Show Me the Money 6 aka "Let's Get It"

I'm so excited for the next season of Show Me the Money! I mean, just check out this teaser of all the producer teams involved.

But let's be real here...the only guy who matters here is Zico.  "Life is what you make of it," is an amazing opening line. Zico Wisdom. He should publish a day-by-day calendar with inspirational lyrics. I would buy it.

I'm also really curious about Tiger JK's involvement in this season, because his flow is weird. It's angular and bold; like an Expressionist painting.

If anyone else is as excited as I am, or if you ship Zico and DEAN, don't be shy and message me already!

How to Deal with Writers (A Survival Guide)

For those of you are interested in dating or marrying writer, a word of caution. Writers can't turn their brains off. 

For every road trip, airplane ride, dinner date, us writers will always be thinking about writing. And good luck having conversations with us, we'll nod and shake our heads to whatever you're saying, but what we're really thinking about it is how to get our main characters from Point A to Point B, how to kill off side characters, and how our blasted stories are going to end.

Here's a survival guide for anyone who has to deal with writers in their lives.

1. Appease us with sweet drinks.

Matcha lattes are my personal favorite. But here's a few others to choose from: milk tea with boba, thai iced tea, soy lattes, raw smoothies with kale and dates, mocha frappucinos, champagne. The list goes on for eternity.

2. Talk to us about our writing

Writing is a very solitary act. And it can get lonely.  So it's nice when someone asks us about our characters, our stories, our fictional boy crushes (yes, I've fallen for a few of my characters). Sometimes we need a "That's awesome!" from someone who will listen just to keep us sane.

3. Don't talk to us about our writing

Like I said before, writing is a very solitary act. Our stories and characters are very precious to us, even if it doesn't make sense to anyone else. 

Don't give us writing advice unless we ask for it. Just a few words can knock us into the depths of despair.

4. Respect the Cave! 

Writers hate the sunshine. Even though we know that Vitamin D is very necessary to our health, we'd rather be nesting in a dark room, staring at a computer.  And that's not because we're vampires or nightlurkers, it's mostly because we're writing, or trying to write while we stare at the blinking line of sadness/infinite possibilities on our Microsoft Word or Scrivener app. Even if we aren't clackity-clacking on our keyboards, we are still thinking.  And to us, that is very important work before the work. We absolutely need this time!

So if you invite us somewhere, and we say no, please don't take offense!

5. Just let us cry.

Writing is filled with rejection. Most writers try to keep a stoic face, but eventually we all crack. Sentences like "The story didn't speak to me," "The writing isn't quite there yet," "I'm going to have to pass," will make us wither up like a dying bouquet of flowers.

But don't panic! After a good cry, we'll eventually feel better about ourselves.

6. Buy us a puppy for our mental health.

'Nuff said.

Can we talk about Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2?

What a long title! So I'll be shortening it by calling it GotGV2, which is also kinda long and reminds me of Game of Thrones. So nevermind, I'll just call it GG2. So let's get started!

So I'm going to preemptively apologize to all those crazy GG fans out there, because I'm about to drop a bomb here. I did NOT like Guardians of the Galaxy (Vol 1). I thought it was empty;  and it was trying way too hard to be clever.

Now, I love Marvel. I love comic books. And I also action adventures films. So I should have liked it, but no. Guardians of the Galaxy (Vol 1) was the worst movie of 2014 for me. 

So when I walked into the theater alone on Saturday morning to check out the sequel, I wasn't expecting much. But from the fade up in the opening scene, it was very apparent that this was going to be a completely different viewing experience. After each amazing scene, I kept muttering to myself: "I can't believe I love this." Because I did! I freaking loved this movie. 

And here's why!

(Spoiler warning!!!)

1. It has more heart.

Something very unexpected happened to me when I watched GGv2. It was this --> What's this on my face? Are these tears?!?! During the last act of the movie, I was sitting in my squeaky theater chair crying and wishing that I brought tissues.

GGV2 relied heavily on exploring familial dynamics. StarLord's everlasting search for his father, who actually turns out to be a self-centered D-head, and the decision he has to make about having him in his life. And Gamora's strained relationship with her villainous sister, Nebula, who only wants to kill her because she's so angry that she never cared for the way a sister should. It's all very complicated!  And it's all very real. These are issues that anyone would struggle with...not just people who fly around in spacesuits having cosmic battles.

2. Better character development.

Volume 2 thematically had more going for it. And each character had their own arcs that made them less cardboardy than the characters they were in the first film. The first movie was all about "Let's Get the Gang together for some crazy heist," which was problematic for me because frankly I don't care much about how awesome they are at doing what they do (or how cool the gang looks while walking in slow motion); I care more about each character and why they do what they do. This film gave me a lot of that.

Which leads me to...

3. Character redemption.

I'm a sucker for these! It must be all that Buffy I watched as a teenager. In the first GG, I didn't care at all about Yondu. Actually, I don't even remember what he did in that first movie. All I remember is that he's Merle from The Walking Dead, but painted blue.

But in Vol 2, Yondu was easily the most memorable character. Because of instead of being this villainy villain, I got to know more about him. And he wasn't pure evil at all; he was just a guy who made very different choices in his life. This, my friends, is a sign of good writing. You don't want a villain who does bad things just because; we have to understand why he does all those bad things.

In Volume 2, we're reminded that we should hate this dude because he kidnapped Peter Quill when he was a young kid and basically forced him into slave labor. Sylvester Stallone even comes into the scene to spell it all out for us. And yeah, that's totally evil. I agree with Sylvester Stallone.

But as the story goes on, we learned that all this time he didn't want to kill and eat Peter Quill all this time; Yondu was actually keeping Peter away from his d-bag father, and that this blue-skinned rapscallion actually cared for Peter like he was his own son. FAMILY, people!! Here it is!  But then spoiler...

...he dies. What's a proper character redemption without his death??? These type of characters have to die eventually. Mostly because their narrative arc is completed at that point and there's no more real use for them.

And once that whole child kidnapping misunderstanding is cleared up, Sylvester Stallone returns along with the other Ravagers to give Yondu the proper send-off to celestial eternity. And there's fireworks and tears and really old Cat Stevens music, and it's really beautiful. Yondu's storyline is tied up really nice and neatly, and I am thoroughly satisfied.

4. Less Groot.

When I first heard news that Vin Diesel was going to voice Groot for GG, I thought it was great casting. Because I LOVED him in The Iron Giant, which is interesting to say because that character said pretty much nothing...  But, when I met Groot onscreen for the first time, I was deeply let down.  Narratively, they used Groot just like the Robot in the Iron Giant. So when Groot sacrificed himself for his friends, I was just like "Seen this. Already felt that pain in my heart!" 

I know that I'm not in the majority on this, but I thought their use of his character in the sequel was just the right amount. Because less is more! But mostly, I didn't want to read  "We are Groot" tweeted over and over again on my twitter feed. 

I know I'm hating way too much on Groot. But I will give you Groot fans this. He is adorable. And the gag scene of little Groot trying to find the prototype weapon that will help his friends break out of their jail cell was perfect. Bravo.

Alright, THE END!!!! See you, Space Cowboy....oh wait, that's for another space story....

YALLWest 2017!

This past Saturday was my second time at YALLWest. Books, food trucks, and all my favorite authors = awesome!

As always, it was great seeing young readers gathering together and geeking out over books. And I felt a pang of jealousy because I never really had bookish friends to discuss my favorite stories with. 

When I was in Middle School, I remember going to the town library after school. I rarely saw anyone from my class there. So, I had no idea who was reading what, and if they were reading anything at all. And it made me think that reading wasn't "cool." I became very secretive about my reading addiction because I didn't want anyone in school to judge me. At school, I kept my library books in my backpack but never took them out for fear that people would see the dragon on the cover and then laugh in my face. But being at YALLWest, I realized that much has changed since then. And it made me think that these kids are really lucky to have found a community where they can be honest about how much they love reading.

When my boyfriend joined us later on in the day, he told me the first thing he saw was a young boy hugging an armful of books and exclaiming, "I'm so overwhelmed!" It was the most adorable story I ever heard. I wish I was there to give that kid a high-five, but also to tell him that the struggle will never, ever go away...

It's a dilemma only us readers will ever know.

And I'm finally here.

After dabbling in posting through so many different mediums (including Medium), I thought I'd finally do it for real. On my real website (which has, at long last, been rejuvenated after all these years). On the real internets. With real content (or what I think is real content).

In the past I've been so worried about showing everyone a specific side of myself through very compartmentalized webspeak, all of it curated for whatever audience that content spoke to. A fashion blog just for posting about all the designers I obsess over. A tumblr just for posting all my geek gifs. A Medium site which basically was all Block B posts. 

But now, all of THAT will live HERE.

Get ready. Because you are going to know the real me. Everything from kpop to Comme Des Garcons to my stress-filled writing journey.

So, grab a cup of matcha, and let's start getting to know each other.