I’m a publishing professional by day and a huge nerd by night. Okay, I’m always a huge nerd, but I try to tone it down when appropriate. I have a lot of feelings about mermaids, sci-fi, outer space, cats, books, TV shows, movies, crafting, and nachos. When I'm not writing about nerdy things, I'm probably traveling and vising art festivals. Or maybe just chilling at home with my cat. Join my wild adventures on this strange planet of ours, will you?
If you think this is “bad” sci-fi, then we must want very different things from sci-fi.
Thanks to the delicious new trailer for The Matrix Resurrections, fans are hyped up for the fourth installment of this iconic sci-fi series.
Wait, did I say “iconic?” I must have stepped into an alternate reality where these films get the respect and admiration they deserve. What’s actually happening is that people keep saying they’re “so excited” for this movie, but in the next breath, adding that they hope it “ignores” the previous sequels and emulates the “good parts.”
I can’t think of a less coherent statement about this series.
The Matrix is a stunning, unforgettable film, and, in my mind, it essentially functions as a prologue for the engrossing and unconventional sci-fi adventure that the full trilogy offers.
I can’t imagine a fourth movie that ignores the two films that let Lana and Lilly Wachowski’s artistry fully shine, both as storytellers and filmmakers. Reloaded and Revolutions subvert the established lore of the first movie in bold, surprising ways, and the narrative that unfolds—about human nature, about reality, about love, about survival—is a rare gem in the sci-fi genre.
Last weekend, I was really excited to attend Fan Expo Dallas (where masks were required for guests and vendors/staff) for the first time since 2019. One of my coolest finds this time was this handmade purple corset bag by Tribble Totes, which I photographed with permission before wandering around some more and eventually making my way back to their booth to buy it.
I’d been on the hunt for a new bag for fall, and I hadn’t found anything that really excited me. For a few years, I’d been getting large faux leather totes in a certain brand name (initials KL) that had big bows on them, but that style was sadly discontinued by the brand, so I was ready to find something new. I wasn’t expecting to walk out of a convention with a new bag, but I’m SO glad I saw this one, and anyone who knows how much I love purple will be 0% surprised to see me with it!
I’ve since become obsessed with it, because it’s so comfortable to carry and easy to put all my stuff in! At first, I thought it might look too casual-totey to be my everyday bag, but it’s actually a bit smaller than many of my brand-name purses (ahem), so I think it works well, and I’m extremely casual most of the time anyway. I’m really into the nerdy/feminine vibe and the corset detail is just SO cool and well-done! I highly recommend these bags to anyone else who is looking for a fun new change.
While I’m riding the high of excitement from The Matrix Resurrections trailer, I decided to track down the review I wrote of the previous installment in 2003, at age 16, for my high school newspaper:
(Note that the date was misprinted on this page only, and the paper was published in November when the movie was released, not October.)
Here’s a transcript of the text:
“Matrix III ties up loose ends,” November 14, 2003
The Matrix Revolutions has been bashed left and right by critics and even some “fans” who didn’t fit it to be satisfactory. I personally have no clue what the heck they’re talking about.
This movie does exactly what the third film of a trilogy should do: the characterization climbs to the ultimate level, leading to climactic moments for just about everyone involved. Events that were only spoken of in the other two movies, such as the gruesome battle of humans vs. machines, and the decisive fight of Neo (Keanu Reeves) vs. Smith (Hugo Weaving), become a reality and are shown in the gorgeous special effects Matrix films are known for.
Every emotion was taken to the max and I could truly feel just what the characters were feeling; Neo and Trinity’s (Carrie-Anne Moss) beautiful love for each other, the humans’ hope, determination, and fear in Zion, and Neo’s undying will to fight to the end. It was all there in the theater, the essence; the connection. One scene even made me bawl like a five-year-old with a freshly skinned knee, and I have never cried because of a movie!
The ever-present action and anticipation is just as mind-blowing as the other films and does not disappoint at all. At first it starts out a little slow, but speeds up toward the middle, and balances. Trinity is her usual, awesome, butt-kicking self, along with Neo, and both Moss and Reeves do wonderful jobs portraying them.
Though I obviously give the movie high recommendations, it’s also my advice to anyone who is planning to see it, to make sure you’ve seen the other two movies: The Matrix and The Matrix Reloaded, and The Animatrix (which was never in theaters, but is a definite must-see for fans). All three contain material vital to the complete understanding of Revolutions, and anyone who is as obsessed as I am will have absolutely no trouble understanding and following the events of the third film.
Even though the movie did an excellent job in almost every aspect, one small thing at the end failed to be explained, and at first I was slightly annoyed by this. However, as I’ve talked to other fans, I have come to see that this can lead to each person forming their own opinion about it. I guess that may be a good thing. I give this movie a well deserved A.
If someone had told me back then that in 18 years I’d get another installment, well ... I think I would have been roughly as excited as I am right now, yeah! With time, I’ve only come to appreciate the trilogy more, for its innovative, genre-bending storytelling in addition to the emotional character arcs. 💜
Amazon's Good Omens has been renewed for a second season, and while it's run out of source material, season 2 may be even better.
In season 2, I’m looking forward to new flashbacks that reveal more of Aziraphale and Crowley’s centuries-long friendship, but I’m hopeful for even more this time. The first season laid the groundwork for both characters to end up “on their own side,” as Crowley put it post-non-apocalypse. Going forward, these two should remain exactly where they’ve always wanted to be: together.
With their newfound ability to stop worrying about being discovered, and no need to report back to the higher-ups and lower-downs, I’m ready to see them living and working side-by-side, no matter where their upcoming adventures take them.
Probably the single-most hipstery thing I got into in college (a decade ago!) was instant film. I randomly came across a website where people were posting scans of Polaroid photos and was promptly inspired to look for a camera to play with. As luck would have it, a relative had a 90s One Step model gathering dust and passed it to me for free.
I grabbed some film and enjoyed it for a while, shooting around my college campus and on vacation with my family. But after the film was formally discontinued by Polaroid, I fell out of the habit (even though the amazing Impossible Project stepped in to take up production before being re-incorporated into the company) for a long time.
Over the years, I kept thinking about getting back into instant film without actually doing it. For 2020, I made it a genuine goal. I started out by shooting some of my expired film on my old camera, which gave me some really neat results like the tree shot below. The really frustrating thing about that setup, though, is that since the old camera relies on the battery in the film pack, and some of the expired packs had dead batteries, I’d put them in and get zero shots before having to just pull them back out, wasted.
tree shot on expired film
Since the new cameras have built-in batteries and neatly sidestep that problem, in addition to many other upgrades, I finally caved and bought a One Step 2 in this super cute mint green:
Now, I’m under no delusions about being a great photographer. In fact, I don’t even think I’m a good one. I don’t have an eye for it like some people do, despite multiple photography classes, and most of my decent shots are lucky ones. But I honestly find it refreshing to spend time on a hobby that I’m not pushing myself to be exceptional at. It’s just fun to shoot a picture and hold it in your hands a few seconds later, waiting to see if it’s anything, knowing that it’s one of a kind. Each photo is an interesting dice roll (particularly with unpredictable expired film), and I love the way Polaroid film takes a moment that happened a few minutes ago and makes it look like a distant memory.
angel shot on black frame film
For now, I obviously can’t get out and explore photo-worthy locations as much as I was hoping, but I’m really glad to have picked up this old hobby. Anyone out there who is interested in exploring this should check out the (very active) instagram tags--polaroid, polaroidinstantfilm, and expiredpolaroid are good ones to start with. And the film definitely isn’t cheap at roughly $2 per photo, but if it looks like fun to you at all, I think you’ll find that it’s worth it.
I’m posting even more mediocre Polaroids on my instagram!
Something I normally look forward to when April rolls around is attending local art festivals. It’s one of many things I love about spring. So if you’re like me and feeling a bit bummed that you can’t get out and support local artists this year … you still can!
Here are two ways:
Did you know that Etsy lets you filter a search by location? On the left sidebar, you can enter a custom location filter—without even choosing a product type!—and see artists based near you. From there, you can filter further to various categories if you like (I usually do “art & collectibles”) ... or just browse everything. I also highly recommend casting a wide net and searching for several cities/states/regions around you! Here’s an example of a search for artists based in Dallas, near me.
Another thing I like to do is pull up various art festival websites and check out their most recent lineup (which may be the cancelled one from this year, or last year’s lineup). Here’s an example of a popular art fest near me, where I can see the list of artists who would have been coming this year.
These methods obviously aren’t as fun as walking around an art fest and enjoying the sunlight and snacks, but it’s time to get creative, right? And maybe you’ll find a treasure to make you smile, brighten your space, and support a local artist at the same time. :)
I recently ordered this gorgeous journal created by Batoriii on Etsy and can’t wait to receive it. I discovered the shop thanks to this post, and when I saw this one, it was true love. I felt like it was already mine. (I also showed the photos to my mom, and she even said, “That looks so familiar.” None of my journals look anything like this!)
I’m still figuring out what its purpose will be, because it clearly needs to be special. I’m thinking about possibly recording my favorite memories/quotes/poems involving nature, or something similar. ❤
This is the first of several recent Novembers that I’m not attempting to participate in NaNoWriMo, and I honestly feel relieved about it. Every attempt before has only stressed me out and produced largely useless story fragments.
Before I go into how I came to this decision, I want to make something clear: This isn’t an anti-NaNo post. Nor is this one of those “this popular thing is Actually Not That Great and I, a wise person, shall now bestow upon you my profound counterpoints” pieces. Because, first of all, barf. And second, I don’t have anything against NaNo! I think it’s great that it’s become something of an annual tradition, gets people talking about writing, and fosters a sense of community among aspiring novelists. Truly, knowing that so many other writers are out there participating is one of the things that makes NaNo magical. For anyone who wants to attempt it but never has, I’d say go for it! If you’ve never sat down and written purely for length, you should absolutely try it and see what happens. The results will likely be a mess, but you might also surprise yourself.
And that brings me right into why I’m leaving NaNo behind: Word count, as a singular goal, does not make sense for my writing process.
The partial drafts I produced when writing for length sometimes took on an interesting shape in terms of characterization and world-building, but the scenes themselves were meandering and meaningless. Because I had forced them out to reach a daily word count instead of thinking about what scenes the narrative actually needed in order to be complete.
Which is the opposite of how I think about stories.
The lightbulb went off when I was talking to a fellow writer pal about our fanfiction works-in-progress. She mentioned a word count goal for the weekend, and I was bewildered—I’ve never even thought of measuring a fanfic’s progress in terms of length! Sure, I’ll check the word count while writing, but I’m usually doing so out of curiosity and/or to gauge how long the finished fic might be. The idea of getting words on the page just for the sake of it would never enter my mind. I tend to think more abstractly, in terms of the scenes/moments/arcs I need to write to make the story whole. The length doesn’t matter, especially in fanfiction, where there are no rules—it’s writing a complete story that matters.
I don’t recall who it was, but I once read an anti-NaNo take from a published author who argued that NaNo produces half-baked drafts. And, well, yeah? Isn’t that the point? A NaNo draft isn’t supposed to be polished, publication-ready prose; it’s only supposed to be a novel-length story. Maybe not even a complete one! But that’s it. That’s the one goal.
And I’ve learned that it’s not the right goal for me.
My best writing happens when I’m striving to write efficiently—in the least amount of words possible. I want my scenes to be tight, with just enough detail and dialogue to pull my reader in without confusing or boring them. I’m an impatient reader, I’ll fully admit, and so I write to get to the point. I don’t want to stretch out (or completely invent) a scene just to fill space—I want to let the moment and the narrative determine the length.
I am working on multiple writing projects this November, and publishing my original fiction is still my goal. But moving forward, I’m going to de-prioritize word count and embrace the mindset I have when I write for fun. And I’m grateful to fanfiction for helping me learn this about myself and my process.
One of sci-fi's most memorable couples previously came to a tragic end. Now, their story will continue.
To say the news of a fourth Matrix film with Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss returning genuinely shocked me would be an understatement.
I hold this trilogy up as my favorite sci-fi film series of all time. It’s not without flaws, of course, but I maintain that the unconventional structure of the second and third movies is boldly innovative — and, more important, the story itself is fun, smart, engaging, and deeply human.
In the midst of memorable special effects and no shortage of physical fighting, the heart of this story is that our relationships are what give us the most strength. It’s our love for other people that drives us to action — an idea that shows up in multiple compelling character arcs across the three movies, as well as in the Wachowskis’ other work, including the Netflix series Sense8.
I’ll admit, also, to being a little nervous about this news, but I take it as a good sign that Moss and Reeves were confirmed first and together, since literally nothing else would make any sense for this movie.
I already tweeted about this earlier today, but I wanted to gather some thoughts in a longer blog post about it.
I’m heartbroken over the loss of this show and hugely disappointed in Netflix, though not too surprised, given their track record with cancelling shows. This wouldn’t feel like such a low blow if they would give The OA a final season--even a short one--so that Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij could give their narrative a proper conclusion. Cancelling it suddenly after Part II, which ended with OA’s abuser achieving his biggest “win” so far, is what really stings. That shouldn’t be where her story, and the story of her found family, ends.
I am grateful, however, that we got to see Part II at all. It’s one of the most amazing, unique, and unforgettable seasons of television (or long-form films?) I’ve ever seen, and I know lots of fans feel the same way.
In Brit and Zal’s interview with So It Goes, they talked about how they chose Netflix over HBO because they felt that Netflix was a better fit for their creative vision. If The OA were an HBO show, it would undoubtedly be different in terms of flow and narrative structure, but maybe we’d also be getting all five seasons? At this point, it’s hard for me to imagine why series creators with offers from multiple platforms would even consider Netflix... Or, if they do, maybe get a minimum number of seasons in the contract, so there’s no breath-holding in between each one? That probably sounds naive, but there has to be a better way for this platform to respect artists and viewers.
I hope we see more of this beautiful story, with or without Netflix.
I decided to cope with my love for The OA in the nerdiest way possible: cosplay! For Fan Expo Dallas today, I rocked this tribute to one of the most unforgettable scenes in Part II, where OA meets Old Night, a psychic octopus. My (much smaller) octopus buddy had a lot of admirers!
In my most recent piece for The Mary Sue, I got to scream about how much I loved the second season of the Netflix series The OA—even if I had some issues with one particular storyline.
Early on, I mentioned a few of this season’s mysteries, and I wanted to unpack those further here. The three I highlight in the piece are:
Who is OA’s “brother?”
Why was the puzzle house “calling” Karim via other people’s dreams?
What’s even going on with Elias, the FBI trauma counselor?
I have a theory that there might actually be one answer to all of these. But first, as other fans have pointed out, it feels likely that OA’s brother is a different person in each dimension—that seems to mesh with what Old Night (my new fav psychic octopus) tells her: “In every dimension, she sent him to protect you.” While we don’t know why or how a single “brother” figure could appear as different people across dimensions (is he another angel?), or who “she” might be (Khatun?), it does seem fair to say that both Elias and Karim have showed up to protect/guide OA at times when she needed them.
That brings me to my big theory: I think it’s possible that the puzzle house was “calling” Karim via the dreams because it was his time to show up and protect OA. If that hadn’t happened, Pierre never would have lured him to the mystery of the house via “Michelle’s” grandmother, and Karim and OA would have been unlikely to cross paths. Also, if I understood correctly, Nina and Pierre bought the house after his dream study pointed them to it, yeah? So it stands to reason that the house A) wanted Nina close to it and then B) called Karim to protect her.
And as far as Elias, back in the first dimension, it’s clear that he knows wayyy more than he admits about OA and her story—but how? And why, in season 1, did it seem like he didn’t want her to successfully jump? Then, of course, there’s his strange single scene in season two, where he shows up and gives the group of OA followers some seriously cryptic advice before vanishing. Really looking forward to learning more about his backstory and motivation!
Finally, shoutout to this amazing theory about how the “brother” character might show up in Part III! I love this idea.
Anyone else have a totally different theory about all this? I love this show so much and can’t stop thinking about it!
It's a testament to how much I love The OA that I have such strong feelings about a certain character relationship. This week, I got to gush about this amazing show and vent my shipper heart out for The Mary Sue! I'm also really happy that I worked in my Big Theory on Homer's main predicament this season. (Spoilers ahead, ofc!)
Until this year, I’d never used a planner notebook. In my entire life.
Unlike my lifelong (if sporadic) enjoyment of journaling, I never saw a point in keeping a planner. There was one time in high school when I tried to use a free planner (handed out to all freshmen) for a few weeks but quickly abandoned it. It just never made sense for me—even in college, my ideal system was to put any assignments/tasks at the end of my notes for the day. A separate planner would have been too redundant.
I decided to finally try planners for 2019, and honestly? I’m already obsessed with them. It’s been a little over a month, and I’m completely in love with both my work planner and my life planner. On the one hand, I want to be like “why did I wait so long,” but that’s beside the point. I didn’t find them useful in the past, and now I do.
I arrived at this decision—to take the plunge into planners—backwards, in a way. Two years ago, I started bullet journaling, and I really liked it for a while. What I didn’t realize at the time was that it would become my “gateway drug” into using planners (instead of the other way around). For anyone unfamiliar, bullet journaling is a sort of DIY planner method where you set up a blank journal as your planner and customize it to fit your needs. Prior to bullet journaling, I had been making lists on random notepads (sometimes having multiple “active” lists at one time), and everything was a mess, and I needed to get more organized. And for two years, bullet journaling mostly helped me do that—I liked the custom aspect of it, as well as the logical layout.
But I realized late last year that I was going to have to break up with bullet journaling, and here’s why: I’m too lazy to make it work. With bullet journals, you’re supposed to set up pages for months/days as they happen, not too far in advance. And I sort of … stopped doing that. I also almost never flipped back to the year/month overview pages in the front, so even those became pointless. My bullet journals became a series of random dated lists … again. Let me be clear, though: I still think the concept behind bullet journals is fantastic, and I know that lots of people find them amazingly helpful. I’m not writing this to say that planners are inherently superior to bullet journals—this is just my own “evolution” with planning and note-keeping.
Since I was losing steam with my bullet journals, I knew I needed a fresh way to keep myself focused, and I decided to dip my toes into the colorful world of planners. But in order for a planner to work for me, it had to have the right layout. For me, a weekly checklist page is non-negotiable, since that was my favorite thing about how I set up my bullet journals (though it’s not something that appears in the original concept).
Fortunately, I was able to find two planners with layouts I loved, both by Blue Sky. And maybe I’m still in the honeymoon stage, but I can’t believe how much easier it is to keep up with a planner when all the setup is already done for you!! (I know, I know, but I got here backwards, remember?) It’s so much fun to flip it open and simply fill in the allotted spaces—so much less daunting than flipping open a blank journal and needing to do set-up before writing anything.
Of course, I may end up needing another change in the future. I’m really interested to see how I’ll feel about my two current planners by the end of this year—maybe I’ll decide that a different style of planner would be better-suited to me. If so, at least I know there’s a whole world of options out there that I had been ignoring until now!
In a recent article, I wrote about my goals for journaling and how I want to keep a more consistent personal journal going forward.
One of the best things about keeping journals, to me, is that old journals become a gift to your future-self. A window into days of old. It’s so much fun to look back at the things you chose to document at a younger age, in part because you’ll definitely encounter things you had completely forgotten if you hadn’t written about them.
I mention re-reading my old journals in the post, but I wasn’t able to dive into what I found in them … so I wanted to put that here! In addition to being sort of a time-machine into my memories, my childhood journals are also often highly entertaining. For me, at least. I found a lot of gems.
Come with me on a journey through journals-past, will you? (With photos!)
My First Journal – early childhood
Age when used: 5-7 (approx)
Received: Probably as a gift around the time I had first learned to write.
Memorable excerpts: Short entries and little drawings (mostly cat-related) are sporadically scattered throughout. One of my favorite pages simply says “Luke” above “Star Wars” which were clearly things I wanted to remember. It’s funny to look back at this journal and notice little details I’d forgotten about the cover, since I stared at it so long as a kid.
Fancy Locking Journal - elementary school
Age when used: 10-13 (approx) (used for several years despite it being labeled “one year diary”)
Received: After I specifically requested it, because I was SO excited about the lock and key (the locking strap has since been removed).
Memorable excerpts: Hot goss abounds. The very first page starts with “Hi, I’m Alicia and my best friend is [NAME]. She is cool.” But in another pen color below, I’ve added “NOT ANYMORE” with an arrow pointing at the name. DRAMA, am I right? (Also, in defense of my 11-year-old self, that friend was regularly pretty mean to me.) There are also multiple pages where I went in and redacted portions of old entries with a paint marker. The whole thing is a mess, really. And since I wasn’t letting that lock go to waste, I made sure to write all my crushes’ names multiple times. One page just says “Mermaids are da bomb! I <3 [crush],” so at least we know I’m still keeping it real all these years later.
Fairy Journal – high school
Age when used: 15-17ish
Received: This pretty journal (featuring Amy Brown art) was a gift from my mom, and I’d be willing to bet she found it at Hot Topic back in the early 2000s. Ah, high school.
Memorable excerpts: It starts out with a page of new year resolutions, which includes items like “I will not freak out when I get a very important assignment @ school” and “I will learn more about video games.” That second one did not happen. One video game-loving friend even bribed me with spoonfuls of ice cream as I played a game at her house (she was literally feeding me and coaching me on how to play), but I was too distracted by the delicious snack and kept dying in the game. Ice Cream 4 lyfe.
In typical teenager fashion, this journal also has its fair share of Deep Thoughts throughout, usually related to ~drama~ with friends or boys. One of my fav gems: “Silence is golden… But gold hurts when you smash it over someone’s head.” *cue opening bars of Vindicated*
Flower Petals Journal – college/post-college
(page view rotated to fit side-by-side more easily)
Age when used: 17-25ish
Received: I found this one on a family vacation in Colorado, when I stopped in a random local bookstore during our short stop in Durango. I could not resist those pages!!! I’m a sucker for handmade paper, and those are real flower petals mixed in, people! This was my favorite journal for a long time.
Memorable excerpts: *long sigh* This journal starts out strong, with entries about my vacation and ideas for original fiction I was working on, plus the occasional song lyric or random thought. (Including, “I need to read more sci-fi,” which is an eternal mood.) But then college happens, and I used this journal primarily to write/vent about a certain relationship during those years that started out positively and slowly became pretty toxic. It’s interesting to look back and see how I genuinely lied to myself in the journal, making excuses for that person and convincing myself I felt a certain way about things I was struggling to forgive/accept. Eventually, the journal becomes brutally honest, but it also becomes meta, since I start entries with things like, “Wow, it’s so weird to go back and read all my old entries in here! I can’t believe I wrote blah blah.” That’s the main reason I decided it was time to retire this journal, even though it isn’t full: Writing new entries feels like a footnote in the journal’s main purpose now, which was being my outlet for those years. I’ll never throw out this journal, because it is important to me, but it was time to move on.
Purple leather journal – present!
Age when used: 31 (now)
Received: Like my previous journal, I found this one on a Colorado family vacation back in August. Something about being surrounded by fresh mountain air gives me a journaling vibe, maybe. I was visiting a super cool and quirky gift shop called the Aspen Emporium and Flying Circus, and I spotted a table full of handmade leather journals—no two were alike. I knew I had to have one, and narrowing it down honestly wasn’t that difficult when I spotted this purple one! Like I explain in my article, I’m embracing new journaling habits for this year, and so far, it’s going well. And starting with a blank slate in a beautiful journal is so nice—I had almost forgotten how nice! I’m committed to filling all the pages, too. Send me good journaling vibes!
Also: I fully encourage others to use this idea and make posts about your own history of journals!
gummygunk
kianamaiart
blakekathryn
ellievsbear
snowghoul
dailybridgerton
gracieabrams
romaincrisis