a bit of the first one, it sounds promising!
- The Lede – another business podcast that helps people with copywriting and marketing. I don’t think this is quite my cup of tea, but I’ve gotten good notes on it so far, and I’m willing to give it a couple more episodes before I totally give up on it.
- The Nerdist Podcast – comedian Chris Hardwick interviews people on this amazing podcast. My admiration and love for Chris Hardwick is only getting bigger. This week I listened to an old hostful episode called yeahYUH.
- Risk! – Risk is a podcast that where people tell their stories, and they’re usually side-splittingly funny or super, super sad. I’ve cried and have had to suppress a giggle during work before thanks to both of these. This week, I listened to “Live from LA Storytelling Fest” and “Scary Stories 4: Yikes!”
- Sklarbro Country – comedian duo Randy and Jason Solar talk about sports in this comedy podcast! It’s not really about sports, it’s more about pop culture, but I’m still not sure if I’m gonna keep subscribing. This week, I listened to #4 with Wayne Federman and Chris Cox.
- Spontaneanation – one of my favourite comedians, Paul F. Tompkins, hosts this combination interview and improv podcast! This week I listened to #3 A Secret Society, #4 Savannah Georgia, and #5 Mars Base 3.
- Superego – a comedy improv podcast where “doctors” present “case studies” and they’re pretty funny so far. I mean, I like it okay, but I just don’t think it’s my cup of tea. This week, I listened to Episode 2:17, Specials, The Journeymen, Episode 3:1 and Episode 3:2.
- The Thrilling Adventure Hour – a HILARIOUS podcast that’s set up like an old-time radio play and it’s just the best. My favourite story is Sparks Nevada, Marshal on Mars! I love Marc Evan Jackson! This week, I listened to numbers 109-112.
Watching
I was a little busy this week with the blog, and I spent a lot of nights hanging out with friends or Taylor, so my list is a little sparse this week!
- @midnight – another thing with Chris Hardwick! I love this fake game show so much. My favourite one from Monday to Wednesday was definitely Wednesday with Jimmy Pardo, Chris Distefano and Kurt Braunohler!
- Blue Bloods – I started rewatching this to help me sleep, because I need some noise and it’s better if it’s a show I’ve already seen before, but then I started watching it for real. Oops! I’m still on the first season this week!
- BoJack Horseman – Taylor and I gave this a try earlier this year and loved it so much! We watched the second and third episodes of season 2. I want to name a future dog Mr. Peanutbutter now!
- George Gently – a 1960s detective drama set in England. I just finished the third season this week!
Reading
I use Feedly to follow RSS feeds and blogs, and save them to Pocket for future reading! Here are a few of my favourites!
- Anything About Nothing – a wonderful webcomic about everything and anything! One of my favourite webcomics.
- Brit + Co – a great site for girls about everything from beauty to DIY to celebrity gossip to healty living! I love this site so much!
- Cute Overload – for those pick-me-ups everyone needs! I love this site so much.
- Nerdist – Chris Hardwick’s blog, which has now turned into a nerdy news and media HQ!
- What’s On Netflix – while technically a blog, this is what I read to see what got added to Netflix, and what’s about to get taken down! They also sometimes post reviews of shows, and Netflix news! Super useful!
Everything Else
- Bullet Journal – this is the planner/journal system that I use for my day-to-day life. For long term stuff, I use my phone, but for every day stuff, like dates and hanging out, I use my bullet journal!
- Duolingo – I’ve only recently got back into this, but I’m trying to relearn French, and maybe other Latin languages! What I’m really waiting for is for English to Chinese or English to Japanese, but while they’re working on that, I have a lot of European languages to learn!
- Habitica (formerly HabitRPG) – this is a geeky productivity app I use, and it is just what I need! I used different productivity apps, and none of them made it past the first month, but I’ve been using this for about six weeks now and I really love it.
- Line app – Sowmya and I communicate solely with stickers and emojis in this app. I love the stickers so much! I’m a little obsessed with the animated Big Hero 6 ones that are on there…
- Stop, Breathe & Think – this is my guided meditation app of choice right now! I love the narrator’s voice, and the pace she goes. I think my favourite one has got to be Kindness!
- Tsum Tsum – holy crap, have you played this game? And if you haven’t, what’s wrong with you? Well, you shouldn’t because it’s so addicting, every break I get at work, I play this. It uses Line, the messaging app I mentioned!
I hope you enjoyed the first installment of My Recencies! My goal is to post at least twice a week, including one My Recencies post a week, eventually leading up to at least one post a day. Eventually I want to create a banner, maybe I’ll make one this weekend. Anyway, thanks for reading, everyone! Have a great weekend!