52 Films By Women Challenge - Summer Blog Update

It's been a while since I blogged my 52 Films By Women Challenge. Since the halfway mark of the year has come and go, I thought it's time to post an update.

I'm happy to say I'm still hanging on. My main roadblock is that I'll watch a movie and fall behind in writing something about it here. Then a few weeks have past, and I just keep watching the movies I need to except for a few Letterboxd posts here and there.

The movies I've watched since my last Spring update include Everything Everything, Beyond the Lights, Mudbound, Across the Universe, Bound, By the Sea, What Happened Nina Simone?, The World to Come, Abominable, Clemency, Atlantics, and will be seeing Black Widow to almost tie things up. None of these were particularly flawed, but Beyond the Lights, Mudbound, Across the Universe, What Happened Nina Simone? and Abominable will stick with me the most from the past quarter.

The biggest change is diverging from my 'set' list. I've felt like watching something in the moment more than picking a title from my list,. It's made the challenge fun but also given me a few hurdles. When I try to find movies that I'm in the mood for, women's work is lacking in so many genres. I often want to watch more comedies, action, and superhero movies, and there are only so many to choose from. Not being able to find more mainstream projects has helped me dig around for more indies, but that also presents a problem when they're not available. 

Other than that, the challenge is still going strong. I'm not quite sure when I'll update except for autumn or end of the year retrospective.

Mostly, I'm burnt out. It takes a lot not to delete The Falcon and The Winter Soldier review as I'm not proud of it, and I'm shocked I even finished my list of LGBTQ+ changes I'd like to see in film post. I don't quite know how to say goodbye to this space, but I feel myself moving further away the less time I spend here. But I might be doing that once this challenge and TMP are over at the end of the year.

2021 New Years "Goals" + Looking Ahead

It's 2021. I don't know what else to say.

2020 New Years Goals + Looking Ahead

A new year is almost here. So it's time to reflect about last year's resolutions and make new ones for the new year. I honestly anticipated to have stopped blogging in 2019. Yet I somehow managed to do more than what I set out to achieve or thought was possible.

The Good

2019 was a wild year of experiences I never expected to happen, and a lot of goals that I happily met. I think turning 30 in December was a big motivator for me. *sobs into the void*

Goals I managed to complete last year: saw Hugh Jackman in concert, finished Game of Thrones before the last season started, won tickets to Florence and the Machine, attended MegaCon Orlando, visited Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge, and survived Halloween Horror Nights. And I met John Barrowman and David Tennant!!!!! They're still the highlights of the year for me.

I also completed a 30 day Yoga with Adrienne challenge - I missed a few days but instead of giving up, I pushed through. Now I do yoga a few times a week as it helps with anxiety. 

Hit my 20+ book goodreads challenge. This is the first time in forever I met one of my reading goals.

I failed to limit my coffee intake to the weekends, but I managed it more than I thought I would. Drinking tea was helpful as I enjoyed the variety of flavors more, but coffee is still that vice I have when I'm stressed out, which was a lot this year.

Some Ways I Stayed Sane in 2019

Who would've thought 2019 would've been as hectic and lackluster as 2018? The dumpster fire that is politics, cancel culture absurdity, and hopelessness in the news inspired me to highlight some moments that helped me feel like last year wasn't a waste. Similarly, even though this year was still ablaze, I managed to stay sane for the most part. But not without a lot of help. Here are a few reasons why. How did you manage to stay sane this year? Let me know in the comments below!


This post contains spoilers for Avengers: Endgame - read at your own risk.

2019 New Years Goals + State of the Blog

Last year, I thought we survived the Upside Down. LOL Oh, how everything and absolutely nothing has changed.  The only way I can describe 2018 is: What. The. ****. Was That?!

The fandom side of my life was awesome: I met Jeff Goldlbum and saw a mini X-Files reunion, attended MegaCon as press again, participated in Chicks with Accents podcast, met HerUniverse creator Ashley Eckstein, went to an advanced screening of First Man, saved Will in the Upside Down a million times, cosplayed as Harry Potter at Disney World, survived Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy, covered a local library event for my Harry Potter blog, reunited with the boyfriend of my teenage dreams, saw Die Hard in theaters for its 30th anniversary, and some of my favorite characters didn't die.