March & April | Favorites

TIA HERE and it's that time again! (Time for a bimonthy favorites post.) Here is what I've been particularly enjoying for the past two months.

MUSIC

Ukulele tunes are all I care about right now, and that is in part due to Steven Universe (see below) but mostly because I've been really enjoying playing my ukulele lately! It's basically free accompaniment for any song you would ever want to sing, in any key, at your own pace. Ukutabs and other chord-listing websites are all I need to feel like I can finally sing along to the songs I love. Recently, it's been mostly Steven Universe and stuff from Bioshock Infinite and The Hunger Games. A very strange combo, I know.

Less Than Three A Cappella took over my life for the past month thanks to our concert (which should be on our YouTube page soon!) and it's been a fun and crazy ride, as always. Likely because of our intense practicing in the final week, our concert went swimmingly with only the most minor of minor mistakes. Which is fantastic! Plus a lot of people showed up, so that was pretty cool. My favorite song from this semester? Definitely "Automatonic Electronic Harmonics" by Steam Powered Giraffe, aka a song I had never before heard of from a group that I actually had heard of once upon a time. It was awesome to perform.

TELEVISION

Steven Universe, if I haven't mentioned it enough already, has become my absolute heart and soul these past few months. It is an animated series on Cartoon Network, but before you let that scare you off, let me tell you — this show is not only cute and funny and occasionally weird, it also has one of the most unique, striking, and heart-wrenching storylines I have seen in a long time. It follows Steven Universe, a little boy who is more genuinely good than anyone I've seen on TV lately, and his three "moms," Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl, as they fight to protect the earth from alien invaders. So, where does the emotional part come in? Well — and this is not really a spoiler, so no worries — the Crystal Gems (Steven and his alien "moms") were led by Steven's actual mom, Rose Quartz, before she gave up her life for Steven to be born. Now without a leader, the Crystal Gems are a bit scattered, lost, and afraid of the incoming invasion by the Homeworld Gems, and they are all relying on this young half-human, half-gem boy to unite them. Talk about a heavy burden for a kid! Only 11 minutes per episode and currently partway through the second season, you'll be able to get through this one relatively quickly — and you will not regret it.

Scrubs has been my other go-to this past month. I'm just flying through it on Netflix and, I have to say, it's more of a "doctor show" than I originally thought it was going to be. That probably sounds silly, since it is a doctor show, but from everything I'd previously seen from it (gifs, pictures, short clips, etc.), I thought it was just nothing but comedy for 20 minutes straight. Not the case. It is still very much a doctor show and deals with the constant uncertainty and death that comes with the job. There's also more romance than I was expecting. But that's fine. I'm currently in season 4 of 9 and still have quite a long way to go. It's always going to bother me how Carla appears twice in quick succession in the intro though.

BOOKS

All the Rage by Courtney Summers has only just come out, but it's number one on my reading list. From what I've read so far, I'm not terribly compelled, but my faith in Courtney Summers far exceeds any fear I have of being disappointed by her! As with most of her novels, I'm sure that I will fall in love with her "unlikable" protagonist and commiserate with her (likely emotional) story. Plus the Reblog Book Club has been marketing the book like crazy and getting me hyped up to continue reading. Hopefully I will have lots of good things to say about it once I get further in, but for now I'm riding the hype train and praying it doesn't crash. 

VIDEO GAMES

The Sims 4 is absurdly fun. It feels like a completely different game from the Sims 3, which offers a more detailed (but computer crushing) experience. This new game is very emotions and personality based, but mostly I like it because the sims don't look like lifeless potatoes anymore. With better hair, clothing, and face options, I couldn't be happier. While I'm hoping EA adds toddlers back in — as much as I loathed the toddlers in Sims 3, it just feels necessary — I'm okay with just following my generations through the years, knowing their faces will come out looking at least vaguely human.

Tomodachi Life is the most ridiculous 3DS game I've ever played, but that's also what makes it one of the funniest. In this game you create characters to live on your island, starting with yourself. Then you get to watch their lives unfold and see who they marry, who they hate, and who their best friends are, etc., etc. You can watch your original characters have children or people you know in real life endure dramatic breakups. The possibilities are endless. Actually, that's not true. There is a clear lack of homosexuality in the game, as the characters that can get romantically involved are always a man and a woman, but you can play into the plot hole of making a "male" character have all the stereotypical appearance of a woman, since clothing, hair, and makeup in this game are all gender neutral. Basically, you can make it work.

The Super Smash Demo is so much fun I almost want to buy the actual game. Almost. Honestly, I think you can get enough out of the demo that, if you're like me, you can exhaust your interest in the game just by literally never closing the demo. (I think you can open it about 30 times, so just keep it open as much as you can to keep playing for a long time.) The only problem? Limited character options and only one arena option. To be honest, I don't really mind. While I'm not sure I want to spend all that money on it, I do think it's crazy fun and will keep rocking the demo for as long as I can.

Let me know what you've been enjoying this month, because that's all I got! And I hope your finals went well, or are going well.

For more, check out Tia's new blog!

Much love,

T.