Drabble Geeks

Geeks…Being Total Geeks.

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Drabble Geek

I am a self proclaimed geek. My interests include reading, writing and playing video games. Oh yeah, and fangirling over my favorite shows. Follow me on Twitter at @Drabble_Geek

Just Off the Railroad Tracks

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If you can, people-watching while riding along the train can be fun. Honestly, half the time, it’s too dark to see and go through the woods, but if you’re going through a town, people-watching is fun. Honestly, that’s what I thought this book was from the first couple of pages: a people-watching simulator. I was quickly proven wrong as I got deeper into The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins.

I honestly didn’t know much about this book except the movie trailer made it sound like a thriller. Because of that, it went straight on my to-read list, only to be read now. Now, in the end, I loved the book. It kept me engaged the entire time. There was a bit of mental whiplash from the changing points of view. I was just wrapping my head around all the new information that was thrown at me, trying to fit all of the puzzle pieces together. It was also interesting in the fact that I’m pretty sure that you are not supposed to like any of the characters. As soon as I think I might like them, they would do something I would deem to be completely shady, but I suppose that was to keep you on your toes. And on my toes, I was up until the final moments.

I would highly recommend this book for anyone who loves thrillers and mysteries. Some serious topics do come up, but I think it fleshes out the characters and makes them more well-rounded. No one in this book is perfect and flaws are thoroughly on display. Just make sure to get really cozy while watching everything unravel.

Along That Yellow Brick Road Pt 8

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I’m back again to the fairytale land of Oz, and once again am wondering why. Why did I want to read all of the books of this series? Why did I make this a goal in my life? I don’t know, but I’m still going. This time I read Tik-Tok of Oz to read a story that I swear that I read before. A random girl and animal fall into the land of Oz, meets a bunch of random people and creatures, and then tries to defeat a great evil. Yeah, there is nothing new about this book. Except the random animal is a mule and the great evil is the exact same great evil from Book 3. The only thing useful in this book is the slightly more fleshed out nature of Oz, but half the time I feel that it is once again they author trying to make money off of his child audience who would have been obsessed with this series. Luckily for me, all these books are in the public domain, so I’ve paid nothing for them, or I would have gotten them from the library. I forget what book I said that you could have stopped at before, but there is no reason the read this book unless you are a completionist like me. Nothing interesting here.

Dismantling the Everything

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My original thought was to title this post “Dismantling the Patriarchy,” but let’s all be honest: we need to dismantle everything and just start over. Yes, I’m being hyperbolic and extreme, but I’m sometime just tired. I recently read the heavy anthology Everyday Sexism by Laura Bates, after her online project by the same name.

While the book was originally published in 2014, there were times reading this book where I could swear that the stories from the many others on the pages where from a month ago, if not for the fact that the sacred bird Twitter logo was on the pages. Also, in 2014, I was still in high school, if anyone was here back in those days, so I wasn’t very in the know of many of the journal articles discussed. I was too busy watching magical girl anime and procedural cop dramas and trying to survive high school. Super busy, as you can see. Even though at this point the stories are over a decade old, it was still as horrifying as if I would have opening the newspaper that morning.

Through the headache and tears, it should be a reminder of everything we have to do. No matter what you identify as, this book throws in your face things that even I try to ignore just to get through life, but it should be recognized. If you are able, and have the mental capacity to go through this heartache, I would. Figure out a way that you can make the world a little bit brighter for everyone today.

I Will Teach…

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Well, it this post, I will not be teaching you anything in this post. Look out for another post of which I may teach you something. In this post however, I will be telling you to get your finances in order. I am in my last year of graduate school, so I need to make sure I’m ready to really start adulting. I’m mean guys, I’m been on the job search grind and trying to teach myself new skills to make myself look more useful. It’s been stressful. However, since I’m getting ready to get a pay raise off of a student break, I figured it’s really time to learn to handle my money by reading I will Teach You To Be Rich by Ramit Sethi

First, a couple of disclaimers. I have previously listened to his podcasts while being on of those people who never read his books, after watching the Netflix docuseries about how other people spend their money. What can I say other than I’m sure nosy. I have been learning a lot about personal finance in the last couple of years, so while there wasn’t much “new” information for me to learn, it was interesting to learn about some to the systems that others put in the place. It was also very comforting for someone to tell me that my system can be “good enough” as a recovering perfectionist. Yes, there is probably more that I could do, but do I have to? No.

I will also admit that I don’t get Ramit’s difference between a budget and a conscious spending plan. I’ve heard him describe it a couple of times, and I just don’t get it. I’ll continue to not get it as something that works for some people since “budget” is often seen as an ugly word. Either way you look at it, you should also get your finances it order, and remember that just because the holiday season is upon us, doesn’t mean its the perfect time to get into debt.

An Entirely New World pt 5

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So……….

I’m at the fifth book of the series, with two more left to go, I think. It was struggle to get through this book. Something I mentioned in the last review, may have been slightly incorrect, as I need to consider that I’m reading the books in publication order instead of chronological order. Anyway, we do hear from a couple of our familiar characters as The Horse and His Boy takes place during the decades-long hiatus that took place during The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. However, that does not make up for the lack of anything happening.

We spend the entire time moving around Narnia as our two protagonists travel the desert and we are supposed to be convinced that they actually like each other. That, and maybe their two horses, who are want to go back to the land of which they are from since they are the only talking horses in the journey’s starting point. Honestly, I was bored the entire time, and there was no reason for this book to exist, in my current opinion, unless something happens in the next couple of books that requires what happened in this one. We can only wait and see.

~Sent from my iPhone

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Let me begin with the title of this post is honestly one of the most terrifying things a college student can get from their professor. It strikes fear in a similar way that I think this was supposed to in the piece of media that I will be reviewing today.

When it first came out, I was interested in what Baby Reindeer was about. I love a good crime drama, but I have tons of other ones that I have yet to get to. I’ll add it to the bottom of my list, I thought. That was until in my YouTube recommended feed, it said that the “real-life stalker” was being interviewed. And then I saw the video that another victim was also being interviewed. It was only until this came up when this show was moved up on my to-watch list. I also wanted to see if the complaints I was hearing were called for.

Now, Baby Reindeer deserves all of the content warnings and is not at all for the faint of heart. It is gripping and terrifying, yet at the same time, tries to explain the motivations of all the characters, even if it is stomach-turning to think about. Strike one for this fear is understanding that this is a true story, or as true as Netflix thought they could get. In most stories like this, it’s comforting since it is well known that it is fake, even if these are situations that happen in real life. There is no cognitive dissonance here. Strikes two and three, well, aren’t for the faint of heart and cannot really be mentioned here.

One thing that I did have to keep in the back of my mind here was that there was a possible lawsuit in the mix, with it apparently being too easy for people to figure out who different characters were based on. From the little information I knew beforehand, I would completely agree. The only thing I could tell they changed about one victim was their sex. Everything was exactly the same: look, occupation, location, mannerisms. Connecting the dots would have been way too easy, and changing a lot of things would probably have saved everyone a lot of headache. (I completely don’t support people trying to find these people, but the internet is going to internet.) I’m actually interested in the story as it goes from here, as there were a couple of things that were dramatized under the notion of being a true story, rather than “based on a true story.” If anyone hears about this before me, please let me know.

Jolly Good Show

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Since I’ve been on my PhD journey, I’ve gotten really into random shows that I thought I was too “old” to watch when I was younger. When your brain needs to decompress it will decompress. Now adays, I’ve gotten into some older kids cartoons that I didn’t give myself permission to watch. Well, now that I don’t care, I’ve just finished watching Regular Show. I wanted a cute little show that I didn’t necessarily have to keep track of each and every little thing and just enjoy.

Overall, I thought it was a really cute show. It wasn’t laugh-out-loud funny to me, but it kept my attention the entire time and was very amusing. My favorite story line, because it makes absolutely no sense without the context, was about the format wars. I did in fact find this absolutely hilarious, but that is a conversation for people who have watched it. Another thing that amused me is that I think you’re supposed to believe that every one is technically a person. Our main protagonists include a blue jay, racoon, a gumball machine, and a lollypop, I think, just to name a few.

Either way, the show is very episodic and there is no really through line, until the last season, which I thought that was very well done. I highly enjoyed the series, and would definitely watch again at some point.

One More Year?

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So, I am getting toward the end of my Ph.D. journey, I hope. According to my committee, they also agree. Which means that for the next academic year, I will be busy. Busy finalizing my experiments, writing my dissertation, preparing my defense, final class and degree necessities, preparing my CV, job searching, keeping my sanity, sleep, eat, and all the other things that I do on the side. I’m need to somehow get everything done and keep my boundaries to keep going. Things are going to get hectic as I’m moving onto the next section of my life. I’m going to do my best to keep up with everything, but at this point I can promise nothing. I’m just hoping that it all works out. I am also going to be venturing out into social media again as I was as “market” myself. I’m going to need all of the help I can get.

Come On, Grab Your Friends

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Recently, I’ve been having a blast watching cartoons from a couple of years ago that I didn’t get to watch. I was probably too busy watching something else, but I have finally gotten back to them. They are a great way to decompress after spending hours in the lab running experiments. This week’s addition to that list is Adventure Time.

I remember not really watching this show because it was advertised as very much episodic with no throughline. I don’t know who told me this, but if I find out, I’m going to tell them they’re a big fat liar. Moving on, this was a very enjoyable show. It was nice to wrap myself in a blanket with a cup of tea and binge-watch a season… or two. My favorite duo is definitely Princess Bubblegum and Marceline, the Vampire Queen. Their ever-evolving friendship was just enjoyable to watch. There were also some very deep episodes and plot lines, which are always surprising to watch in a children’s show. If you look past the surface for this supposedly silly show, there is a lot going on, and I think anyone would enjoy this. I just enjoyed every minute of watching it.

How Does It Hold Up: The Lost World: Jurassic Park II

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I’m back after watching another part of a series movie that was a core memory of some people’s childhood. I did watch movies with dinosaurs in them, they just never included humans. I may have just been busy watching cop shows. (Let’s be honest, it was definitely the cop shows.) Either way, I have made my way through the second Jurassic Park movie soon after watching the first, and I have some notes. While I did somewhat enjoy this movie, I didn’t love it as much as I enjoyed the first; it did have a low-key feel to it. Before going into the specifics of the movie, I do love when sequels are able to get the kid actors again, even if it’s just for a short cameo.

Firstly, there was a logical reason for having another movie, which I immediately questioned at the end of the first. With science fiction movies, for me at least, there needs to be a very good reason for having a sequel. There was probably some help since this movie was based on a book to help with the grounding, but I won’t know that until I read it. (Hint, hint.) I also enjoyed that there was some growth within the characters. One, not willingly letting children around dinosaurs? Check. Two, not necessarily profiting off of animals for the sole purpose of entertainment? Check. It was good. I’m now scared about how and why there are more movies. Why? It was a perfect ending. It is very much a “what now, humanity” as it included the very real conversation of how can we preserve animals and leave them in a somewhat natural habitat. Perfect ending in my opinion. The only thing that would have made it better is a way to actually see most of the movie. One or two more flashlights here and there would have helped.

Now, there is one more movie to finish the series. I did watch Jurassic World, and I was meh before, but I’m definitely not a fan of the new movies. I now get some of the easter eggs, but I really don’t care. I’m really hoping the third movie doesn’t disappoint me. I’m crossing my fingers.