Just in case anyone missed them, here are the 4 festivids I made this year:

Title: Body High
Music: "Body High" by Mike Taylor
Fandom: Ghostbusters (2016)
Focus: Jillian Holtzmann
Summary: You give me a body high.
Body High DW link

Title: You're So Beautiful
Music: "You're So Beautiful (White Party Version)" by Empire Cast featuring Jussie Smollett
Fandom: The Get Down (2016)
Focus: Dizzee/Thor
Summary: It sure looks good to me.
You're So Beautiful DW link

Title: Dance
Music: "Dance" by POWERS
Fandom: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
Focus: Rebecca, Paula, Valencia, Heather
Summary: Prepare to surrender to the power of femslash.
Dance DW link

Title: Crash
Music: "Crash" by Gwen Stefani
Fandom: Bound (1996)
Focus: Corky/Violet
Summary: Do me real hard.
Crash DW link

There's also a new vid exchange called Equinox that will run in both spring and fall with different themes (voted on) which you can find more about here. The current exchange is space themed and you can find a list of letters with fandoms and requests here if you want to make any treats. I didn't sign up but I maaaay make a treat depending on time and motivation. I have a bunch of vids planned for cons so I'm not sure if I will but you never know.

I'm mostly still on Twitter these days but I'm enjoying all the posts on DW and hope to post more here soon!

Title: Dance
Music: "Dance" by POWERS
Fandom: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
Focus: Rebecca, Paula, Valencia, Heather
Summary: Prepare to surrender to the power of femslash.
Content Notes: Physical triggers (e.g., epilepsy or migraine: strobe lights, bright lights, "stuttery" cuts between 2-3 stills)
Notes: Made for awkwardlyary in Festivids 2016. Thanks to lola for the quick beta!
Download Link: Dance (76 MB MP4)
AO3 | Tumblr



When I saw awkwardlyary's requests go up, I loved most of them and wanted to make something for her. Finally I heard this song and knew I could make a fun dance vid for Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. I didn't have a lot of time so I decided to limit myself to the music videos from the show and had SO much fun watching them again as I forgot how hilarious they were. I wanted to focus on my favorite women and the femslashy ships with them since that's my favorite part of the show. It was a lot of fun to vid all the dance-y clips and find all the parallels and femslashy footage in the source and it came out relatively quickly. Even if you don't watch the show, I highly recommend watching all the music videos which you can find on Youtube.

Title: Body High
Music: "Body High" by Mike Taylor
Fandom: Ghostbusters (2016)
Focus: Jillian Holtzmann
Summary: You give me a body high.
Content Notes: Physical triggers (e.g., epilepsy or migraine: strobe lights, bright lights, "stuttery" cuts between 2-3 stills)
Notes: Made for grammarwoman in Festivids 2016. Thanks to bessyboo for the quick beta!
Download Link: Body High (83 MB MP4)
AO3 | Tumblr



After I saw Ghostbusters, I was SO in love with Jillian Holtzmann and I figured I'd have to vid her at some point to let out my feels. I had an idea for a Holtzmann vid I wanted to make so I offered it for Festivids and was happy to see I got assigned a fellow Holtzmann lover :) I struggled some with my idea which turned out to be bigger than I could make especially considering some RL issues and I couldn't figure out how to structure the vid. I wanted to default a lot but I pushed through and decided to cut down my idea and make a vid about Holtzmann finding her family with the ghostbusters. After that, it became a lot more fun to vid and I was able to quickly vid it and make it look the way I wanted it to look. I was glad I was able to finish and bring some more Holtzmann love to the world!

Title: Ready or Not
Music: Bridgit Mendler
Fandom: Hamilton
Summary: No one is ready for Hamilton.
Content Notes: Physical triggers (e.g., epilepsy or migraine: strobe lights, bright lights, "stuttery" cuts between 2-3 stills)
Notes: Made for sdwolfpup in Festivids 2015.
Download Link: Ready or Not (68MB MP4)
AO3 | Tumblr
Alternative streaming option on Vimeo here (PW: hamilton)



So I really wanted to make a Hamilton vid for Festivids but most of my vid ideas for the show required too much footage I didn't have as well as a lot of time that I didn't really have with all the other Festivids I wanted to make. So I thought it wouldn't happen this year until I found this song and I must have been in a Hamilton mood because only half the lyrics make sense for him and the other half are COMPLETELY wrong. But I kept getting attached to the idea and I figured if I had time, I could make a vid in the last couple days before the deadline by cutting the song down. I didn't really have time but I made enough to cut out all the lyrics that didn't fit Hamilton and just kept the last chrous and figured I'd just make a happy, Hamilton focused ensemble vid for the show. At one point, I thought about making the vid more meta about the show phenomen itself but when I tried to do that, I realized I didn't have enough time to tell both stories adequely so I just went with Hamilton the show.

It was a LOT of fun to vid this because I'm so obsessed with the musical and vidding allowed me to really see each little face movement and all the little details I miss on regular viewings. The lyric matchings were really fun although it became a bit tricky to have some more structure for when it was less obvious but I enjoyed comparing Jefferson & co to redcoats at the end fighting section as well as figuring out ways to introduce all the major players in Hamilton's life. One of my favorite clips is Hamilton's smile to Angelica because SO CUTE and I also loved putting in my little "follow" Hamilton/Washington moment. Ultimately I wanted to make it for sdwolfpup since she has been so awesome on Twitter with quoting Hamilton and being fun to talk to about Hamilton and Leslie. I wanted to make her a Burr vid actually but could never find a song that would work for such limited footage and I also figured someone else would do it. Anyways, the beginning turned out to be one of the trickiest parts but I was happy with the way the whole vid turned out in the end even if I'm not sure if it's a bit too fast. In any case, do not worry, this is DEFINITELY not the last Hamilton vid you'll see from you and I'm so excited to vid it when we have HQ footage of the whole musical to vid the longer vids in my head.

Title: Shine
Music: "Shine" by Years & Years
Fandom: RPF - Years & Years
Summary: It's you that I've been waiting to find.
Content Notes: Physical triggers (e.g., epilepsy or migraine: strobe lights, bright lights, "stuttery" cuts between 2-3 stills)
Notes: Made for winterevanesce in Festivids 2015. Thanks to bessyboo for the quick beta!
Download Link: Shine (60MB MP4)
AO3 | Tumblr
Alternative streaming option on Vimeo here (PW: olly)



So when I fell in love with Troye Sivan, I started reading some articles about him and eventually came across one talking about other gay music artists and Olly from Years & Years came up. I started listening to Years & Years music and fell in love with the deep emotion of Olly's voice as well as the band's beautiful music videos. I was intrigued by the idea to make a music video of most of their music videos to try to combine them together to tell a coherent story which I hadn't really done before and looked for a song that reflected the emotion and the story I wanted to tell. I couldn't find anything good enough and finally decided to use the song, Shine since I loved it and they had made a bunch of music videos to the song so clearly one more wouldn't be an issue ;) I clipped all the music videos and organized the clips a bit but then got distracted by my assigment so I wasn't sure if I would finish this vid since I had another ambitious vid I was working on. When I decided I wouldn't have time to finish that one, I decided to try to make this vid especially since I really wanted to make a vid for winterevanescence.

I really loved the process of trying to create a story that didn't exist through vidding instead of fic and the structure was really fun to do. I started this at the end of December and the beginning came pretty easy as knew I wanted to show Olly becoming separate from his bandmates after being distracted and tempted by pretty colors and symbols that would become important to the band. I struggled with the later parts as I soon realized that I didn't have enough footage to cover the whole song and I had to figure out which parts I had the footage to keep and would work with the story of the beginning. I was able to figure it out and I liked the whole idea I had of creating Olly's evil twin that was trying to destroy him leading to the house coming apart as Olly tried to find his way back to the happiness of playing music with his bandmates at the end. There was another layer that I didn't know if anyone would get to the story where to me it was kind of a metaphor to when you get distracted by your negative thoughts (that *evil* part of yourself) or other things that take you away from happiness and you have to find your way back to the light. In any case, I also have fun playing with the colorful footage and vidding in a little bit more of a flow-y way and I was glad that I was able to make it.

Title: Alive
Music: "Alive" by Krewella
Fandom: Pitch Perfect movies
Focus: Beca/Chloe
Summary: Come on, make me feel alive.
Content Notes: Physical triggers (e.g., epilepsy or migraine: strobe lights, bright lights, "stuttery" cuts between 2-3 stills)
Notes: Made for metatxt in Festivids 2015. Thanks to jarrow for the beta.
Download Link: Alive (94MB MP4)
AO3 | Tumblr
Alternative streaming option on Vimeo here (PW: festivids2015)



So I was planning to make metatxt a Bechloe vid since I knew she LOVED them and so when I got assigned to her, I was super excited to get a chance to actually make it especially when I read her Dear Festividdder letter which was hilarious and inspiring. I also loved that I was making it for Festivids since I had used the Pitch Perfect finale song a few years ago to make my Parks vid and it felt very full circle to vid the actual movies. My first problem though was finding the right song and that turned out to be a little harder than I thought as it took me about two weeks. While I looked around for songs, I clipped the movie and once I finished, I already had the song for Headphones so I vidded that as I was waiting but I started to get nervous because I wanted to finish the vid by the end of the November (ha!). I was complaining about it to elipie and then I started just searching for titles that reminded me of the vibe I was looking for and "Alive" was one of them, I found this song and the rest was history. Except that I actually planned to cut the song after the second chorus because I didn't think I had enough Bechloe footage but later on when I tried it, it felt cut off and like the ending wasn't strong or conclusive enough and that it needed more.

Yeah, so that's when I decided I needed to add the rest of the song and make it more of an ensemble dance chorus so that was more clipping I had to do which made the vid take longer than I expected. I struggled a little bit with making the choruses be fun and dance-y in an interesting way as well as dealing with the heavy face shots of the Bechloe scenes but was able to find a way to make it work for me and I had a lot of fun vidding the quick editing sections before the choruses. Even though it was harder than I expected and took longer, it was really fun to rekindle my Bechloe love and gave me a lot of feels and I was glad it made metatxt happy in the end.

Title: Through the Deep, Dark Wood
Music: The Veils
Fandom: How To Get Away With Murder S1 (101-110)
Focus: Annalise/Wes
Summary: I can't go back.
Content Notes: Physical triggers (e.g., epilepsy or migraine: strobe lights, bright lights, "stuttery" cuts between 2-3 stills), graphic violence
Notes: Made for nicole-anell in Festivids 2014.
Download Link: Through the Deep, Dark Woods (95 MB MP4)
AO3 | Tumblr



So I knew I wanted to make a How to Get Away With Murder vid for Festivids and I was lucky enough to have two great songs fall into my hands for it. I decided to make this one because I looove Annalise/Wes and wanted to vid out my feelings for them. Plus I knew Nicole liked them too so she would enjoy it as well. I started vidding the beginning but after that I was busy working on my other Festivids and this one started to fall by the wayside. But I was determined to make it and I was able to finish clipping and get little bits of vidding done in the weeks before golive. Finally I was down to my last two days of vidding and this was one of the vids I worked on with the deadline forcing me to let go of my perfectionism issues with vidding all the fast parts. This vid almost didn't exist, I literally was up ALL night finishing it and at 4am almost gave up on it because I was so tired and didn't think I could finish it. Thankfully, a few supportive words from a friend and taking a short break got me back to finishing it and I was able to finish up all edits before golive went live. I was also very thankful for the last episode of HTGAWM that aired a couple days before the golive deadline that gave me some AMAZING footage that I put to good use.

Title: Can't Pretend
Music: "Can't Pretend" by Tom Odell
Fandom: Luther S1-3
Focus: John/Alice
Summary: Our souls, they blend.
Content Notes: Graphic Violence
Notes: Made for lunesque in Festivids 2014.
Download Link: Can't Pretend (85 MB MP4)
AO3 | Tumblr



So I finally watched Luther around October (?) of last year and fell madly in love with Luther/Alice. I didn't expect to make a vid for them for this year's Festivids but in looking for shipper songs to express my feels for them, I heard the song Can't Pretend (which was on my to-vid playlist from last Festivids) and it was SO THEM and all of a sudden I wanted to vid it for them. Problem was I was worried about time and my original plan for this vid was a lot more ambitious (turned out it wasn't right for this vid). So I decided to pick up a pinch hit for lunesque to give me the deadline motivation to clip and vid this song which felt a bit above my ability. I clipped out most of the J/A stuff and was having fun vidding the beginning and a few other of my favorite ideas for the vid when I started stalling and having trouble getting myself to vid this. Largely I had such big perfectionist ideas about the vid that my fear of failure made me avoid the vid which is how I ended up having to vid this in the last two weeks before the deadline which does get rid of fear of failure but was not fun when also trying to finish my assignment vid. Ultimately there are a few things I wanted to change and make better but I ran out of time and now don't have the motivation to fix. But I'm glad I was able to make a shipper vid for them that expressed why I love them so much and was able to let out some of my feelings.

Title: Infinite
Vidder: Anoel
Music: "Chicago" by Sufjan Stevens
Fandom: The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Focus: Charlie, Charlie/Sam/Patrick
Summary: "And in that moment, I swear we were infinite.”
Notes: Made for Rhea314 in Festivids 2014.
Download Link: Infinite (92 MB MP4)
AO3 | Tumblr

I read The Perks of Being a Wallflower a few years ago and fell in love with it and was so happy to find out the writer was making a film version of the book so I could vid it. I wanted to vid the movie last Festivids but couldn't find the right song but in the last year I heard this song and fell in love as it captured the book and movie perfectly. I made this vid in the first couple weeks after assignments went out as it was relatively easy to make as most of the structure and clips easily came to me and it was a lot of fun to vid. It's a bit different than my normal style in that I wanted to let the clips breathe more and fully show the connection between the three of them.

Even though I'm not in school right now, the beginning of September always feels like a new beginning to me. It seems like a good time to share my plans for the rest of the year and the time to come as I finally have some ideas of what I want to do.

First a catchup of the last three months. In May, I went to a fun Ingrid Michaelson concert with beerbad and had a great time listening to some of my favorite songs. Mother's Day was pretty sad and I tried to avoid the media but eventually gave in and just scrolled through and watched some sad TV shows and cried some. One of the most fun things I did was go to Malibu State Park and go to this little pond (not sure what the right word is here) where they had cliff jumping rocks and I went to the highest one (about 30 feet) and jumped off of it. It was SO fun and I had been feeling kind of meh about the world and it gave me an adrenaline rush that made me feel happy and full of hope again. I just love feeling like I'm flying and being that high in the air, I really felt like I was in the air on the way down and it felt amazing. I also went to a fun Harry Potter roller skating event where there was a ton of people dressed up and they played Harry Potter songs and it was just really fun even though at the end the music was meh so I put on my headphones and listened to shippy songs for my favorite couples (mostly Kane/Toews). I went to a Memorial Day BBQ with other geeky/fannish type people and had fun playing Cards Against Humanity and talking various TV shows with people. I had a lot of fun going to see the Chicago Blackhawks play the Los Angeles Kings at the Staples Center in my first live hockey game and I was lucky enough to see it with celli and get to see Toews score a goal right in front of me. celli and I had a lot of fun talking hockey and various real life stuff after the game and it was fun getting a chance to get to know her better. I also went to see a screening of the Mindy Project season finale and got to see a cast Q&A and later got to meet Mindy Kaling for the fourth time - and she remembered who I was for the third time ever. It was pretty cool and she even took a selfie of her and me. I also went to my second cousin's bridal shower and got to catch up with that side of my family and got to see my grandma's sister as well which was nice and I'm looking forward to going to his wedding in November.

In June, I spent a lot of time finishing my Femslash Premiere and my Premieres vid for Vividcon which was a bit stressful but I was ultimately able to finish by the deadline. I was also following the NBA draft and super happy when my favorite player, Tyler Ennis was selected 18th in the draft and another Syracuse player, Jerami Grant went to the Philadelphia 76ers which has a Syracuse player, Michael Carter-Williams who just won Rookie of the Year and who I slash with his friend on the team, Nerlens Noel so I'm looking forward to OT3ing them together. I also started watching the World Cup, following it seriously for the first time ever and fell in love with the USA team, most of all the coach, Jurgen Klinsmann. Jurgen who was a big star in Europe who won the World Cup with Germany in 1990, coached the German team to a 3rd place finish in 2006 (in Germany) but who loves the USA and lives there with his family so he decided to coach the USA team in 2011 and is attempting to turn the team around so it can eventually win the World Cup with the men's team. I really love what he's trying to do and his personality and I have a lot of hope that he can help us win it all so I began to follow the US team and was in ecstasy after we beat Ghana and went to a USA bar for the Portugal game with cenedrawood and was SO HAPPY when USA came back from a 0-1 deficit to be winning 2-1...only to lose in the last thirty seconds in one of the most heartbreaking sports moments ever for me. Thankfully we still had another game against Germany where Jurgen was coaching against his friend, Joachim Löm (who was his assistant coach when he coached Germany) and since I ship them together (thanks to caesaria), it was an entertaining game for me if terrifying. We lost by one but were still able to make it out of the group stages where we played Belgium which I don't even want to talk about because I'm still super bitter and prefer to think about how Tim Howard made 15 saves and Julian Green scored a goal on his first touch even though he's only 19 years old and was another young player that people complained about being on the roster and yet was one of the many players to prove that Jurgen knew what he was doing cause he's an amazing coach <3 Anyways, I started out rooting for Brazil (because they were at home, it meant a lot to them and they spent so much money at least they could get SOMETHING out of it), Germany, England, Italy and I also added the Netherlands after I saw their first game against Spain and enjoyed watching Robben and van Persie play. Eventually Germany and Netherlands were my favorite teams as after watching a documentary about the 2006 German team and falling in love with Robben as a player I wish I could be like, I emotionally connected with them, plus it helped that both teams did super well.

In July, I was really into basketball as the NBA summer league started and all the new rookies, 2nd year players and undrafted players trying to get a spot on rosters were playing and I watched the 76ers team do well in Orlando with my guy, Jerami Grant. The major summer league was in Las Vegas though and I decided to go to Vegas, buy tickets for the games (they're cheap) and let out my basketball feelings while trying to meet some of my favorite Syracuse players since many of them were going to be there. I had an amazing time, getting autographs and talking to Tyler Ennis, Rakeem Christmas (current SU player), Jerami Grant, Michael Carter-Williams, Baye Moussa Keita and Brandon Triche (former SU players) as well as watching a ton of players play for their teams. Unfortunately my car had some issues so I stayed longer than I wanted to but I also had fun hanging out with n0apologies (twitter) who I had met at Wincon and we had a great time talking about our lives, Adam Lambert, Queer as Folk and other fannish topics. I was also there duing the World Cup final and went to a bar to watch Germany play Argentina where thankfully Germany won and I was SO HAPPY as Jogi Low and the team had come soooo close to winning in the last 8 years and always came up a little short so I was super happy for the team to finally win it all and I just had such a fun time celebrating, happy crying and joining in the celebrations at the German bar.

Finally I got back to LA and had fun going to elipie's karaoke birthday party and then going to a Lady GaGa concert with her where we won free seat upgrades and got to hang in the VIP lounge with free drinks and hang out with hot half-naked boys while we could easily see Lady GaGa especially when she came over to the platform right above us. It was super fun getting to hear her sing some of her classic songs and she's an amazing performer so we had a fun time singing her songs and enjoying the performance. At the end of July, I went back home to Syracuse where I spent some time with my dad, caught up with my best friend and hung out with my cats at home. I also drove down to Pennsylvania to visit my cousin's family and spend some time with my aunt. My cousin is starting her own business so I spent a little bit of time at her shop and we also went with her family and my aunt to one of my favorite amusement parks where we used to go almost every year as a kid so it was very nostalgic to be back there again. Speaking of nostalgia, I also went to visit my childhood elementary school and was bummed to see they tore down the playground I had loved although they are building a new one, it's not the same. After that, I went to Vividcon which I'll talk about in a different post but the Wednesday after that, I had an amazing time going to Six Flags Magic Mountain with elipie getting a chance to talk about Vividcon, new vidding ideas and other fannish stuff.

This summer I had planned on taking some courses related to college admission counseling but after a couple of days trying to take them, I realized my heart wasn't in them as I wasn't sure yet whether that's what I wanted to do as it might not be big enough for me career-wise. Thankfully I was able to get a full refund and another thing that affected my decision was a revelation I had thought of while reading books about colleges. I kept having regrets while reading on how I wish I had gotten a true college experience and had gone to a more intellectual school when I realized - I could still do that. There was a college I had first heard about in high school called St. John's College that covered in four years, many of the so called Great Books but without lectures, it's all discussion based or laboratory based as they cover science using classic experiments and original texts for everything. Two of the most interesting aspects is learning Ancient Greek and learning math from classic books like Euclid's Elements which I've always wanted to do to understand more of where the English language comes from and understand the basis of math which I've always though could be interesting in the right context. The college is pretty intense but that's exactly what I want, a place where people want to read and think about some of life's biggest questions by reading some of the most enduring books many of which I've always wanted to read and just needed some more structure and people to discuss them with. I feel like my intellectual development has been pretty stunted the last seven years and I know I need to take a big leap to become the person I've always wanted to be and this college is the perfect way to take my communication skills both written and oral to the next level. I am an ambitious person and I have big dreams of doing things to change the world but I need to build a strong foundation so that I can accomplish that so I think I need to take a risk to go to this college and become the person I want to be.

During the summer I started working on my application which consists of three essays talking about why I want to go to the college, a book that has influenced me and a significant experience that has left an impact on me and I'm working on finishing that up by the end of this month. The college has a January program that I'm looking to get accepted at where by going to school over the summer, I'll be all caught up with the freshman year program and will be a regular sophomore by the time next September comes around (but thankfully I will get a summer vacation right before the first potential Vividcon weekend). The college gives good financial aid so I'm not too worried about the money aspect, the bigger opportunity cost for me is the time but I think the education I'm getting will be worth it and I'll be doing part time jobs, volunteer work and internships during the school years and summer to help me figure out the best work for me to do after college and I always have a backup job as a programmer as well. One of the biggest negatives is the college is in Santa Fe and although the weather is not too much colder than LA (averaging 45-85 plus like 6 snow days blech), it'll still be a big adjustment leaving the city (and friends!) I love to be in a much smaller city with less things to do (although Albuquerque is only 45 minutes away and Denver/Phoenix are semi-close too). But I think it's worth it for this oppurtunity that I can't get anywhere else and I feel like I'll always regret it and wonder what if, if I decided not to do go. Plus I'll definitely be visiting LA during breaks, Escapade and during my free summers so I think I'll be able to survive. Another concern is the book list is not that diverse but I know there are book groups there that cover more classic books written by women, minorities and Eastern writers so I'll be sure to be reading them. Something I'm excited about is they have a lot of sports intramurals so I'll still be able to play soccer, tennis and there's lots of nature for hiking and even rock climbing. Most importantly, I'll finally get to have a true college experience and make lots of new friends as even though the college is small, people are very self-selected towards the kind of people I tend to get along with (minus your obligatory pretentious arrogant idiots) so I'm looking forward to that. It'll be a big life change for me but I think this is the best step I can make in working on becoming who I want to be and for my development to being able to help the world solve the major problems we're facing.

I originally was applying for this fall semester but I was having a hard time being ready for that so I decided to wait til January although I have a plan for what I will be doing in LA until then. A friend recommended to me a friend of hers who has a philosophy PHD and is willing to meet with me to go over classic texts that I want to start reading this fall so I can have some accountability and someone to discuss things with to prepare me for St. John's College. I'm planning on working on doing more reading (besides fanfic of course) this fall as I sample many books from nonfiction to fiction in many genres. I'm going to be focusing especially about reading books about California and LA as I want to work on solving problems in the state and want to become more knowledgeable about the issues surrounding the state. I also am going to be doing some volunteering with various organizations to learn more about LA and start figuring out what exactly I would enjoy doing for jobs. I also have a part time job I'll be working on to earn some extra money. Another big goal of mine for this fall is to start seriously trying to date while I still have time in LA which should hopefully give me more motivation to do it. I'm also continuing to work on improving my Spanish through Duolingo and translating Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone from Spanish to English using my Kindle App Spanish to English dictionary. And I definitely want to spend more time with my friends in Los Angeles while I'm still here.

Another big focus for me this fall is heath and fitness as I'd like to lose about 15-20 pounds before the end of this year. I signed up for an accountability type service which has been good with keeping me on track with my eating and exercise goals. Something inspiring for me was watching Kacey Cantanzaro complete the city finals course for American Ninja Warrior, an obstacle course competition where participants can win 500k for winning the finals course in Las Vegas. That inspired me to look into parkour and rock climbing which are two training aspects that some of the best competitors do. I figured that even if I don't make it, it'd be a fun goal to try to train for the course as it looks really fun and it's something that anyone can accomplish even if they don't have a lot of training when they were younger (unlike most sports). Thankfully there is a parkour (more accurately, freerunning) gym in the LA area and I've already taken two beginner lessons there and had fun practicing in the opening gym sessions. So far it's pretty basic, working on vaulting over objects and precision jumping, jumping from one ledge to another but it's been really fun and a great workout and I look forward to being able to do the crazy workouts I see in the gym. I was super scared about doing a flip from the high ledge into the pit (filled with soft foam stuff) but finally managed to gather my courage and did as well as do some flips on the trampoline. I also attempted to run up the warped wall they have in the gym and tried to jump from one bar to another (not there yet). I've also been into soccer as I really enjoy team sports so I signed up for a three days a week soccer class at my local community college and although it's a bit intimidating as it's all guys except one other girl and many of them want to compete on the soccer team at the college, so far I've been having fun playing (minus getting blisters on my feet from my new cleats). I even scored a goal during a game! We've been mostly just playing games which was a bit disappointing as I hoped to practice some skills work as well but it's been fun and I've been learning a lot even if it's been pretty hot playing during the summer. I've also been keeping up with my strength training workouts since March and been continually adding more weight to my lifts. Food is always tough for me as I hate cooking and love delicious food but I've been making a lot of progress and have lost three pounds so far.

I can't wait for the new TV season! I've been watching some of the trailers for the new shows and have added a few shows that I'm going to check out this fall. While A to Z has a couple of annoying things about it, it also features the Mother from HIMYM and as soul destroying it is seeing her, the show looks really cute and right up my romantic loving alley with the whole matchmaking element. I'm also excited for How to Get Away With Murder as Viola Davis looks amazing in it, the premise sounds fun and deliciously messed up and I will always trust Shonda Rhimes to do crazy things. I'm also going to check out Utopia which fascinates me as I've always loved thinking about how to create the perfect society although the reality show format makes me keep my expectations down. I am also looking forward to checking out Survivor's Remorse which is about a BASKETBALL PLAYER (!!!) who becomes successful and must deal with everything that comes with it which sounds super fun for me to vicariously see that side of things and is produced by Lebron James (who I've come to not hate since he went back to Cleveland) so I'm very curious to check it out. I kind of wish I could watch The Flash because the lead actor is a guy I found SUPER hot on Glee (Sebastian!) but I've sworn off all superhero shows unless it features a female/PoC lead so I'll just be checking out Agent Carter. Mostly I'm going to be listening to friends and critics to see if there are any high quality shows I should check out. I'm really looking forward to The Mindy Project, Faking It and Scandal coming back especially the first two as they feature two of my favorite ships. I'm mostly planning on using the fall to continue to catch up with some well written shows I haven't watched yet including Deadwood which I MUST finish by the end of the year. On the movie side of things, this summer I LOVED Maleficent (Maleficent/Aurora all the way!), enjoyed X-Men: Days of Future Past and am looking forward to seeing The Hunger Games 3, The Hobbit 3 and Annie (love the trailer!). On the sports side of things, my new soccer team is Bayern Munich since they have my favorite player, Arjen Robben, lots of German players from the national team like Müller, Neuer and Götze and my fave USA guy, Julian Green (although he's on loan to Hamburg this year) so I already have an emotional investment in them and will be watching all their games. I'm casually following the English Premier League (mostly for my USA/Germany people) and some college football as well and will be checking out my usual NFL teams this fall (although I'm still super bitter there's no LA team) such as the Bills, 49ers, Giants, Chargers and Jets. We'll see timewise what happens as once NBA seasons starts in late October and Syracuse basketball in November, most of my attention will go to that because YAY BASKETBALL. Hockey will be back in October as well and I will check out some Chicago games sometimes.

Super excited for Festivids! I have about 6 possible nominations at the moment although I worry about qualification for a couple of them but I'm excited about them and the vid ideas I want to make already. Before I get my assignment though, I need to start working on my Escapade vid as that's going to require a time committment and I have another vid idea I want to make for next year that I need to get started on clipping right now to get it done in time for VVC. I have another vid that's almost done that I should hopefully post in the next week as well. I have a couple ideas that require me to stretch my skills that I'm really excited about even if it'll be a challenge, it should be fun to do. Other fun fandom-y things coming up is a bunch of NorCal (and elsewhere) fangirls are planning a Fandom Beach Vacation where we rent a beach house and just hang out all day and I'm so excited to hang out with my fandom friends in November :) I also need to plan out what to do for my birthday in October this year, I have an idea and need to check if it's realistic. I still can't believe I'm going to be 27...is that officially late 20s? Eek. But hopefully with all the plans I have in place, I'll be ready to enjoy this time in my life shortly!