November 2016 RECAP #MonthlyRecap

I followed my own advice and chilled. Of course, whenever I couldn’t post, the blogger-guilt gnawed on me.

I always tell myself I am not in a good position to actually prioritize blogging. It is not my bread-and-butter, for one, then there are other important stuff to do, then my resources are scarce (I don’t feel the need to explain that one), and I prioritize family still. The big  takeaway in my so-called chilling means more family time, so I am not that sorry 🙂

So here’s a recap of my November 2016:

Blog-wise:

(1) I hope I gave you gravy with my hash potatoes 😉

#MondayMemoirs – No time to do this pre-Monday and during Monday. Will try again next time.

#MondayReviews (see An American Crime) – See? At least I had this one.

#TuesdayTunes (see Listening with Your Soul)

#AskWednesday (none this month, sorry)

#WhatsupWednesday (see Yo, Man! Imma Show Ya Rap Battles!) – I just introduced this to you last week. I enjoyed this post 🙂

#ThursdayTips (none) – Will make up for it soon.

#FeatureFriday – Because it’s November, I decided to make it a whole month of #FreakyFriday posts.

#FreakyFriday (see Life Lessons from “Train to Busan”, And RINGU was its name-o!) – Did miss one or two Fridays. I did promise true horror/ghost stories. Failed that one, but I am on it still.

Saturdays and Sundays, or any day, could be about anything. I will post anything when I feel like it, like Finding Grace in a Grilled Ham & Cheese that is a reblog of another writer’s wonderful and heartfelt post. Very relatable.

I also shared three poems written in Filipino in one post: Tula ng Puso: Pananampalataya, Pag-ibig, Pag-asa (Poems of the Heart: Faith, Love, Hope). It was as part of the requirements for a local contest that I decided to join and I was just fortunate to beat the already-extended deadline. I am not sure, though, as of this moment, if my entry made the cut, so to speak. If it didn’t, well, that hurts my ego, but then I can’t mope around. Instead, get better, right? There will always be winners and non-winners. There are many talented writers out there, and many more untapped ones.

(3) My Trending Stories. I failed my November here. I have actually emailed them something and they have promised to make it a better experience for MTS bloggers.

Social Media Reach-out:

Again, I am very thankful to new followers. And of course, I am also very thankful to those who have followed me over the months, especially the years. I shared some of them to you last time. Let me share more–people who follow me and/or whom I follow–and you’re welcome to visit their blogs. Also adding people I actually personally know. You might have to jump over to other blogging platforms like Blogger, though. If I haven’t mentioned you yet, nothing personal, okay? Will get to you.

Here they are in alphabetical order (I am re-mentioning one because I gave the wrong link last time, I just found out now, and I’ve edited appropriately):

Andy,         Cole,         Diana,         Fran,                    

Jason,       Meikah,    Tobe,          Victo      

More bloggers to link to in the coming months, for sure. “Old” ones, new ones.

Fiction/Story- and Poetry-writing:

Well, I mentioned already the contest I joined. Meanwhile, this made me think of honing my craft more. I have cooked up a few personal plans for a few but very important personal reasons.

Literature:

I was in an unintentional hiatus from reading, but have just started again. I am just having trouble prioritizing since I am interested in both The Hunger Games and Game of Thrones. Not sure which to pick. Wanna cast your vote for me?

Personal:

We’re done with season 1 and half of season 2 of  The Walking Dead. Some episodes unexpectedly made me tear up.

***SPOILER ALERTS IN CASE YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THEM YET AND KNOW NOTHING OF IMDb***

I was distraught with what happened to Dale because I liked him, and I never really had a grandpa. Good that he and Andrea kind of made up already; bad that the others let him down just before he died — in fact, that’s why he was roaming away from safer grounds. Good he wasn’t bitten; bad that he still died a horrible death. Why couldn’t they just let him die from accident while fighting off the zombie??? Or let him die with a heart attack or something while the others killed the walker?

Later, Shane died, too, and I didn’t see that coming. He was  increasingly being impossible and that’s what made the character more interesting (disappointing if he were a real person). I think he should have stayed longer–he was impossible but he was still an ally. And it would make for a more interesting storyline.

Lastly, Lori died as well. She wasn’t Mrs. Perfect, but I don’t understand what I’ve read about viewers hating her. Her reactions were understandable, even her fears. Didn’t make her right, but didn’t make her evil either….So I got distraught again when she died due to childbirth. I’m even surprised she got that far without suffering a miscarriage with all the stress and running around.

Good that she didn’t die because she got bitten; bad that after Carl made sure she wouldn’t turn (what Carl did was heartbreaking for both of them if it were real), a walker would eat all of her, anyway. That made me mad. What, the writers couldn’t let Carl and Maggie make sure the door wouldn’t be opened? Shane did that for Rick.  Maybe they should have let her turn first then have Carl shoot her, so at least, she wasn’t served meal to any walker that happened on her.

Winners! Me and Ian

Aaaaand…I just spent much space discussing about The Walking Dead, ha ha haaaa!!!!

Meanwhile, can you guess what this pic’s about? Clues: office, hunting, game, most candies, longest, Halloween, winners…

Till next time!!! 🙂

Yo, Man! Imma Show Ya Rap Battles! (post-)#WhatsupWednesday

Today, I introduce you to #WhatsupWednesday (don’t mind that it’s late). I could call it #WhateverWednesday, but I don’t think I like the sound of that. It’s like your mom telling you something and you roll your eyes and mutter, “Whatev”. Nope, I’m not comfortable with that. “What’s up” sounds friendlier in contrast. So for this alternate hash potato, I’m sharing various stuff that have caught my interest, but are not that applicable for my other hash potatoes.

Now that that’s explained…

I’ve just recently realized that I’m actually a YouTube-freak. I go through the site searching for vids of songs, musicals, funny talk shows, pranks (zombie vids!!!),…Not anymore cute animal vids, though, as I get that a lot from Facebook already. Anyway, these searches have brought me interesting stuff and because I grew up in the “rap of ages”, you ken betcha momma’s *bleep* I got a heckuva kuhlecshun here! *wink, wink* Okay, before you proceed,

WARNING: STRONG LANGUAGE AND SEXUAL CONTENT. NOT FOR KIDS!

Thought I’d give you that. Now, do tell me who you think won in these vids.

First, I found Anne Hathaway rapping against James Corden of Carpool Karaoke fame (he’s famous for his show and whatev, but I never really knew about him except when I happened to search for “Carpool Karaoke”, which I did hear about). I’m not going to share CK vids as it’s so popular, you’ve probably already seen them all. I did like the ones with Adele and Sia, even the one with One Direction because of the collab kind of thing. Gotta watch more, maybe. I do give credit to James, he’s got some musical talent in him.

Here are the two doing rap battle at Corden’s late show’s Drop the Mic segment.

I think that she did “Hatha-slay” him! Yo, Anne, you rock!!! I mean, rap!!!

I’m not seeing that many DTM vids, but I enjoyed this one with Kevin Hart, though he’s an actor I’m  just a tad familiar with (did see his movie with The Rock while on a bus).

Sorry, James, I think that’s two times in a row your bottom got whipped! *trying a cleaner language here 😉 *

Meanwhile…! I found these ones below just yesterday. It’s great that they actually take effort to take care of the settings and stuff when they could just do a kind of DTM thing.

Enjoyed most of them, but a couple didn’t quite make it to my list. The Gandalf vs Dumbledore one made me squee in glee at first only to have my bubble burst–yeah, it wasn’t as good as I expected it would be (so click at your own risk). Mostly sexual references and nothing substantial enough. I liked the Albert Einstein vs Stephen Hawking vid as well, but I don’t like making fun of the differently abled. I’m not even going to attempt to link to it. You do it. There’s also one with the Eastern Philosophers vs Western Philosophers, but I respect our Eastern Philosophers so, up to you to check also.

Now, for the battles.

I found that I liked the Princess Rap Battles more, so I’m showing them first. The guys’ vids have some sick verses as well, though, and the beats, awesome.

It seems that Daenerys won here in the end, but rap-content wise, I think it’s a tie.

It’s a tie, too! Don’t you think?

Oh, Galadriel won this one, hands down. Leia never had an iota of a chance to win against the great elf.

Now, the boys doing Epic Rap Battles of History. The girls are princesses and the guys get to be intelligent, geeky ones…Although, there is that Superman vs Goku vid, so I guess it kinda even things out.

Sorry, GoT fans, but LOTR nailed this battle. I don’t understand the reference to Led Zeppelin, though. [UPDATE: That last statement is quite the proof that I am not a Led Zep fan, LOL!!! Just found this that should explain the reference: Led Zeppelin and Lord of The Rings – Rockers and Tolkien Fans.]

Nobody won. Well, maybe the third one in this battle (being not-so-quite techie still, I have no idea “who” that was). Or was that also supposed to be “Steve“? And, boy, too much of an angry Bill here.

It’s true: Jack was a real serial killer who never got caught; Hannibal was fictional and did get caught (or he would not have met Clarisse). That said, Hannibal killed Jack  *he he, get it? killed?..uh, okay…*

I…honestly don’t know who won…

Here are some more that I liked (in random order), if you’re interested:

1. Ash Ketchum vs Charles Darwin (Picachu was no match to Darwin’s ape, methinks)
2. Snow White vs Elsa (oh, yeah, the princess was no match for the queen! It wasn’t really a fair match. Just let it go, Snow White, dear)
3. Miley Cyrus vs Joan of Arc (don’t even know the connection between them, but anyway, Joan just slayed Hannah Montana)

So the people behind these vids are asking viewers who they’d like to see do rap battles. I already gave these ideas:

1. boyband vs. boyband

2. Walking Dead vs. World War Z vs. Zombieland (whichever they can “pair” up), OR Rick Grimes vs. Gerry Lane vs. Tallahassee

3. Bones vs. CSI

4. Elementary vs. Sherlock (two Sherlocks, yay!!!)

5. Johnny English vs Austin Powers

6. Charlie Chaplin vs Mr. Bean (I wonder how they’re gonna do this unless they act it all out as they talk gibberish with subtitles below, he he)

7. Wayne & Garth (Wayne’s World) vs Bill & Ted (Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey) vs Jay & Silent Bob (View Askewniverse)

8. Cats The Musical vs Lion King The Musical (it would be awesome to see how they’ll do the costumes!)

9. Elphaba (Wicked) vs Fiona (Shrek)

I’ve been thinking of more, like Xena maybe rap-battling it out with…Wonder Woman? Not sure if there’s anyone else more appropriate for the Warrior Princess. Maybe, I could also suggest James Corden vs Jimmy Fallon. I mean, people are already comparing them anyway: they sing and they have famous “Justin” buds (Bieber vs Timberlake, respectively). How about Edward Cullen vs Louis de Pointe du Lac, or simply Louis of Interview with the Vampire.

We’ll see.

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Hope you enjoyed the vids. If you’re a minor, I hope you didn’t. Who would you like to see doing a rap battle, guys? Suggest some below if you can’t make a comment over at YouTube 🙂