TOP 5 FAVES


Previously on BL64, I had a marquee that had pictures of my last 5 favorite things; I decided instead of scrapping it, I'd list them all out in a more longform read-y manner! I'll update once every month.

December 2nd, 2017

October 24th, 2017

August 13th, 2017


12.02.17


Hi there!

The eighteenening has happened! I'm officially an adult!! It's a cool milestone that, for a while, I didn't think I would make. That would've sucked. As of November 29th, I can now legally buy fireworks and go to jail!

I have a new favorite old band! System of a Down kicks major butt. Every morning for the past few weeks I crank Toxicity; I try to listen to the full album before school. Serj has such a unique voice and delivery!! I highly reccomend you listen if you want to be mad at the government and jump around aimlessly to metal.

Have y'all eaten a good breakfast? Apparently I've been doing it wrong; note that a handful of cocoa puffs is not a sufficient meal. I used to hate eating anything more than that, though. Pancakes were too much of a sticky dessert-y food for me, but it turns out they're really filling. Hooray for less hunger!

In my mind, it is 2007 and my walls are covered in posters of Pete Wentz and hand drawn (*ahem*, copied from a Myspace banner) Pon and Zi comics. This surge in emo aesthetic occurs every so often, usually when I've exhausted my usual playlist of folk punk music. I'm not entirely sure what it is, maybe the combonation of dark topics with a hint of cuteness and femininity? Meh, doesn't matter, Jack Skellington will always be my goth boyfriend.

Speaking of folk punk, I've been really into AJJ! Once I tried to find one of their records at an unfamiliar music shop. I couldn't find anything, so I asked the dude at the front for help; I think I repeated "A.J.J." about three times before he said something like "ohhhhh you mean Andrew Jackson Jihad?" (note: that was their name before they decided indroducing themselves with "Jihad" would probably put them on a no-fly list.) Turns out they didn't have anything. That was a bad story, but at least I got a Kanye CD.

10.24.17


Oops. This was supposed to be monthly.

Firstly and fore mostly, I've had fun reliving my youth through pet simulation games! You might've noticed the "official" BL64 pet in the navigation. That critter is from Chicken Smoothie, which is like a card trading game with sparkledogs. The coolest part is that you can adopt your pet as a baby and watch it grow; you don't know the rarity until the next month, so it's a surprise every time! There's a forum where people trade pets and an Oekaki board with the site's own drawing program called "Chickenpaint". I'm unnecessarily excited about this place, haha.

YouTube must think I'm a weeaboo, because I've been recommended Japanese 80's music over and over again. Does it make me a weeaboo if I enjoy it? Maybe. It admittedly sounds exactly like western 80's music, but I think that whole ~aesthetic~/vaporwave movement made this thing blow up. If you slowed one of these songs down, you'd probably think it was MAC+. My favorite by far is Maria Takeuchi's Plastic Love. The picture is cute, her voice is sweet, and I love the music itself!

Is it considered cheating if I mention Hannibal again? Last episode, I talked about how much I loved Hannibal (update: a new season is reportedly being planned!!), and I mentioned it was based on a novel. I picked up The Red Dragon at my library recently and I'm only one chapter in. Thomas Harris has already captured me, though; he wrote a very imagery-heavy intro describing his writing process. Apparently, when he writes he is a spectator in the room with these characters. I write too, although not as well as him, but the way he described developing these characters was very poetic. I'm excited to enter his world, and maybe get just as personal with these characters as he did.

Speaking of writing and novels, I'm writing a novel! Maybe you've heard of National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo for short. The goal is 50k+ words (yikes!) of a rough draft, starting November 1st and ending November 30th. I've developed my own story in a panic, and the idea of writing that much in 30 days is daunting. I am excited for the exercise, though. The long, arduous exercise.

Last fave is Chester's Hot Fries. Listen. I know they're bad for me; I know they burn my esophagus and make my stomach feel like crumpled paper. I know they probably link to cancer in some way, and I know they've killed my tastebuds off. I like to live for now, dude, but I'm not commited to the lifestyle that most daredevils and Jackass members live. I wanna be free, but not like, completely free, right? Anyways, I didn't have an actual fifth fave so I wrote that stuff. Byyeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

8.13.17


Hi! First thing I've been enjoying lately has been Tyler the Creator's Scum Fuck / Flower Boy album. This latest release is a bit of a departure from his violent gritty music most fans are used to, with softer R n' B influenced production and introspective lyrics about loneliness, his own sexual identity, and navigating the difficult romantic and even social side that comes with it. If you hate him, I encourage you to listen to it! If you love him, you already have, or you're missing out on Tyler's most emotional album to date.

I've been listening to podcasts lately, but none of them more so than Criminal. Usually narrated by Phoebe Judge, it's roughly 30 minutes of body snatching history, the prison system, true crime serial killers, phone scammers getting pranked, and weed. Each episode focuses on a different topic in which Phoebe interviews people to tell their story. Find them at thisiscriminal.com.

I've been rewatching Hannibal recently! If you've not heard of it, it's a crime T.V. show based on the book Red Dragon (it's the prequel to Silence of the Lambs!). It stars Hugh Dancy as Will Graham (good casting) and Mads Mikkelsen as Hannibal Lecter (EXCELLENT CASTING). It's a gory psychological thriller, has nice cinematography, and best of all is OVER so you can binge the whole thing. :D

School sucks, but summer reading sucks harder. Except our assigned reading was The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. I knocked this book HARD when it was assigned, but it's actually really good! It's about a well off Afghan boy in the late 1970's / early 1980's and his friend, the servant boy. I won't spoil it too much, but. it's basically about their social classes, Afghan politics, betrayal, and redemption.

My last fave of the month is probably pens. I've been trying to stay away from pencil drawings to push myself. I especially like ballpoint pens for drawing. If I'm doing writing stuff though, I reach for my Faber-Castell brush pen. It takes getting used to, but after a while you get used to it. :)