5SOS made me cry!

I'm living on campus again...

And surprisingly, it isn't as nerve-wracking as I thought it would be. I got a nice roommate, a strategic room despite the many stairs I need to climb to get to it, and most importantly, I'm closer to my friends now! We're not living in the same college, but it's like about 10 minutes away from me by walking so we can still plan to hang out and even have sleepovers, which is the only thing I have been anticipating since I decided to stay on campus this semester. 

Ramadan is coming...

Since I'm staying on campus this Ramadan, as opposed to last semester when I lived alone at home, I don't plan a lot in regards to food except for buying some rice, canned foods and some planning with my roommate in case the student authority is doing a spot-check to find rice cookers LOL. Besides that, I'm still planning to finish the whole Quran this upcoming Ramadan and since I'm certain I'm going to have my period very soon, I did some planning so that I can juggle doing my coursework, finishing 2 juz' a day for a week on top of other ibadah activities and other basic living obligations. I have it on the top of my head for now but will include it in my Notion page later.

I watched some very good TV shows!

Since my semester has just started and the majority of the classes I'm taking are mostly conducted online and there are not a lot of assignments yet, I mostly spend my afternoons and evenings watching tons of TV shows. I haven't finished The Office yet and I'm kind of on the fence about finishing the show because I've reached the part where Steve Carrell left the show and his character is one of my favourites... so... you know. I also started watching Kim's Convenience this month and am on season four. It was a fun TV show, very original and freaking SIMU LIU is in it. On the other hand, Thirty Nine makes me cry every episode. I love the writing and the vibe of the show, the writer and the actors really did well on this show! Really recommended.

I'm starting my final year project!

With the start of my final year project, the end of my university life also begins. I still have another year (my final semester ends in June next year) but I can't help but feel that the ending of this chapter of my life is already starting. I have been dreading this since my foundation year but surprisingly, so far, I'm doing well. I already have a topic in my mind and only need to find out what exactly I want to do regarding the topic. Please pray that everything will be eased for me.

And since my March went so well, here's a little collage of my month:

Photo by Katya Baydarova.

February was definitely a short one, but many things happened and I also had a lot of fun. I've been watching lots of TV shows I couldn't watch when my semester was still ongoing and some reading too. Sure, compared to my pre-covid usual Februaries, this February was not as eventful as I did stay home 100% for the whole month but you need to enjoy what you get, right? So here are the things that happened in my life in February.

My fifth semester of university ended!

My fifth semester was rough. I caught COVID last December and it totally threw my momentum off. I hate when that happens. I had everything planned out but because I got sick, two weeks' worth of plans got delayed and I completely lost my motivation to continue my study. Nevertheless, I did finish all my coursework and final exams so I'm still patting myself on the back. Overall, I was still in a much better headspace compared to my fourth semester so I hope I'm gonna do better in terms of my CGPA (please send prayers).

So I'm back on The Sims 4... and I'm obsessed

My first matriarch and her first daughter :')

The view of my sims stargazing is the best <3

I installed The Sims 4 on my laptop last July and it was all I cared about last semester break. And then my semester started and I stopped playing for a while but as soon as it ended, I open The Sims 4 right away. I'm doing a Legacy Challenge (read: you need to have 10 generations and stay on the biggest lot, which means that you need to pay a huge amount of property tax without cheating) so I'm just super excited to finish this challenge so that I can start a new challenge peacefully. I'm only on my third generation now, though, so it will probably take another few months for me to finish it😆

I started watching The Office...

I hate the first season with my whole heart but these two? I fell in love with them and started shipping them the second I saw them.

AND IT'S AWESOME. Michael Schur never disappoints. Every sitcom that he wrote freaking slapped. I can't say how this show places in my sitcom ranking yet, but it is good. The first season was so problematic, I'll probably hate it forever but it gets better. Like Better better. The writers created a character that is so unlikeable and problematic but as time goes by, he shows some depth, he grows on you and you absolutely love him with your whole heart but also kind of hate him a little (or a lot, depending on the episode). That is hard to do and I applaud the writers for that. And the side characters? Oh my god, I love them. I started the series thinking "how will the writers make this not boring, they are literally in an office selling papers" but the characters were written so wonderfully so no boring moments at all.

I set up my Notion!

I'm kinda obsessed with how cute my Notion homepage is.

I get insecure about my productivity on a daily basis. I used to think that everything I need to do is all in my brain and I don't need any other tool to help me... but not anymore. Last year, I tried using a planner and although it helped, I found it a bit inflexible. Before that, I tried using a simple notebook to plan my day and that also didn't help so I figured that bullet journaling will not help either. So I'm trying to plan fully digitally this year. At first, I thought of using a spreadsheet since I already know how everything works, but these posts by Fadwa, May, Maha and Kate convinced me to try using Notion instead. I used May's template and altered it to suit my needs. Hopefully, I'll stay consistent this time🤞🏻

Driving to reckless driving by Lizzy McAlpine!

Lizzy McAlpine is one of the musicians I'm currently really into. I discovered her music early last year and her music is just very soothing. She has an angelic voice and I adore the storytelling through her songwriting. Her new album, five seconds flat, is coming in April and I'm so excited about it. The music video of reckless driving is the continuation of three of her previous singles for her upcoming album the storytelling is just *chef's kiss*. The song itself is just as wonderful as the music video and is the perfect song to drive to. Just don't recklessly drive while you're listening to it. Give a listen to her song here!

And that marks the end of this post. I hope that your February also went well, and March goes just as well or better than the previous months! 

When Percy's mom finds out, she knows it's time that he knew the truth about where he came from and that he go to the one place he'll be safe. She sends Percy to Camp Half-Blood, a summer camp for demigods (on Long Island), where he learns that the father he never knew is Poseidon, God of the Sea. 

Soon a mystery unfolds and together with his friends—one a satyr and the other the demigod daughter of Athena - Percy sets out on a quest across the United States to reach the gates of the Underworld (located in a recording studio in Hollywood) and prevent a catastrophic war between the gods (Goodreads).

My name is Percy Jackson. I'm twelve years old. Until a few months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York. Am I a troubled kid? Yeah. You could say that.

Title: The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson & the Olympians #1) 
Author: Rick Riordan
Genre: Middle Grade, Fantasy, Mythology
Goodreads rating: 4.28
Pages: 377
Publication: 2006 by Disney Hyperion
Source: Book Depository | Amazon | Popular | Google Books
Reading format: Paperback
Review type: Non-spoilery

My Goodreads review (click)

Hi. I never planned on writing a book review for this series because it's already a big name in the book and film industry, with huge followings. But with the TV show coming, I kind of feel the urge to promote the series. I just want more people to read the series because it meant so much to me, and I first read it as an adult too! Just a note, this is only a review of the first series, strictly only Percy Jackson & the Olympians, not including the Heroes of Olympus and the Trials of Apollo. There is a similarity in terms of the writing between this series to the other series, though. So here's my review of the series:

Let me begin the review by talking about the writing. It was written in first POV, meaning that we see the story from Percy's eyes. The writing itself was very easy to read and follow, there were no hard terminologies and you can easily read this even if your first language is not English since this series's target audience is middle-grade peeps. There was also no poetic bits, so it made a very easy and quick read. I never tried listening to the audiobooks, but that would actually be a good idea, since the writing was so engaging, as it was told as if Percy is telling a story to us! It made the reading experience even more fun because he was a funny narrator. And if you're only starting to read fantasy books, this book will be good for beginners!

The world-building and the magic system was also very easily understandable. You basically know all the basics within 50 pages of the first book. This series sets in a world where all the Greek mythology thingy was real. Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Hercules, name any of them, they did exist in this world. And since this is a middle-grade book, no you don't need to have prior knowledge regarding Greek mythology because you'll learn everything from the series. 

Plot-wise, in each book, the story would start with Percy and his friends having a new quest, them finishing said quest and the ending. Every book is an action-packed story with funny commentaries from Percy. And everything was also set in a short time period, which can feel very fast so if you're quickly burned out, I would not recommend binge-reading the books in a week despite how short all the books actually are. My experience binge-reading this was awesome but it was also tiring. There was also a very minimal romantic subplot and it only started on Book 3, I think? The series started when Percy himself was only 12 so that made sense.

Sure, the adaptation sucks but these three did such great jobs portraying the characters. If we can age down humans I would've cast them for the TV show.

I apologise for the fangirling that is about to happen but now, I'm going to talk about the (beloved) characters. In this series, we have three important characters; Percy, the main character, his best friend, Grover and Annabeth, the only reason both Percy and Grover were still alive by the end of the series. I loved all of them. I think that it's not a secret that this series was applauded for its diversity, in that the majority of the characters in this series were with ADHD (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder) and were also dyslexic. I think that there is more diversity in the latest middle-grade books, but it wasn't very common during the time this book was first published. It was a very interesting and new perspective for me when I started reading this book because my reading list wasn't exactly filled with lots of diversity back then. 

I'm not ashamed to say that I turned 10 when I started reading this and Percy Jackson became my ultimate comfort character in a heartbeat. I can cry talking about him. He's like a little brother that I'm really rooting for. He's just an overall a very nice kid. He's not perfect but he has a heart of gold. I loved being inside his head because he thought of the funniest things during the most inconvenient times. He's just a very lovable character. And his character development... CHEF'S KISS!

With Percy comes Grover, the ultimate sidekick. If Percy was funny, Grover was the utterly hilarious character. He's supposed to be Percy's guide but he was just as clueless as Percy was. Nonetheless, he was a very persistent character throughout the series. I don't want to say more about him because it will be a spoiler but I just know that everyone that reads the book will definitely love him.

I'm saving the best for the last. Obviously, Annabeth was the 'mom' character. She was the smartest among the three, intelligent, had a wonderful strategic mind. I loved her with my absolute being, her 12-year-old self was even smarter than the 19-year-old me. She also shows great character development; by the end of the series, she was just as courageous and genius as she was at the beginning of the series, but she learned to open up more. And I'm not kidding when I said that THEY WOULD ALL DIE WITHOUT ANNABETH.

So... was it worth it reading the book as a grown-up?

For the people who want to introduce this series to their little ones...

While we're here... books from Rick Riordan Presents are just as great and more diverse, from own-voice authors!

I haven't written a post of my favourites for so long! I missed it so much. It's one of my favourite kinds of posts to write, actually. So people, how was your November? As I'm writing this, I'm one week away from my mid-term exams and two weeks away from my mid-semester break. I'm a third-year student now, doesn't time fly so fast? It seems like it's only yesterday that I started my foundation. Life has been understandably hectic, but so far, it's bearable. What gets me through this mentally-exhausting month is of course my family and so many other things that brought so much joy to me.

favourite thing #1: my youngest brother's hug!

A warm hug from a person you love goes a long way. My youngest brother is seven, and since he's still at a cute, pamper-able and hugable age, I'm not going to waste the time I have left to baby and pamper him and stuff. So now, every time I'm taking a little break from doing my assignments or revising, I go out of my room and go hug and baby him.

favourite thing #2: k-on!

I FREAKING LOVE THIS ANIME. Okay, it's not my favourite anime ever or even favourite of the year, but it brought so much joy to my inner child self. I didn't have a chance to watch this anime when I was a child, I think it was on Animax (?) and we didn't have that channel and I'm so grateful I got to watch it now that I'm older and everything is so accessible through the internet. This anime is the cutest thing ever, it made me pick my guitar up again and just radiates nothing but warmth and joy. It got me through the toughest week of November. On a side note, do recommend me any anime that has the same vibe as K-On, I tried starting another anime but kept failing😭

favourite thing #3: red (taylor's version) album

Red is one of my favourite albums from Taylor and I was just... so happy that I got to re-experience the album all over again with the addition of some song we haven't heard before! I was one of those Swifties that wanted nothing but to listen to the full version of All Too Well for years and THE 10 MINUTES VERSION DIDN'T DISAPPOINT AT ALL, AND IT'S EVEN ADDICTIVE. I can play only that song on repeat for a week and won't be bored of it. It's definitely is my favourite song off Red. However, if we're talking about the other From The Vault songs, my favourite is definitely Nothing New. That song👏🏻 Not gonna get into details, but it's just so relatable👏🏻

favourite thing #4: naturals tea tree pre-shampoo clay mask

I dyed my hair three times this year. I know some people who dyed a hell lot more times than I did in a year and although those people's scalps weren't affected so much, mine was affected. My scalp got so itchy all the freaking time and I wanted to wash my hair every day. Thanks to Naturals Tea Tree Pre-shampoo Clay Mask (no I'm not sponsored), my scalp is getting better. My scalp feels healthier and cleaner and I'll never stop using this product for my scalp.

favourite thing #5: cosmos album by my favourite man, b.i

Before I say anything, go stream Cosmos music video for clear skin! I mentioned his debut album a few months back in a post and during that time, I didn't expect his second album to come so fast. I was so happy when he announced this album. Music-wise, the songs in this album are actually very, very good. It's a no-skip album, and I'll be saying this even if I'm not a huge fan of him. As opposed to his first album, in this album, we're served with feel-good happy songs that make you feel like you're in love as well as some hip-hop songs with sick beats for you to hype yourself up with.

I'm gonna be real with you in this post. For a self-claimed huge book-lover, I watch TV shows more than I read every year. And I really want to say that I watch a lot of educational, beneficial or at least TV shows with meaningful contents but to be honest, my yearly watchlist mainly consists of comedy, teenage dramas, another bunch of comedies, sitcoms and an annual rewatch of Friends. I keep adding TV shows to my Netflix list but to be honest, I'm probably never gonna watch those until I run out of sitcoms to watch and rewatch. And as shown in my TV Time profile I'm ashamed to say that these past few months hadn't been different. Below is the list of my favourites among all the TV shows I have been shamelessly binge-watching:

New Girl

If Friends was my sitcom of the year in 2018, followed with How I Met Your Mother in 2019, New Girl is undoubtedly my sitcom of the year for 2020. AND I never thought there would ever be a day where I said this, but THIS SHOW IS OFFICIALLY MY FAVOURITE SITCOM OF ALL TIME, BEATING FRIENDS.

This show was so much better than Friends in many different ways and although there are some repeated tropes, this show was mostly original or at least in my history of TV, it is. The characters were the most relatable characters I've ever watched in my history of TV and I love all of them with my whole heart. 

Character developments? CHECK. Plot development? CHECK. Originality? CHECK. And one of the things that I really love is that there was no laughing soundtrack so I knew whenever I laugh, it's because I genuinely thought that it is funny lol.

This show was all the hype in June/July and it deserves all the hype it gets. I cried watching this show countless times. This was one of my anticipated 2020 TV shows and usually, I have the highest expectations for the things I really anticipate. This show, though, didn't just pass my expectation, it was more than what I expected. I love how different it was; mental illness was one of the main themes, with mystery and such a beautiful romance being its other themes. The characters went through such a huge mental growth and by the time the show ended, I couldn't believe how much the characters have grown. And we have all the actors to thank for that!

Dr Romantic, Teacher Kim

This was also a very hyped k-drama a few months back and I agree, it was a very good k-drama. I haven't finished the second season yet but I can say with full confidence that this show will make it into my top 10 TV of the year. I JUST LOVE A GOOD MEDICAL TV SHOW!

I love seeing how dedicated those doctors to their job and oath and seeing them battling with themselves for what's wrong and what's right, although frustrating, was also exciting. It kinda makes me want to be a doctor but I know myself well enough to know that I would not survive even the first year of medical study lol.

Haunting of Hill House

I actually watched this one back in May but I never talked about it besides in my anticipated upcoming TV shows post and I think that it's WAY TOO GOOD TO NOT BE TALKED ABOUT. WHY DOES NO ONE TALK ABOUT THIS TV SHOW? Or was I not on the internet when it was hyped up? I rarely see this show come up on Twitter, Instagram and even among my friends!

I'm not a horror fan but this TV show made me into one. I literally binge-watched this in the span of a day when I was also busy baking eid cookies. It's still a wonder to me how did I finish the whole series with full focus when I was baking biscuits or that none of the biscuits I baked that day was burnt lol.

This show was not just horror, it was horror, mystery and family drama combined and although it sounds very average horror TV show, the combination of the three was so good. The horror depended a lot more on the storyline than just jump scares. I can't wait to watch the second season!

A Piece of Your Mind

I initially started to watch this because of the main actors, Chae Soo-bin whose dramas I watched before and adore so much and Jung Hae-in which I adore mainly because he's cute and the exact physical depiction of my type. 

Once I started watching it, though, I couldn't shut up about it in my Whatsapp status (rip my mutual contacts) because it was just so gosh darn good.

It was about traumas, relationships and how all those relationships helped them to grow and find ways to heal. I highly appreciate the mental illness representations in this one (can we talk about how amazing it is that there are more and more mental illness representations in k-dramas these days), especially because I watch it during my mental health was in an all-time low.

honourable mentions: when the devil calls your name, the umbrella academy s2

still watching: that '70s show, family reunion, peaky blinders, glee

Do you have any TV show that surprises you in a good way in the past few months?