Category: Uncategorized

Recently, whenever I turned on Netflix, I’ve felt this strange anxiety. I suddenly become hyper-aware of how much free time I have and how much of it whatever show/movie I pick will take up.

I think it’s because I don’t want to be disappointed and feel like I wasted my time. So, I just don’t bother trying new things. Even if I hear that something is good, I tend to avoid it because I have a habit of disliking super popular things.

Instead of watching a new show, I just turn on Netflix and re-watch an old favorite of mine. Cause I already like series x than at least I know I’ll have a good time. The problem is this has changed recently.

Nowadays, I opened Netflix, avoid the new content, click on a show that I have watched more times than I’m proud to admit, and then I will just turn it off after a couple minutes. And this isn’t just a problem with shows either. Any content that I am revisiting is starting to grow stale to me.

I stopped enjoying the comfort of wrapping myself up old content. Now, it feels like my life is slowly wasting away every time I turn on one of my favs. I feel stagnant. Every time I take a walk down memory lane with one of these shows, I realize just how much I haven’t accomplished.

It’s not like I haven’t achieved things, but anything that I failed to do since my last viewing comes to the forefront of my mind.

I have found that a good way to get over this problem though. When I share old content with my friends and family, those thoughts don’t surface.

I watched Boys Over Flowers years ago but it felt brand new watching it with my mother, I started rewatching Game of Thrones with my best friend, and playing through the Danganronpa series has been so enjoyable with my sister trying to guess the mysteries.

After I finish with these things, I think I’m going to avoid revisiting old content for a while. I’m already pushing myself to watch new things like Umbrella Acadamy, which I watched for the first time. (I loved it.) As they say, absence makes the heart grow fonder, so maybe after a much-needed break, the nostalgia won’t feel like its strangling me.

Have you ever noticed how the most common trait a character can have in a book is a love for literature? Like there will be a bookish main character just loves to read/write and that’s the only interest they will have.

Now, this isn’t an inherently lousy interest. After all, the reader likely shares this love of literature. The reader can easily relate to a character who shares their hobbies. This character does usually end up a fan favorite. Often times you will even hear the writer say that this character is the one they relate to the most.

So this gives me the feeling like writers are using minimal effort to endear a large chunk of the audience to their characters. By using a simple formula, they are using the same everyman for their readers to project themselves onto.

But when you’re writing a story, you should be able to write convincing characters with an array of different backgrounds and interest. After all, a writer’s job is to allow readers to connect with someone of different backgrounds. They shouldn’t keep using the same lazy cliche of the clumsy, social outcast, bookworm.

They should have the creativity to think up interests for their characters that aren’t just their own. Or at the very least, use a different one of their hobbies that don’t directly relate to literature!

Maybe this is just a personal grip that I have. In my first Creative Writing class, my professor told us to avoid cliches, and if we use them, we need to earn them. I really took that to heart, and maybe that’s why it feels like the laziest hobby a character can have for me.

From my years of lurking in fandoms, I’ve witnessed my fair share of shipping wars. I watched as fans tore each other apart over the relationship status of fictional characters. Now I can’t help but wonder why. Why is there such disharmony among the fandom? After pondering for some time, I believe I have come to understand what types of behaviors drive people to ship and fight over it.

Continue reading “Let’s talk about ships, baby!” →

I’m tired of sitting at home and doing nothing, so I decided to start this blog. I spend so much time sitting around and thinking about the media I consume that I might as well write it down here. So, here’s to dusting off my English degree and writing my thinks.

I’m a thinker, and I think thinks! – Jojo, Seussical