If We Were Having Coffee #2

So I've been generally a rather sporadic blogger for the past month and I'm so sorry for that! I love talking to you guys and I miss interacting with everyone. I've just found myself really busy lately and whenever I do have down time, I'm usually using it to finish the homework I procrastinated on (always) or doing things that don't require much thinking like watching TV or listening to music or surfing the web and NOT reading or blogging. So I'm sorry that I haven't been around. I truly miss you all so so much! I haven't created a game plan yet for jumping back into blogging more regularly and I don't know when that'll happen but I thought it might be good for me to pop in today since I haven't posted in over a week.

So hello everyone, I did not disappear into thin air! Just really busy but I thought I'd check in today and update you guys on what's been going on in my life.


If we were having coffee, I would tell you how I broke my phone. I dropped it on the floor - a really rough tiled floor, to be exact - and the screen cracked. I mean, that's the way things work but considering the number of times I've dropped it before and it survived (even on hard concrete sidewalk once), it was a LITTLE surprising for me. I'd gotten to thinking my phone was indestructible! Clearly not... I got the screen replaced this past week and now I'm going to be extra careful! My parents weren't as mad as I thought they'd be - in fact they weren't mad at all, more exasperated or annoyed - but I know if I were to drop it a second time, they would be and I don't want that to happen. But yeah, it's really nice to have my phone back and working again. I wasn't dying during the four days I went phone-less but it was rather strange and inconvenient when I wanted to call or text someone.


If we were having coffee, I'd start gushing about Taylor Swift's new album 1989. IT IS SO FREAKING FANTASTIC. I've been waiting and waiting for it and then it was finally here and I was so nervous it would let me down but it didn't. Seriously I just love everything Taylor does. This album is one of her best FOR SURE. Her vision was so clear and it was evident through the music and the packaging and everything. I also loved her lyrics and how she was experimenting more with her range like using her lower register more and ugh, just so good in general. So so good. Please go take a listen to it. I think I might type up a post soon (once I ease myself back into blogging) on 1989 and some of my favourite songs and my thoughts in more detail.


If we were having coffee, I'd tell you about how I climbed the CN Tower this month! It was actually three weeks ago but I'm still not quite over it. Probably one of my biggest achievements ever. In case you don't know, the CN Tower is this really popular attraction in Toronto and stair climbs for it are really common throughout the year. For some people, it's like this annual tradition. This year was my first so my time wasn't amazing but I'm still so proud and happy that I did it. It's really such a great experience though I won't lie, it really tested my muscular endurance. I was crawling up the stairs by the end but there was a poster I saw that really motivated me and it said "pain will be forgotten but pride will not." So I kept on thinking about that while I was climbing the stairs and I made it! Somehow... I don't know, the pain really was forgotten. But anyway, I did it and am planning on going next year again and hopefully get a better time!


If we were having coffee, I'd tell you about all the wonderful books I got from the library a few days ago! I just felt like I was so out of material for reading so I had my dad drive me to the library and I got books that I'm all super excited for! I think I might do a book haul with those books and some others I've received this coming week because I do want to make another video. I'm not sure yet... We'll see!


If we were having coffee, I would tell you about how report cards will be issued home really soon and I'M SO NERVOUS. I don't think I failed any courses but still anxious. Report cards are always a source of anxiety. Especially this one because it's so early in the school year that it's never an accurate representation of how well or how bad you actually do. My marks will probably be really, really inflated which is a little sad to think about. Like how my marks at the end of the year most likely will not match my marks now? Anyway fingers crossed for the best!


If we were having coffee, I'd tell you about how I got accepted into this TED conference for youths in Toronto. It's really really exciting! I'm so looking forward to seeing all the speakers in November. Slowly counting down the days...


If we were having coffee, the last thing I'd talk about is blogging. I've been having a really hard time with blogging (and reading) lately and I honestly don't know how it's going to go. I just haven't been feeling the motivation to blog at all and I'm not sure what to do so I'm going to wait and let it play out and then decide. I miss you all so much but blogging has just been really difficult to make time for lately and when I do sit down to blog, it's so strange because I haven't done it in ages and the words don't come to me at all. It's not natural. So I don't know yet what to do... I'll just sit on it for a while and see if I want to stop or whatever.



That's pretty much it for me right now. What's been going on with you guys? Tell me in the comments!

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

The Raven Cycle #1

Published July 30, 2013 by Scholastic Books

Paperback, 409 pages

Borrowed from library

(from Goodreads because I don't know how to summarize this book.)

“There are only two reasons a non-seer would see a spirit on St. Mark’s Eve,” Neeve said. “Either you’re his true love . . . or you killed him.”

It is freezing in the churchyard, even before the dead arrive.

Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue herself never sees them—not until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks directly to her.

His name is Gansey, and Blue soon discovers that he is a rich student at Aglionby, the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble.

But Blue is drawn to Gansey, in a way she can’t entirely explain. He has it all—family money, good looks, devoted friends—but he’s looking for much more than that. He is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven Boys: Adam, the scholarship student who resents all the privilege around him; Ronan, the fierce soul who ranges from anger to despair; and Noah, the taciturn watcher of the four, who notices many things but says very little.

For as long as she can remember, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love to die. She never thought this would be a problem. But now, as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she’s not so sure anymore.

From Maggie Stiefvater, the bestselling and acclaimed author of the Shiver trilogy and The Scorpio Races, comes a spellbinding new series where the inevitability of death and the nature of love lead us to a place we’ve never been before.

The Raven Boys was not a book I was in the least bit interested in picking up at all. I'd always seen it around the blogosphere - multiple bloggers raving about it but all of that flew way over my head. My friend convinced me to read it though so I was like "Okay, why not? I don't really know what it's about so why don't I give it a shot?" And now here we are... This might be the start of something new, you guys.

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I love the clairvoyant/psychic aspect.

So our main character, Blue, comes from a family of psychics. She herself is not a psychic but her family is and one of my favorite parts was being able to get acquainted with all her family and their line of work. I find psychics so interesting and while I don't believe it 100%, I'm not a total skeptic either. Like I wouldn't rule out its existence. The general idea though of being able to be in touch with a person's future and to know the unknown is so fascinating to me and also quite spooky, regardless of whether it's true or not and The Raven Boys didn't help to quench that fascination. If anything, I'd say I'm even more interested especially after learning about things like ley lines and St. Mark's Eve which I had no idea was even a thing. Very, very interesting and definitely one of my favourite parts of the book. 

This book was so gripping.

Usually it takes me a while to really get into a book and determine whether I'll like it or not but the first page for The Raven Boys and BAM I was into it. I could not stop reading after that. Maggie's writing is so wonderful and clear and the story is so interesting. Everything just works so well together that I couldn't help myself. I just had to read on and find out what would happen to the Raven Boys. This book was 400 pages long but honestly it felt like 100 because I was so enamored in it!

I wish there was more development of the characters.

I loved what we saw of the characters. I loved Blue and the Raven Boys and Maura but I also felt like there needed to be more focus on developing those characters. Truthfully they were very one-dimensional for me and while I still adored them, I feel like if there was even more development and exploration of their personalities, it would have made the book even better. I would have beyond loved it!

It took me a while to understand exactly what was going on.

The whole Welsh mythology thing was really interesting but it was so confusing. I felt like it wasn't really explained in a clear way and it took me a really long time to figure out what was going on. Honestly even now, I'm not quite sure why Gansey was on this hunt and why it was so important to him and how he came about it in the first place. Maybe these aren't questions with answers that would be relevant to the story but I'd like to know even for some a greater grasp on Gansey's character.

A solid first book in a series! There was enough about it that I liked and enough about it that was interesting that urges me to continue with the series but there were a couple things that I felt like were missing too. The characters felt a little flat for me and it took me really long to catch on. I also wanted to see more of the Welsh mythology and the whole Blue-Gansey ghost thing which I felt like wasn't even touched on in this book. Really excited to get to the next book though and perhaps get to find out more about everything that was introduced in this book!

people who enjoyed Anna Dressed in Blood or The Archived. It's a paranormal-fantasy book set in real time so if you like those type of books, you'll like this! Also if you like slightly spooky books, this is a good one for you.

4 Reasons to Go See The F Word/What If

By the time you're reading this, The F Word/What If most likely isn't in theatres any more because this post is way overdue. I went to go see this movie in theatres right when school started back at the very beginning of September and planned to write this post but by then, I just didn't have energy to blog so this post got pushed back and now... here we are. I would have just scrapped this post altogether but The F Word/What If was just SUCH a good movie, I had to tell you guys about it.

So first I guess I should mention that this film actually goes under two names: The F Word and What If. For Canadian release, the film used its original name (I think?) of The F Word but for everywhere-else-release, it went under What If. I'm probably just going to end up using The F Word to refer to film when I get tired of typing out The F Word/What If because that's the name that's familiar to me.

And just to sum it up very, very briefly, The F Word is a romantic comedy about a girl and a guy who meet at a party and end up getting stuck in the friendzone (hence, the F Word) and it's really hilarious and wonderful and I think that's all you really need to know but if that summary kinda sucked, then visit the IMDB page for more information.

4 Reasons to Go See The F Word.

It's filmed in my favourite city ever, TORONTO!

Maybe this won't be a selling point for you but for me, it definitely was! A lot of films actually get filmed in Toronto (hence why it gets called "Hollywood North" a lot) but it's not often that a film that gets filmed in Toronto is actually meant to be set in Toronto so with The F Word, you actually got to see all the cool Toronto landmarks that probably wouldn't make it into other films filmed in Toronto because it would contradict the setting the movie is supposed to take place in. 

The screenwriter, Elan Mastai talks about this (kinda) and I thought it was interesting so I'll share it with you:

"My personal, emotional life was bound up in the iconography of the city," Mastai said. “I was thrilled we got to shoot it in Toronto. I feel like Toronto is often treated very coldly in the movies when it’s being treated at all... I always prefer to have the movie set where we shoot it, so that you’re not hiding anything or trying to pawn it off as some kind of Anytown, U.S.A. If you make a movie more specific, it actually makes it more universal… Whether you’re setting your movie in Manhattan, or Los Angeles, or Paris, or Kuala Lumpur, or Toronto, it’s always going to make the movie better, more textured, and more rounded because it’s a real place."

And I've lived here my entire life that sometimes Toronto starts to lose its magic for me but after watching this film, it was like "yeah.. I really do live in a cool city!" My friends and I were joking afterwards that the filmmakers made Toronto seem so much more hip and cool than it really is but okay guys, Toronto is actually pretty awesome even if I don't think it all the time.

Liz Braun wrote a review for the Toronto Sun about this film that sums up my thoughts totally:

"Toronto audiences get the extra bonus of seeing their city through the eyes of love, a point of view that makes every inch of the waterfront, every park and every streetcar hugely desirable. If you didn't know better you'd almost want to live there." 

Yes, that is exactly how I feel.

And even though Daniel Radcliffe was here for TIFF, it didn't really hit me that he was in MY CITY and has been to MY CITY before for this film until I saw the film and saw him WALKING ON THE SAME FREAKING STREETS I WALK ON LIKE EVERY FREAKING DAY. Holy shit.

Daniel Radcliffe and Zoe Kazan were ADORABLE.

They were actually soooo cute. I can't even explain. I can't even. I'm unable to even. Like what the heck?? Is it even possible to be that cute? So many feels. So many great, great, great cute moments. And their banter was fabulous. So hilarious and ADORABLE. Like obviously, in real life unless you ARE Daniel Radcliffe and Zoe Kazan, the banter sucks. It's awkward, it's not funny, it's not cute. Or maybe that's just me? Why do movies and shows and books make banter seem so easy? It's not. All I can manage ever is a chuckle and maybe a really bad joke and then I'll end up stuttering and it's horrible. But anyway. Wallace and Chantry (Daniel Radcliffe and Zoe Kazan's characters) were A+. Really adorable but also fantastic characters. In all honesty though, all the characters were great so I guess that's another reason why you should go see this movie: fantastic characters!

Cute, cute outfits.

Zoe Kazan's character, Chantry had the CUTEST outfits. I don't know why I pick up on these things but literally every single outfit she wore, I was like OMG CAN THAT BE MINE PLEASE? They were all so cute (sorry, I lost my thesaurus) in that Taylor Swift-esque way kinda? 

It's just such a sweet and cute movie in general.

I've used cute and adorable in this post way too many times already but man, this film is just so SWEET and ADORABLE. It's such a feel good movie, I can almost guarantee you walking away from this movie smiling.

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So obviously I'm not a film expert and have no clue about the technicalities but I know what I enjoy and The F Word was definitely very enjoyable so I highly recommend you go see it and then tell me what you think! If you've already seen The F Word/What If, tell me what your thoughts were. Do you agree with me?