Life of a Random

Pages: 313 Published: Aug. 1, 2016 Genre(s): YA, Fantasy, Mythology Source: NetGalley/eARC Cover Rating:  🌟🌟🌟 (Ehhh... I'm in LOVE with the wings, but I think the fonts could use some tweaking and I'm not a huge fan of the empty spaces.) There were several things that made me want to read this book... the fact that it has a blurb that never once actually mentions the main character's name. WHAT. Insanity. Who is this person? I need to know now.  There's a labyrinth. I mean, labyrinths practically equate to adventure if we're being honest here. And the angel wings on the cover. Angel wings are cool. Really cool. All that and what I'm trying to say is--I pretty much knew nothing about this book before reading it. Which leads me to saying it. was. amazing. Everything about it was unexpected and quite uniquely original. PROS: The history of the mc's civilization. If anyone starts mentioning Greek mythology and de...

I talk more about what this whole challenge is here (basically a daily tumblr challenge) and how I'm trying to use it to get motivation to sketch more.  Day 1 Prompt: Post a link to a song that makes you feel happy. I decided to choose not one but three  hehe. The top two encompass more of a feeling than really having awesome lyrics. Tear Me Down is my kick-butt-and-own-the-world anthem. One of my favorite things to do is take a walk with music blasting in my ears and this is the  song to power walk to. (The playlist buttons link to their Youtube music videos.) What are your favorite happy songs? TELL ME.

A little while ago, I found a tumblr tag called 31 Days of Self-Care . It involves daily activities that calm you down or cheer you up, all through the month of December. The whole idea is just really original and nice! Aaand the fact that it has a few drawing challenges thrown in there isn't bad either. This is my first post for this challenge (obviously I'm starting extremely late but I wanted to do it on my own time whenever I could anyway). Prompt: W hat’s your happy place? Reply here or illustrate it. If you decide to do this challenge too, leave a link in the comments because I would LOVE to come check it out. 

I'm back from college for winter break! GET HYPE. I'm really excited to watch my favorite shows, read, do my own art projects...sleep maybe. But I'm not here to talk about sleeping, no matter how much I love it. I'm here to bring you all the things I've learned about being an adult. Which are a lot obviously. I'm a pro. 1. Bread molds way too fast. Except for the cheap kind that doesn't really even smell like bread. THAT pretty much lasts forever.  2. For the first few weeks, college cafeteria food is not as bad as they said, and yet somehow three months later becomes just as bad as they said.  3. Meat is way too expensive. And complicated. Who has time for seasoning, marinating,... whatever the heck you call it when you have to soften the meat? Isn't meat already soft? If it's not, then doesn't that mean you probably shouldn't try to cook it anyway? 4. Cooking in general takes way too much time. Time you could be using...

Hey everybody. I realize it's been what... over two months? since I last posted something on here. And there are many reasons why , but I guess the main thing is that I don't know what to blog about anymore. I can't (right now) regularly read books and put up reviews because I don't really have the time. Even if I had the time to write reviews, I don't have the time to actually read books that much anymore.  So, that's the dilemma. I'm trying to find other things that I can blog about that I love. That's not to say I'll never write about books again. Noooo nonono.  I just don't want to keep publishing "filler" posts that don't have any real content or substance.  Number #1 on the to-do list: Find the thing to blog about.  I've been thinking about stuff I could write about like graphic novels/manga, graphic design, kpop/kdramas, etc.... I'll get back to you when I figure that out. 

IT'S THE END OF AUGUST (and it has been for like seven days. I'm so sorry ). How has time passed so quickly? Gosh. School's been started back up for two weeks (but not rly since I pre-wrote this post and right now it's been three) and everyone's struggling to get back into the rhythm of regular old busy life. I've moved back to my college apartment, got everything pretty much organized again, etc.  I guess the hard things for me are getting my creative flow back on for my design classes and just... finding the energy to pay attention and interact with people and walk around all the time. SO HARD.  This month was a pretty successful month if I say so myself. I always struggle to read during the school year, and this year's no different, but I feel like I'm getting better at not stressing out to the point of doing no reading. Fight For You (Stripling Warrior #2) and In All Place (Stripling Warrior #3) by Misty...

I think it's high time I got my act together and told you all about my trip to Taiwan during June. I literally had the vlogs all put together in a video, I had the pictures downloaded, I just didn't put the final product together.  BUT. NOW I HAVE.  Remember that trip that I talked about? The Taiwan one? Well, now I'm gonna tell you about it and throw pictures at you. ;) I snapped most of the pictures with my phone because it was just way easier/more convenient/faster than bringing my camera that does not  have good battery life with me everywhere. I hope the pictures aren't too bad quality (I don't think they are but just in case) because they were taken on the run.  Like I have complained about a million times, there was a 16 hour flight, singular  as in one section of a trip that was over 20 hours long , on the way TO TAIWAN and on the way BACK FROM TAIWAN.  In case you haven't taken a long airplane flight before,...

[Selena's note: It's super important and relevant (especially with school starting back up here in a few) to remember to take care of yourself throughout all the busyness of life. It's something I have to remind myself of all. the. time. And so I hope this post helps you out in some way too. :)] Julie is a former YA blogger, now just YA loudmouth. She tweets a lot ( @DailyJulianne ) and writes about #quietYA and representation at YA Interrobang. She's also a freelance editor at True Blue Editorial, a cat lover, and currently unemployed. Julie also founded Blogbound Con and just really cares about books a lot. I first started coping with mental illness when I was 10. I didn’t tell anyone that was actually in a position to help me until I was 21. In eleven years of being mentally ill to varying degrees of severity without medication or therapy meant I had to learn how to practice self care and the ways that would work for me. It became an adapt o...