Saturday 31 May 2014

The Nerd List - April/May 2014

Whoa, hold up. How is it already the end of May? It seems like just yesterday I was lying in bed wishing the school year would never have to begin, but now suddenly it’s already two weeks into the second term. That’s crazy.

Anyway, here's my list of "Stuff I've Been Obsessing Over" from April to May (remember I promised a joint list because I would be away in April… and also because I hadn't done anything interesting… oops). 

Books


Books read:

Book of the month

 
The 5th Wave was one of the best alien-apocalypse novels I have ever read. It was raw, exciting and deeply moving, while still containing some of the funniest anecdotes I’ve ever read. I highly recommend reading it.

Character of the month


(I decided to go all ‘gender equality’ on this section of the blog, and changed it from 'Boy of the Month' to 'Character of the Month', seeing as both the women in the two novels that I read were so much more badass than the male protagonists, and actually ended up saving themselves AND THEN the men, rather than playing ‘damsel-in-distress’ and winning the hot guy.)

Cassie, from Rick Yancey’s The Fifth Wave, is one of the most realistic, fantastic teenager-gone-zombie-hunters I have ever come across. She doesn’t pretend to be brave, even though she is. She thinks just like a normal teenager, and doesn’t pretend to be stronger or smarter than she is. She only has one goal in mind, and she is determined to get it. She is selfless, sassy and courageous – I think she’s incredible.

Quote of the month


“Cruelty isn't a personality trait. Cruelty is a habit.”


Moments


Fangirl moment of the month


Oh and how many fangirl moments there were… Interestingly enough, I witnessed some that were not my own that definitely deserved a mention here.

My fangirl moment: Oh there were many – mostly music related, and mostly while I was away on tour. There was the time I ran into a tiny little stall on the side of the road in Florence that sold old band tees, and I spent about an hour squealing and sorting through countless Nirvana, Blink-182, Pink Floyd and Metallica T-shirts until I finally settled on a Green Day ‘American Idiot’ tour shirt that almost got confiscated by my father when I returned home. There was the episode at the Disney store when I found Stitch plush toys, the time I found out Linkin Park would release a new album soon, the time I found out 5 Seconds of Summer would releasing their first album soon, the time I found out 30 Seconds to Mars had moved their tour date, opening up more tickets that I could potentially buy if I found the money, the time I found a Captain America T-shirt in Forever 21… Yup it was definitely an exciting month. And yet, all of my fangirl sessions put together couldn’t compare to the chaos at my school when…

Biggest fangirl moment I have ever witnessed: As all South Africans should know, the ‘biggest boy band in the world’ – i.e. One Direction – is planning a tour to South Africa next year. Of course, I had no idea until I arrived at school one Tuesday morning and there were girls CRYING and SCREAMING in the locker room. You would’ve thought somebody had died. Let’s be honest here, I didn’t even cry and scream that much when I found out that Nickelback were coming to South Africa, and I thought I was a dedicated and slightly overly obsessed fan. This was so, so much worse. But it was still nothing compared to the havoc that went down that Friday when tickets were being sold. Naturally, I had asked my mother to try book me and my sister tickets online (if she could) because it’s a pretty big event, and let’s be honest, what teenage girl wouldn’t want to see five British boys prance around and sing on a massive stage? Anyway, because we all had to be at school, it seemed as though each and every single girl in the entire school – no, country – had asked their mother/father/brother/personal trainer to book them tickets at 9 a.m. In fact, there were girls frantically calling their moms during first period just to check that their mothers had their credit cards at the ready. Break time (at 9:45) was spent again frantically calling parents to check if they had managed to get tickets, which about five percent of the parents had. I swear I have never seen so many devastated, sobbing teenage girls in one place. EVER.

Facepalm moment of the month


So I heard Kim Kardashian and Kanye West got married… And had a wedding party in Versailles. VERSAILLES. That’s like one of the most lavish, prestigious palaces in the entire world. Somebody please tell me where I can acquire that much money to be able to RENT OUT VERSAILLES. Oh, and then fly ALL OF MY GUESTS to Florence for the actual wedding. Seriously. That’s insane.

But that wasn't even the real facepalm moment of the month. The REAL facepalm-worthy moment was that I actually watched their engagement on TV in a fit of boredom while at home sick yesterday, and then had the patience to read an article on their wedding in the paper. Oh, the shame…


Music


Album of the month


I already fangirled about my Beethoven Reloaded CD in my Vienna blog, and it is really good. I really enjoy listening to the remixes of Beethoven’s famous compositions, especially the Fur Elise track. Although the CD gets a bit repetitive if you listen to all the tracks at once, it is still a really cool concept, and great background music for studying or working.


Song of the month


5 Seconds of Summer released their studio version of Good Girls prior to the release of their new album, and I’m absolutely loving it at the moment. It has the great pop-punk-rock-ish sound of All Time Low, and has been played at full volume in my house enough times to get my sister grumbling about how playing the song over and over again won’t make me punk rock, no matter how much I think it does. Whatever. It’s still awesome.

Lyric of the month


“Take off your makeup and put down the camera. Choke on the drama that makes me want to tear up the pictures, the pages you’ve saved, creating a life of trends and make-believe.”
- All Time Low, The Girl's a Straight-Up Hustler

Other


Movie of the month


The only decent movie I’ve watched in the past two months is The Incredibles, and it was just as epic as I remember it being when I was a child. 



Thanks for reading!


Oh, and thanks to all the people who’ve still been reading my blogs even though I haven’t exactly been upholding my side of this relationship (i.e. posting nice, humorous blogs and entertaining book reviews that inspire others to give up their depressing lives and join the club of book nerds who spend all of their free time reading). I’ve also been noticing that my audience has spread to other areas of the world, like the UK and America and Russia – even China! (Yeah to those of you who don’t know, I can actually check how many people are reading my blog and where they’re from… I’M WATCHING YOU.) That’s so amazing, and to all of you reading my blog, no matter where you are, thank you. It means so much to me that people are actually interested in a geeky South African teenager’s perspective on the world. You’re all incredible. Thank you.

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