Unexpected Changes!

Hey, y'all (Y'all? Does anyone even say this anymore???), happy Monday to you all! Hope you guys are all nice and cool against the summer heat - in my area, it got to over 100 degrees (Fahrenheit) over the weekend, so there were several (about 3?) brushfires in my area. I swear you could smell the burning woods/grass.

Anyhow, as I have mentioned, I have made some unexpected changes in my life, namely moving to a new location! I now live with my (slightly younger, by a year) brother in his apartment. He needed a roommate to help him cut costs and rent in order to save up for his wedding (lucky bastard...). SO! I ended up spending all of last week and some of the weekend getting all of my things together and tying up loose ends in my previous place in order for this to happen. All in all, this all happened spontaneously and it's more exciting than frightening to live life without much of a fallback. 

Basically, I missed out on blogging last week. So, yeah, I'm sorry for that. I'm more settled now, so I'm back to my Mon-Wed-Fri schedule of writing.

So far, it's smooth sailing here - the only big challenge I have to tackle is learning to cook. Oh, and job hunting. Yeah, it's still a thing, sadly, and not much progress has been made with this unexpected move. And I'll be sure to write about it soon enough.

So, cooking. No experience. Well, that's an exaggeration - I can prepare cereals, pastas/spaghettis, eggs, salads, quesadillas, and even meat (but that's mostly luck though). So I have some foundation of cooking, right?! But today, on my first day. I wimped out. I bought breakfast and lunch at diners today. I know, I know. Today was a fluke! I'll start to get it right starting tomorrow! Anyhow, that's really the big news I've got for you, and possibly the lame excuse I've got. I'll be living life and moving forward and growing up now! It's an amazing time to be alive! :D

Setbacks and Unfriendings

Ugh. I had been hoping to kickstart the beginnings of August with a running start. I spent so much time in July being so lax/lazy with moving forward in life, that I wanted to change that with the beginnings of this month, August.

What I've gotten to do in the past few day is Spring Cleaning. IN %@#!*^ JULY. All thanks to my family feeling the need to clean up our modest apartment. I don't know why or where this is coming from, but since I'm living with the family for now, I am respectfully helping them out (I was adamant on opposing this). It'll all be over in another day or two and then I can my plans for the month of August.

So for now, I've got to say, it's a bizarre sensation to know I've unfriended so many people. Ninety-five percent (95%), to be more precise. It's nice to see my Facebook and Instagram feeds devoid of such pointless and unoriginal posts (or in FB, sharing lame stories and memes). Surprisingly, I haven't gotten any flack from those who noticed I've unfriended them (Will and Daren, the podcast I mentioned in the previous post, got lots of flack for unfriending the majority of their friends on FB). The next step now is to find more established people to follow - find sources of inspiration that can challenge me to grow and develop, as a person and as content creator. I know I'm not the most creative person out there, but I've learned that I'm capable of doing so. As of now, I don't see myself making any money off of my creative endeavors, but I do like to learn new skills and, more importantly, it's so insanely satisfying to know that I can do these types of things and receive positive feedback.

Well, at least to me, which is why I'm doing this to begin with. But I'm a few days behind. Oh, well, tomorrow's a new day, right? Until next time, fellow readers!

Gravity

You were probably thinking of Alfonso Cuaron's film, Gravity, weren't you? Although, Cuaron has directed some fantastic movies, including Children of Men and Y Tu Mamá También (And Your Mother Too when translated).

However, the "Gravity" that I am talking about is (of all things) from John Mayer. Hey, I'm surprised myself, considering my taste in music. So yeah, he got on my radar and I decided to check out his music. What the hell, why not?

All in all, he's a bit of a hit-or-miss. Some of his work I find to infectious, especially his more mellow, bluesy sound, like "Gravity" and "Daughters"; but his more arena-rock sound, like "Bigger than My Body", feels like it's missing something. I mean, it's not bad, but it doesn't have the same impact as his bluesy songs. Lately, I've been feeling the need to immerse myself in emotional music - it's not that my tastes in music currently don't meet that need; it's more that I'm looking for something that is different, and somewhat unconventional, to my usual tastes. Something to perhaps  change up my routine in a subtle way through music, specifically from someone like John Mayer in this case, is the best way to invoke that subtle change. All said, maybe, I just need some time to come around to Mayer's music. Give the records a few spins - that's usually how I learn to appreciate music from someone new in my collection.

New Haircut!...Kinda...

This is me, with a size 2 head shave. Now, 3 and a half weeks later, my hair feels like a size 4 head shave. It's grown quite a bit, but I don't feel like taking time aside to head off to refresh my head with another buzz cut.

Incidentally, when I got this new 'do, I had just finished watching the final episodes of Breaking Bad and I may have been inspired to do so, after Pinkman went on a multi-day partying spree. Anyhow, I'll never tell, but many a friend and family do indeed suspect Breaking Bad to be my ulterior motive for the drastic change in hairstyle. 

Honestly, I was bored and I wanted a small change that would have a big (positive) influence on how I perceive myself. It worked, sort of, since I still feel gawky and awkward whenever wear short-sleeved clothing and the twigs I call arms protrude so generously. When I got the haircut, my barber Sergio said that he wouldn't be held responsible for any crocodile tears for my decision. No offense, but as if. This is my decision, and I have no qualms about the choice to shave off my mop. 

What remains to be seen is what hair style (if any at all) will be used once the hair of my head grows long again. 

"We ARE the Walking Dead!"

Now that the Spring Semester is over (finally!) and summer is here, I've been making some headway here and there to read the now-famous The Walking Dead comic series. Like most people (I think), I first stumbled upon the series through the television show, not the comic series itself (and even then, I started watching the show well into the program's third season, so as you can see, I am quite behind). As of now, I have watched the show up until the end of the third season (I'm waiting on Netflix for the fourth), and I'm currently reading the seventh "chapter" in the comic series (through the "The Walking Dead Compendium" rather than the individual issues or the volumes themselves).

Of course, whenever a book is transposed into a television show or a film of sorts, there will always be liberties taken and changes made, and The Walking Dead is no exception to this rule. While some of the key settings (the initial camp, the Greene Farm, and so forth) stayed the same, it is the characters (some are exclusive to the show) and the events that really make up for the majority of the differences, differences that make the television show and the comic series become their own dynamic entities, rather than having the show simply replicate the source material in a bland and boring way. These differences, in some nerdy way, excite me, since I like to compare and contrast one rendition with the source material or one rendition with another rendition. 

Rather than going in-depth with these differences, or even going into the plot, I just want to simply share this 2-page image that's found in the comic, powerfully stating that maybe it's not outside threat that should worry us, but perhaps it is "us" that should worry us.