Month: July 2015

Pretty Little Liars Summer of Answers So Far…

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

Oh my God.

What.
New characters.
I’m done.
So last night I sat down to film a video talking about Pretty Little Liars so far this season, and it turned into a 40-minute video. Turns out I have a lot of feelings about this season of PLL. Now I’m not going to sit and write about everything I talked about in the video because that would be a waste of time, but I just wanted to highlight some things I talked about in the video here. And of course if you guys wanna check out the video it is below:

Onto the things I want to highlight:
Sara Harvey – is she Red Coat? I don’t know…people on Tumblr and some of my friends think she might be. But I don’t want her to be. I mean I understand where everyone is coming from because it would finally explain why she was being so weird all the time around the girls but…I don’t think she is. I feel like it’s the easy way out for them to make Sara Red Coat and so…I hope it’s someone else. Even though I already thought we knew who Red Coat was…but according to the last episode we do not.
Mona – I want more Mona on the show. I just love her. Also can we please talk about Mona and Mike? I ship it. #M&M
Leslie – What even was her deal? I bet we never see her again.
Emily’s Habitat for Humanity friend – Potential new love interest for Ezra? I hope not… #Ezria forever.
Alison – Her feelings towards Charles, I kind of understand but at the same time I don’t. Charles tried to kill you, why do you feel bad for him? I mean…I know by the time we know Charles’s whole story I’ll be feeling sorry for him too but until then can we just focus on catching him…then we can decide what we want to happen to him.
Charles – Remember when we went through that episode where we thought he might be dead, but then he turned around and was like lol jk I’m alive and coming home for a birthday party. Yeah…hated that. Also, Charles is not Jason’s twin but rather his older brother…and Alison and Jason have met him before because Mrs D took them to his birthday party one year…random…I wonder what other events they have been to of Charles’s that they didn’t know of?
Rhys – He’s so not Charles. I’m sorry, but the show can’t do that to me…nope. He’s good looking, though, I’ll give him that. People on Tumblr seem to think he’s there to frame Jason….hmm…I guess we’ll see.
Clark – Why are him and Rhys working together? What is their deal? I imagine that Clark had something to do with sneaking Rhys into the gallery to swap out the pictures in the last episode, but who knows?
Lorenzo and Alison – Do we ship it? I liked them together, thought it was nice. However it seems it’s very over between them so…it was nice while it lasted.
Ella and Ashley – Yes! Mum power! It’s very rare we get to see the parents on this show interact with each other, but I kind of love it. Someone on Twitter suggested the mums get their own spin-off show and I would totally watch it. I mean…they’re pretty great.
The last thing I wanted to mention in this blog post is this Facebook post in which Pretty Little Liars promised us we’d get the answers we’ve been waiting for all summer:

If we get all those answers in one episode I think I might die. I mean I’ve waited about five years for this (I started watching PLL about two seasons in) they better finally give us some REAL ANSWERS.
But at the same time, I don’t want to get my hopes up too much because chances are, we will only get one of those answers, and that is the reveal of Charles, because that’s what they have been promoting the most. The other things I consider a bonus…
I guess we’ll just have to see. In the meantime, I’ll be on Tumblr looking up some theories, and if any of you have your own theories please feel free to leave them in the comments below because I love reading them.
~ Courtney x

In Real Life my Journey to a Pixelated World Book Review

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

Hey guys,
Another YouTuber, another book review. This time we have Joey Graceffa’s book, In Real Life.

As always, I enjoy reading a good YouTuber book. I never usually have anything bad to say about them and I do think it’s because I really love the YouTubers that write the books. So maybe these aren’t the most unbiased reviews in the world…
Anyway, what I loved about Joey Graceffa’s book is that he was so open with us about things that he’s gone through in life. More open than other YouTubers in their books. He really went into detail about what his life was like before YouTube and I really enjoyed learning more about his life before he was on YouTube.
Again, it is one of those books where you learn more about the person behind the camera and I always enjoy this because it helps you understand them so much more. I had no idea that Joey used to be in special education or just how many problems he had with his mum growing up. Learning about the struggles that he’s been through in life really allowed me to see how strong he really is.
I mean it just goes to show that these people who seem to have the perfect life online don’t always have it so easy. I think it’s so important to remember that when you watch people online because it’s so easy to tear people down when you don’t know them. Like to me, the fact that people like Joey can daily vlog their life and be so open with us is so brave. Like I know I couldn’t do it, mainly because my life is not very entertaining haha.
My favourite thing about all YouTuber books is that they are written in a very casual style and so when you read the books it just sounds like the YouTuber is having a conversation with you. I really like this because it makes them easy to read, I would really hate to read a YouTuber book that didn’t sound like it was written by them. I like that they don’t put on a voice and are themselves and let their personalities shine through in their writing, it makes it more personal and Joey’s is no exception.
One thing I was really surprised about in Joey’s book was how open he was about his sexuality. I know for the longest time on his YouTube channel he never talked about it, and a few months ago he decided to come out to us before the launch of his book, in a YouTube music video that he had made. It was an amazing music video and I loved the message and the way he decided to come out. It was so creative and I was so happy he was able to do it the way that he wanted to.
In Joey’s book, he dedicates a special chapter to coming out. It’s literally just a page in the book where he says that he is gay.

I really wasn’t expecting that at all. I also wasn’t expecting him to go into more detail about when he was first dating and coming out to his friends. I really enjoyed learning more about that, mainly because it’s not like any YouTuber to dish all of the details about their relationships.
I was really glad that Joey felt comfortable sharing these things with us, I know that it must have been really hard to write about all of the things he went through with his mum from a young age and how he used to be bullied but I am so glad he did because I know he’ll be a huge help to people who are going through similar situations and a great inspiration.
Another thing that I enjoyed reading about was Joey’s experience on the Amazing Race. I kind of wished that he had talked more about the things he experienced while travelling that we didn’t see on the show. Before I read that chapter, I decided to actually watch season 22 of the Amazing Race, which is the season that Joey was on and I really enjoyed watching him and Meghan go through the challenges together. I was sad they didn’t make it to the final four but they put up a really good fight and I thought they did an amazing job.
I also really enjoyed that in Joey’s book he had advice at the end of each of his chapters, they were all relevant to things he had talked about in that chapter and I found some of the advice really helpful. I also enjoyed some of the photos that Joey added into the book because who doesn’t love cringey childhood photos of your favourite YouTubers?
Overall I thought that Joey’s book was a really good read. I think that it’s definitely something to pick up if you are a fan of Joey and want to know more about his life before YouTube and to learn about things he’s never talked about in videos before.
If I had to say anything about the book it’s that I do wish it talked a little bit more about life now and when he lived with Meghan and David or even when he used to live with Sawyer. But I’m sure that Joey is saving that for his next book.
And so, that brings us to the end of another YouTube book review! I still have some YouTuber books left to read, I have four more on my bookshelf to get through but I’m sure by then there will be about five more new books that I’ll have to check out, but until then I guess I better get back to reading.
~ Courtney x

Rain – Enjoying the Simple Things in Life

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

Hey guys,
So the other day I was sitting at my desk when I heard the sound of heavy rain outside and I kind of had the urge to go outside in it. I don’t know why really, but it was just something that I wanted to do. However I didn’t actually do it, mainly because it was night time and it seemed a little bit weird and plus I wasn’t really dressed to go outside in the pouring rain.
Instead I decided to open my window and just sit and enjoy the sound of the rain, and it was really nice. I mean I’m sure you all know the feeling of hearing heavy rain while you are inside in a nice warm house. It’s very calming and relaxing and so I sat there for a while just taking it in.
While I was sitting there I also thought it would be a great time to vlog. I just talked for about five minutes and decided to update my subscribers on my life and what I was doing. Just because it was one of those moments that I wanted to share with people. And if you guys are interested in seeing that vlog I will put it at the bottom of this blog post.
When I had finished filming my vlog I also decided to read a little bit, because I thought this was one of those perfect scenarios where you can sit inside by the window and enjoy reading a good book. So that is exactly what I did.
It was one of those times that I had wished that I had a built-in window seat at my window because I could have sat there all night listening to the rain and reading but unfortunately I did not and the rain stopped and my chair became uncomfortable to sit in haha.
But for a while it was really great. It was really nice just to take a break from sitting at my computer and do something else. It’s not everyday that something like this happens, normally I don’t really pay attention to the weather or go out of my way just to enjoy it but I do think that it will be something that I do a lot more.
I just thought that it was a really lovely thing to see because it hasn’t rained that heavily here in a long time and while I wish I had gone outside to enjoy it a little bit more I was really happy with my decision to just stop for a minute and enjoy it from inside.
And so, what I think I can take from this is that we should enjoy the simple things in life. I know that I am someone who takes things for granted a lot, and when little things like heavy rain showers happen I don’t really think much of them but I think we should enjoy them when we can. Yes, the rain can be annoying sometimes especially when you live in a place where it rains a lot but it’s not just rain that I think we can appreciate sometimes, it’s all weather and all things.
I think we should be grateful for the time we have to take a break and appreciate these things and we should be lucky to have warm houses that can shelter us from the weather because some people aren’t as lucky as us.
So if this blog post had any real point it’s that we should all take a break sometimes from our crazy lives and just sit back and enjoy the simple things like the weather because it’s a really soothing thing to do.
~ Courtney x