Apologies

So I begin this post with an apology, both to my readers and to a particular writer. I haven’t written a damn thing on this blog, or any of my other blogs, since I’ve come home, and I have no good reason as to why. I didn’t have writer’s block, I don’t work so much that I couldn’t make the time, and, even if I’m not reading novels, I’m still reading a ton of fanfiction. But I haven’t been writing, and that really sucks.

Earlier this year I met an author at work, and I told him that I would review his book on this blog. Honestly, it was an attempt to get myself back into the hang of it. I figured I was pretty okay at this reviewing thing, and his book shouldn’t have been a problem. Except it was.

We Need to Talk About Chuck Clayton on Riverdale

Yep.

The Nerds of Color

Originally posted on Just Add Color

Chuck Clayton has gone down as the first character Riverdale’s penchant for reinvention has revamped in the worst way possible. This is not the way for the show to enter its first Black History Month.

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Small Things

This one goes out to my mom because she paid for the domain to be renewed, but also because she’s always encourage me to be great.

Recently, I moved back to my home town, Providenciales in the Turks and Caicos Islands, and I’ve had a few days to look around and reflect as to the why of it. The obvious why is because I got a job, but, you know, I could have come home at any time, so why now?

I left Provo as a child at 8. I was much smaller then, so everything seemed much bigger. Seeing it all now is . . . definitely eye-opening. Progress and improvement is necessary, but I’d be lying if I said that it’s still all of the same.

Every time I come home there’s always something new. The hotels have changed hands,  more land has been built on. One year text messaging swept the country months before it really got big in the US. Another year, they were getting ready to implement National Insurance. A bridge was built between the twin islands. New things. Progress.

Admittedly, that’s not all of it, but I haven’t been here to really take it all in until now.

An old classmate of mine once looked at my childhood pictures and said, “you’ve come far”. That’s how I feel about the Turks and Caicos I’ve come back to: it’s come much farther than where it was when I left it. Some people say it’s not far enough, but I feel like we’re doing pretty damn well all things considered.

I don’t know where life will take me, or what God’s plan for me is here, but however it goes, I am excited about it. Apart of my heart has always been here, and now I’ve returned to it. Surely that means that I have a part to play in the next step of my home country’s progress?

Or, you know, it was just time to come home.

Moments in the Life II

Edit: I forgot that I had used this title before.

Hike

A Little Braver

Fragile

So I’ve had this New Empire song rolling around in my head today because I knew I needed another post to stay on track for my goal. I don’t know what I’m supposed to talk about, but I figure it’s worth a shot.

Warning: This post doesn’t have very much to do with fragility. 

A Year Later

A year later, and you’re still gone, but somehow, it’s getting a little better.

I’ve been waiting for this to work it’s way out all weekend. I had wanted to have it done by yesterday, so that my birthday could be just for me, but that’s never been how this works. It’s shameful really.

#FridayReads – Fanfiction

Would you believe me if I said that I’ve been trying to write this post for three weeks now? If I only make it to 250 words, you gotta let me live, okay? Okay.

So this week for #FridayReads, I chose to talk about fanfiction. Also, shoutout to L Jones Edition for starting this community blogging event. I don’t know that last time I tagged their wordpress, but I’m going to try to do better going forward.

So anyways, I like fanfiction. I know that I say that a lot, but you have to understand that I read the stuff like every day. The entire reason that I am so big on fandom is because I partake in the consumption of fanfiction. I love new headcanons, I read a ton of meta, and I even just wrote my first big fan theory. I’m just out here checking off all of the points on my fangirl list.

Gaslighting For Beginners

Originally written for Fandom Following / The Fandomentals. 

Tumblr has been trying to teach me about gaslighting for a good three months now. It’s been popping up in people’s long posts, I’ve read it in some of the discourses, and I’ve even acknowledged that this is a thing that has unintentionally been done to me. At least, I think it was unintentional … In any case, gaslighting is not a new word to me. However, I have only just recently been able to correctly identify it.

Awhile back, I used to teach ninth grade English. One of the first things I ever told my students was to not ever use a word that they were not comfortable with. Knowing and defining a word is entirely different from actually understanding it’s use and applying it correctly. That’s how I feel about gaslighting, and other words that I wouldn’t normally use. I’m particular about how people judge my writing, so things like this are important to me. You can come at me for my punctuation usage, but I’ll be damned if I let you Inigo Montoya me.

MNEK Is My Greatest Musical Find

Bold words, right? But you have to understand where I’m coming from.

Way back in 2014, I taught at a high school that managed to block just about every music app except SoundCloud. For me this was terribly unacceptable because my personal music library could only do so much. So I downloaded SoundCloud and made it work. At some point in the Fall of 2014, I found MNEK’s “The Rhythm” and my whole life changed.