A little life update video because I feel like I haven’t made a video in a while. This is just talking about all of the things I have been up to recently. Including: creating my new Twitter account, starting this website, and selling some things on eBay. It’s been a busy start to the summer but I’m not complaining!
Author: Courtney Shek
Twitter’s Age Lock Issue
This is probably old news but I am still going to post about it because I still have an issue with it – said every bitter person on the internet ever.
Hello, my name is Courtney Shek and I am addicted to Twitter.
It started in 2009, I joined a website, I wasn’t really sure what it was but it was pretty cool. I liked to post there because I related to other people on the site. It was a place where I could fangirl about Twilight and find people who also fangirled about Twilight. It was wonderful.
That place was Twitter.
Flash forward 8 years and I am still an avid user of the site, still fangirling though not over Twilight anymore. Twitter has now become a sort of journal where I share random thoughts on things, mainly TV shows or things that happen in day-to-day life. There’s a reason my Twitter handle is Tweeting2Much.
Anyway, that’s all well and good, I like to use Twitter, I have established a little following and I follow all the people I want to be following.
Until a couple of months ago.
I was on my Snapchat and I saw that one of my friends had been locked out of their account because they changed their birthday. That was weird.
Naturally, I decided to check my Twitter account and my birthday.
Twitter has only allowed you to add your birthday in the last couple of years. And I remember when I first found out you could add your birthday, I couldn’t put in my correct birth year. When I went to set my birth year the earliest year I could set it to was 1996. I was born in 1997.
This always annoyed me, but that day when I went to set my birthday, I found I could finally set my birth year to 1997. So I did.
Two seconds later, I was locked out of my account.
This made no sense to me, especially because I was 20 years old. How could I be under the age of consent?
So I googled Twitter’s rules to find out what the age of consent was.
The age of consent for Twitter is 13.
Again, I was confused. I am clearly over the age of 13 so why was I suddenly locked out of my account?
Well, because in 2009 when I signed up for Twitter I was actually 12. Not 13.
They had locked me out of my account because 8 years ago I wasn’t the age I told them I was.
Oops.
I guess it’s all my fault. I mean it happens. People lie to sign up for websites all the time. It didn’t seem like a big deal especially when I’ve been using the site this whole time and have never had any issue with my age.
And now I clearly am old enough to use the site so why block me now? What is the issue?
After getting the email I sent a photo of my ID to Twitter in the hopes of getting my account back.
While I was going through this ordeal I found out that this had happened to a lot of people. Everyone had turned to Reddit to complain about their issues and so did I. We all wanted to know what was going on and if there was a chance of us getting our accounts back.
After reading what people had to say, I didn’t hold out much hope.
A week or so later I did get a response from Twitter, and it said:
Great. 8 years and that’s how it’s going to go down Twitter?
Thankfully Reddit users gave me hope that even if they reject you the first time if you sent in your ID again you could possibly get your account back.
So I sent my ID again. And have been waiting for a response ever since.
This was at least a month ago and I have heard nothing, I have tried sending my ID again but all I get are emails saying that I already have an open case with them and to be patient.
Sadly after two weeks or so of being ‘patient’, I couldn’t wait any longer and set up a new Twitter account. Something I didn’t want to do because I didn’t want to start again with a different username and having to go through and follow the 300 something people I used to follow before.
But I did it because as angry as I was at Twitter for blocking me out of my old account, I missed my timeline and sharing my thoughts.
So here I am with my new Twitter. I’ve had it for a month. Nothing too exciting but I guess it’s something.
Not long after I made my new Twitter I saw that Twitter support had tweeted and were aware of the issue of people being locked out of their accounts. So again, I got my hopes up thinking that they were going to fix the situation.
I still haven’t heard anything.
I know that a lot of people got their account back just by sending in their parents’ ID. Which is something you can do instead of sending in your own. But not only do they want your parents’ ID they also want proof that they are your legal parent/guardian. Which to me is a bit excessive just to get your social media account back.
That, and I told my mum what was going on and she thought it was stupid. And probably doesn’t want me sending her ID away to a random website.
So I’ve been holding out.
I know it seems kind of stupid to be so focused on getting my old account back when I have my new one but I was kind of attached to my old account. It basically documented my entire teenage life. And now I can’t get access to it at all.
The only thing I really want out of all of this is to be able to download a Twitter archive and have my original username back.
It’s the least they could do before shutting the account down forever – if that is even something they are going to do because I can still log into the account.
And so that is my whole story about this age lock fiasco. I felt like I needed to tell my whole story because I explained it a little in a YouTube video a while back but I don’t think I explained it very well.
It’s a mess, and if they had just asked for your birth date when you signed up back in 2009, instead of just having you tick a box, this probably wouldn’t be happening right now but there you go.
I still feel like it’s stupid to lock people out now when they are clearly old enough to use the site. I mean I guess it goes to show that actions have consequences. Even harmless things like lying and saying you’re one year older than you actually are to sign up for a website.
Oh well.
I was hoping to have my account back by now but at the rate it’s going I don’t see much luck. So I guess I’ll stick with my new account, see how it goes. Hope that in another 8 years I don’t get banned again for some obscure reason…
And if you want to follow me on Twitter, you can @Tweeting2Much_ because even though I am mad at Twitter for what happened to my account, I can’t stop tweeting.
~ Courtney x
Rayna James and Juliette Barnes from Nashville CMT | Sims 4 CAS
Continuing with my theme of creating Sims based on actors that I love, I present Rayna James and Juliette Barnes from Nashville CMT!
To download these sims from the gallery just search ‘SimmingAndSuch’ or #NashvilleCMT
The Schuyler Sisters From Hamilton West End | Sims 4
A new create a sim video where I create the Schuyler sisters from the musical Hamilton!
I have loved the Hamilton musical since I first listened to it and I got to see it on the West End in January and it was so amazing. So of course I wanted to create some cool sims to celebrate!
To download the Sims from the Sims 4 Gallery just search ‘SimmingAndSuch’ or #LondonSchuylerSisters
Welcome to my New Home!
I’m Courtney and I can’t hold a stable blog to save my life.
Yes, this is another blog…
But this time it’s special. Why?
Because it’s actually my own website! And by that I mean, I bought the domain, I paid the hosting fee, I’m all in.
This is my space, and I am going to use it! And keep it!
No more moving blogs. This is my blog home.
I have been through so many different blogs and I felt like it was finally time to settle down and keep one (though I thought that about my last blog). But this time because I have put money into it I think I’m going to keep this one.
For the longest time I have wanted my own website and now finally I am doing it. So here we are.
It’s not going to be anything fancy, realistically it’s still just going to be a blog. But I do want to post more content here. I want this to be the main place where I post content. From YouTube videos to book reviews to any other random thing I feel the need to share with the world. I think it would be nice to keep it one place.
Which is why I have decided to import the posts from my previous blog to here. I didn’t want to start with an empty website when I had already posted a lot of things on a previous blog. I also thought it was cool that I could import everything with a few mouse clicks.
But starting from today the posts will be fresh and I’m excited.
So I hope to see you back here for some new content very soon!
~ Courtney x
Dublin and Taylor Swift’s Reputation Tour | Saturday 16th June 2018
I’ve finally gotten around to editing my Dublin vlog!
I guess I wouldn’t really call it a vlog but still, I finally edited it. I almost considered not posting at all because I thought maybe too much time had passed since the actual event but I guess a few weeks isn’t too bad.
I promise that I will step back up on my editing game this summer! I currently have about 5 Sims videos that are unedited so please expect to see them very soon! But for now, enjoy this lovely Dublin vlog.
The Gilmore Girls | Sims 4 CAS
It’s been a long time since I’ve done a Create a Sim video so I thought I would jump right back into it by creating the Gilmores!
To download these sims from the gallery all you have to do is search ‘SimmingAndSuch’ or #GilmoreGirls
Planner and Etsy Sticker Haul!
After falling in love with the planner community and talking myself out of it numerous times, I finally decided to get my own planner! I thought it was the perfect time to get one as I head into my final year of university. And I was super excited to be able to finally get myself some pretty stickers!
Here’s hoping this makes me a little bit more organised or at least make it look like I am 😉
Fangirl Book Review
I bought this book a few years ago because I knew I was going to relate to it. The title, the blurb, the whole thing. And finally I got around to reading it and you know what? I was right.
This book was totally relatable. An introverted girl who liked to be locked in her room all day writing fanfiction? That was literally me from about 2010-2014. I used to eat, sleep and breathe fanfiction.
So yes, this book I did enjoy because I connected a lot with the main character Cath.
At first, I thought the book was a bit hard to get into, mainly because of how it was written in the third person, I haven’t read many books written in the third person so it was a change. It also took me a while to get to grips with what was happening because it just starts there’s not really introductions or anything you’re just kind of expected to know who certain characters are. Like I honestly spent the first few pages thinking Wren was a boy…So yeah it took a while to get into it.
The story follows Cath through her first year of university where she’s thrust into a new world full of social interaction, tough classes but also keeping up with her fanfiction. Again, I can relate a lot. It is very tempting to just hole up in your room and write all day or hide from the world, and the worst thing about uni is, is that you can get away with it. No one questions it and that can be dangerous.
Luckily for Cath, she has an assertive roommate who forces her out of the room because she can’t even go out to eat by herself because she didn’t know where the dining hall was.
I really liked Reagan’s character – Cath’s roommate – she was so mysterious and I wanted to know more about her. But we don’t really get to know her besides her little interaction with Cath.
That’s something that I wasn’t a fan of in the book. I feel like I didn’t get to know a lot about most of the characters. Even Cath’s twin sister Wren I feel like I don’t know that well. The story was mainly focused on Cath and Levi. Oh and Cath’s love for Simon and Baz.
So here’s the thing, while I initially liked the story, the one thing I didn’t like was the long passages of Simon and Baz fanfiction thrown in. Like, props to the author for creating a whole story within a story because that takes a lot of time. But at the same time, I didn’t come to read fanfiction about a fictional book series. I came for the actual story of the book I bought. The world of Simon and Baz did not fascinate me like it did Cath.
I imagine it like me being a Twilight fangirl and talking about it all the time to people – which I did – and no one wanted to hear about it. It’s not what I signed up for when I started reading this book.
That being said, I know that Simon Snow is important to Cath and the story to some degree so I don’t mind them referencing it or talking about it but the actual fanfiction parts I feel like I didn’t need. It seemed to take away from the actual story. The passages at the end of chapters weren’t so bad but the other passages I felt weren’t needed.
I guess I could have just not read those parts but then I would feel I was missing out on the story which…I wasn’t.
If anything I wanted to know what was going in Carry On, Simon which was the big fanfiction that Cath was working on throughout the book. Carry On, Simon was Cath’s version of the last book of Simon Snow, and she was racing against the author to release it before the final book was really released.
And I was very disappointed at the end when we didn’t even get to find out if she finished it or not. I needed to know because Cath basically threw away her fiction writing class to finish the fanfiction and it bothered me not knowing. So there was that.
Aside from the fanfiction the rest of the story was kind of cute. I got about halfway and did wonder how this book was going to end or when because it’s the kind of story you write and could probably write forever.
I actually feel like there was a lot that was left unfinished in the book, such as what happened with Nick, Cath’s writing partner – I mean okay there was some kind of ending scene but I feel like I needed more closure after he used her like he did.
And then there was the whole thing with Cath’s mom and their relationship, and Wren’s relationship with her. It just seemed like Cath didn’t want to acknowledge her mother existed and that was fine. The end…
And even with the scene where they went to the release of the final Simon Snow book, I felt like there was gonna be more. Mainly because this was a moment Cath and Wren had been waiting for forever and it was a big deal so I felt like maybe there should have been more. But there wasn’t much.
I did enjoy Cath’s relationship with Reagan and how things sort of grew with Levi. It was obvious from the start those two were going to end up together. Levi and Cath.
I also liked learning bits and pieces about Cath’s relationship with Wren because I think that’s interesting. I wish there had been more of that. I know the point of the story was that Wren was trying to be her own person away from Cath but at the same time I wanted to know her. I also wanted to know what happened between Wren and her roommate because they weren’t talking by the end of the book…
So overall, the theme here is that I feel like there was a lot left out. I did like the story on a level because I did relate to Cath but on a whole, the story was…okay. Nothing super exciting or even really interesting. At first, I did think that Cath writing with Nick was going to be something interesting as well as Cath and Professor Piper’s deal but those didn’t really become anything.
So that’s kind of where I’m at. It did feel like the story was going somewhere in the beginning but then towards the end, it got very Levi central. As in Cath being obsessed with Levi and being with him. Which I understand to a point. I just felt like it needed to go somewhere.
But I think I’m going to leave this blog post here before I go on and keep repeating myself. I think if anything I’m just sad I didn’t enjoy this book as much as I thought I was going to. But it’s not the end of the world, there are other books out there to be read.
Speaking of which, I need to find a new one to read. I don’t know what it’ll be yet, but as always you can find out by looking at my Goodreads page. Or just wait for the next book review which will hopefully be very soon.
~ Courtney x
Ready Player One Book Review
It’s been a while since I’ve read something that wasn’t written by a YouTuber. I feel like it was a nice break.
I decided to read Ready Player One after my boyfriend recommended it, and he also suggested I read it soon because the movie is coming out later this month. I thought I would give it a go because it sounded interesting and I had remembered that Joey Graceffa mentioned it ages ago and I wanted to see what it was about.
Ready Player One follows the story of Wade as he explores a virtual reality world called the OASIS in search of an Easter Egg that was hidden there by its creator, James Halliday. And whoever found this Easter Egg first would be the winner of the fortune and the virtual world created by Halliday.
When I first started reading the book I knew right away that there was a lot of it I was not going to understand. Because the book is filled to the brim with 80’s references and I wasn’t even born until the 90’s so I basically didn’t get any of the references made in the book. And essentially that was 99% of the content in the book. So right away I decided not to get too hung up on the fact I didn’t get any of the references. The gist is that Halliday was really into 80’s culture and so the challenges he put in place on the way to find the Easter Egg were all 80’s related.
So I guess if you’ve ever wanted to learn more about the 80’s pop culture then this is the book for you.
It’s kind of weird to imagine a virtual universe where a lot of the worlds in it were based on ideas of the past but at the same time, it’s not so crazy. Trends from the past make come-backs all the time, and I guess the author just really wanted the 80’s to come back in a big way.
I also thought when I first read the book that the pace of it was going to be faster than it was. Which I’m glad it wasn’t so fast. I did think that once Wade had found the first challenge and succeeded that the second challenge and third wouldn’t be that difficult for them to find and so the search for the Egg would have ended halfway through the book.
The book starts with Wade logging into the OASIS and telling the story of how he found the first Gate – there were three gates to clear in order to find the Easter Egg and gain access to Halliday’s fortune. And Wade was the first person to find the first gate.
Naturally, after he found the first gate and everyone found out about it he became instantly famous and people were trying to find out from him where the gate was and how to clear it.
As the book goes on, it’s clear that the OASIS is not just a virtual world, but it has become everyone’s reality. And that some people’s threats were more than just virtual ones.
I think the one thing that kept me reading was the idea of the OASIS itself. I wanted to know more about this world where possibilities were ended and I found it fascinating. Virtual Reality is something that has recently come up more in the tech world so to read about a world where VR has become everyone’s entire lives is very interesting. And it’s also scary how you could see it becoming a reality.
Though I think one of the main points of the book is that while you can experience amazing things in video games and through VR it will never compare to experiencing it in the real life. Several times in the book it does describe Wade logging out of the OASIS and taking in his real-world surroundings and it’s not great. I guess it makes me appreciate that we are not at that point yet. And I hope we don’t get to it.
Anyway, didn’t expect to get serious about that but back to the book.
I enjoyed the story, I also liked that there was a little bit of a romance in the book but that it wasn’t the main focus of the book. I think it would have been weird to have an all-out romance in the middle of this book. Even if the story seemed to veer in that direction for a bit.
I do think the biggest plot twist for everyone was the identity of Aech, Wade’s best friend in the OASIS but at the same time shouldn’t we have expected it? I think so but I ain’t mad about still being surprised at the reveal.
I was super excited for Wade to finally meet the people he had been talking to in the OASIS, I guess because I know what it’s like to meet someone you’ve only talked to online. It’s scary and it’s a risk but it can also be a great thing. Sure, there are dangers, just like everything but it’s still cool that the internet connects people in lots of positive ways.
As for the ending, well it was kind of expected. In fact, seemed kind of boring towards the very end but that was okay. I feel like everything leading up to the final gate was good and I think the movie will do really well in capturing the end. But I guess we will have to see.
And so, to sum up – I enjoyed this book. Thought it was a fun read. A nice break from what I have been reading recently. And of course, I am excited for the movie. Although that being said when I watched the trailer, the OASIS didn’t look how I imagined it would – but that’s the risk you take when you read the book before you see the movie.
Now moving onto my next read… I have decided it will be Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. I’ve been meaning to read this for a while, especially because I have been calling myself a fangirl since 2009 so I feel like this is something I can relate to. So, look out for that review (hopefully) soon! Can’t make any promises though, sometimes you read something and don’t have a lot of thoughts on it but, I will still leave a rating on Goodreads, so follow me there if you wanna know more about my reading ventures. (And please don’t judge me for how slow it seems I read)
~ Courtney x
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