Author: Courtney Shek

Attempting Vlogmas!

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

Hey guys,
So I just wanted to make a quick little blog post to tell you that I am attempting Vlogmas this year!
If you don’t know what Vlogmas is, it is the name that YouTubers give to their daily vlogs in December as they vlog from the 1st to the 24th December. And this year I have decided to try and take part.
I did attempt Vlogmas last year too, however it was not very exciting. I was so bogged down with school work that 99% of my vlog was me complaining about all the school work I had to do which is not fun.
Vlogmas vlogs are supposed to be festive and happy and so this year I really want to try and make my vlogs festive. So I hope that you guys will join me and get into the Christmas spirit because I really believe that this year I can pull off a really festive Vlogmas!
Earlier I uploaded Vlogmas day 1 to my YouTube channel so check it out below! (And don’t forget to subscribe so you know when I post a new vlog!)

~ Courtney x

Finding Balance

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

Hey guys,
So today I wanted to talk about balance. Mainly trying to find a way to balance your life so you aren’t spending too much time on one thing.
I have always had a problem when it came to balancing in my life. Specifically when it came to balancing school work and slacking off and having fun. I either do too much school work and nothing else or I just do nothing for ages and then feel super lazy.
And since I have been at uni this hasn’t gotten any easier. In fact, it’s a lot harder than ever to maintain some sort of balance.
I’m sure you guys have all seen the photo of student life and all the things we have to balance:

It’s kind of insane.
Lately, I have definitely spent a lot of time going out with friends and enjoying myself. Which is definitely a huge part of student life. You are finally old enough to drink and go to clubs and so it’s exciting and new so you go out a lot.
Yet, on the other hand, you also have a lot more work to be doing and deadlines and assignments and it can be a lot sometimes.
And of course, there is budgeting money if you are living away from home and trying to manage adult responsibilities like cooking and cleaning and the problems that come with living with roommates.
It’s such a crazy time in your life.
And so yes it has definitely been a huge adjustment for me. I definitely feel as though I am doing so much more than I was at secondary school. Especially in going out with friends but also with university work.
It’s kind of crazy how exhausted you can be from just a couple of hours of class a day. Meanwhile when you were in secondary school you were doing six hours of school, five days a week but now it seems next to impossible to turn up to a 9 a.m lecture.
If anything I know that you will never find the perfect balance of life. You are always bound to spend too much time focusing on one aspect of your life to let the other parts of your life suffer. It happens. There’s no stopping that.
But what you can do is realise there is an imbalance and work on trying to even things out again. And not to beat yourself up about it too much.
Lately for me I would say I have taken the time to overindulge in sleeping and socialising and have not paid as much attention to uni work as I know I should  have been doing. So since then I have been working hard to keep up the workload of uni. But at the same time I will still find time to go out and see my friends and spend time with them because that’s an important part of life too.
You just have to find a happy medium that works for you and it might take a while to achieve but I think you can do it if you really try.
Unless it’s about getting enough sleep because that’s just something I have never been able to achieve haha. I sleep too much or I sleep too little there’s never usually an in between. But again, I just need to work on that.
But other than that I’d say I have a good balance going on. I go out with friends about once a week and I attend all my classes and work on things when I need to. I also remember that is important not to overwork yourself. You can take a break from life every so often and not do anything.
I fully support those days that you just decide to take off and do nothing. It’s a really nice way to spend the day, especially when you have been working really hard. So I definitely think it’s important to have that time to yourself too.
I think that’s all I really have to say on the topic. It’s just been something I have been thinking about lately because I have really been struggling to find a good balance. Which is to be expected when going through big changes but I think I have found my happy medium again. And I hope that you guys reading find your balance. It just means you are living a more well-rounded life and that your life isn’t always focused on one thing because there’s so much more to life than that.
So yeah, I hope that you enjoyed reading this blog post. I wasn’t really expecting to talk about it in a serious way but I guess I did. I mean it is important to have balance in your life rather than focus too much on one thing. Because life’s too short for that.
Anyway, like I said I hope you enjoyed reading and I hope that you are able to find your “happy medium” in life 🙂
~ Courtney x

Happy Halloween!

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment
🎃 Happy Halloween guys! 🎃

I just wanted to make a quick little blog post to celebrate the night. I hope you’re all having a fun and spooky night. And I hope you all stay safe!
I have never really understood the fun of Halloween after you are told you are too old to trick-or-treat but lately I have. It’s so much fun to get dressed up and go out with friends, I went on a pub crawl the other night and it was really cool to see everyone that dressed up for the occasion. I particularly enjoy seeing people who have put a lot of effort into their Halloween costumes, to me it’s not enough to put some fake blood on, you gotta go all out.
That being said, there is also nothing wrong with staying in and having a scary movie marathon. Sometimes it’s also good just to stay in and enjoy not freezing outside in a costume made of thin material.
I don’t usually have Halloween plans, but this year I did go out and celebrate so that meant I got to buy a costume! Yay! It’s really hard to find costumes for girls that aren’t revealing though I think mine is pretty fab.

So what do you guys think? I think I made an awesome crayon. And no one else was dressed up as one so I felt special. 😛
What did you guys do for Halloween? Were you dressed up, if so what as?
~ Courtney x

Student Life…So Far

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

Hey guys,
So today I thought I would give you an insight into my student life so far. I wouldn’t say it’s the most exciting thing in the world, but it’s definitely a huge change from school.
After the whirlwind that was Fresher’s Week, classes began and I had to develop a new routine for myself. Which I have to say, was harder than expected.
With university, the timetabling for classes can be very awkward. Especially for me. My timetable goes something like this:

Monday 9-6
Tuesday 11-6
Wednesday 9-11
Thursday 3-4
Friday 1-4

Doesn’t sound like the nicest timetable in the world does it? One thing I will say though is that even though I am in all day on Monday and Tuesday, I am not constantly in class. I get breaks!
Even though my timetable sounds horrible it’s not as bad as it seems. I mean over the past month I have been adjusting quite well and have established some sort of routine for myself.
Mainly for me, if I’m not in class I am in the Student’s Union. If you don’t know what that is, it is a place with shops and areas for students and extracurricular clubs to meet. It is also a source of information for student’s and holds events from time to time. I spend a lot of time there because I don’t live on campus and can’t go home between classes. But the Student’s Union has quickly become a second home. I know some people prefer to go to the library between classes to work but for me, I can’t work in that silence. And the Student’s Union has just the right level of noise that is enough you can still work there.
Other than that, I do spend a lot of time in classes. Which was to be expected for my course. I knew going into it that I was going to have to work hard and so far I have. Overall the course hasn’t been so bad. I find the pace easy enough to keep up with and I haven’t been having too many difficulties.
I have had a few problems with programming (which if you follow me on Twitter, you know all about) but I have been working on it a lot and I understand things better now. Considering I have never coded before in my life, I think I’m doing well. Which is a great because I wouldn’t want to be failing out of uni in the first year.
We are also learning about databases right now and since I studied that at a level it’s nothing to worry about. We are also doing another module which is also new to me but is easy to understand.
As for homework…I don’t get any.
I know, it sounds great, but we always have work to do even if it’s not set homework. If, like me, you have never programmed before it is best to practice programming at home and do the recommended reading. Otherwise, it can be hard to keep up with class. So I always have something to do even when it seems like I have nothing to do.
 Even though we don’t have set homework, we do have assessments. These are things that count towards are final grades so we have to work for those. But like I said, so far everything is fine. No major problems so far.
Moving away from school and talking about the other half of student life….socializing!
If you guys read my Fresher’s Week blog post then you know I met a lot of new people on the first week of university and luckily for me, I have made friends with them. I am so glad that we had to do team building on the first day because otherwise I would find it so hard to talk to people. Especially because I am staying at home for university, I don’t have the advantage of meeting new people in university accommodation.
So I now have a small group of people in my lectures that I know and we all sit in our little area in the lecture hall which is fab. It also means that I have friends that understand the ups and downs of my course and that I can talk to about it. Which I appreciate because my other friends don’t understand anything I say about computing haha.
It is so great to be around new people. Especially when you have been going to school with the same people for seven years. It is also amazing to find new friends who have similar interests to you. One of the first people that I became friends with also loves RuPaul’s Drag Race and that’s when I knew we were going to be great friends.
It’s things like that that make me really happy.
As for going out and partying…I haven’t been out much since Fresher’s Week. I mean I am not one for going out a lot anyway but as a student it’s a rite of passage to go out and party. Which isn’t for everyone. But for the vast majority of student’s it is.
For me, I feel I am somewhere in the middle. I can appreciate a good night out, but I can also appreciate a night in a whole lot more. So I have enjoyed the occasional night out since Fresher’s and it’s been a well-needed break from class and coming home every night.
When I am not at university I do prefer to stay home rather than go out most of the time anyway. Mainly because after spending so much time at university I just want to sleep! Haha. One of the downsides to being a student is that sleep can sometimes be lacking. And I know it’s no one else’s fault but my own. Especially when I don’t live with noisy roommates and I’m in my quiet house haha. But oh well…you can’t be a student without sacrificing something.
On a whole, university so far has been amazing. At first I was a little bit unsure about the choice of studying Software Engineering in case I didn’t like it but honestly, I don’t regret it at all. We have been getting so many talks and emails about the opportunities that are available to us and it makes me super excited for the future. Which is something I thought I would never say.
So if I’ve learnt anything from being at university so far, it’s that you need to follow your passion. Because if you don’t you won’t enjoy it. You study what you want and it will motivate you to do the rest. It sounds really cheesy, but it’s true. If you make choices for you and not for others you will be happier. Because I don’t think I would be fine with studying anything else and I don’t think I’ve made a huge mistake either.
I’m content with how things are going and I’m just excited to see where they go next. 🙂 Thanks so much for reading, and I will keep you updated as the school year progresses.
~ Courtney x

Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer First Impressions

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

Hey guys!
So today I am going to be giving you my first impressions on Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer. For those of you who don’t know, Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer is a spin-off game in the Animal Crossing series. And being super obsessed with Animal Crossing meant, I needed to get this game right away.

It has currently been in my possession for three days and I am already obsessed. I tend to get hooked on Animal Crossing games right from the get-go. There’s something about them that I can’t resist, they are just so adorable and easy to play so I just get sucked in. And this was no exception.
Since this is a spin-off game is has a lot less content than a main Animal Crossing game. I mean the main goal of this game is to design houses. That’s really it. Nothing else to it. You can also design the shops/facilities in the town area which is known as Main Street. But other than designing this game doesn’t have a lot else going for it. So if you are considering getting an Animal Crossing game that’s something worth noting.
At first I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel about this game. If I’m honest I kind of thought I would get bored of it right away. But that’s not the case. I mean I play a lot of Sims and so I do like designing houses and things but something about this game gave me the impression I would play it for two days and get bored. I actually find this game really satisfying to play. Which is kind of the feeling I get with every Animal Crossing game.
There’s just something really peaceful about designing animals’ homes. It’s really cute and I love seeing the villagers’ interact with their new surroundings. It is definitely a different approach to the Animal Crossing series. But I love it.
For one thing, it is so much easier to create houses in the way you want to in this game. Which is obviously one of it’s major selling points. If you have ever decorated a house in Animal Crossing then you know the pain of putting something out and dragging it around the room trying to get it into the right position. With this game, you are able to place furniture with a touch of a stylus.
Another thing I really love is the new additions to furniture. We can now place rugs, hang lights from the ceilings, and even change our curtains and windows. I like these little touches because they can add so much more to a room than before.
On top of these new additions I have noticed there has been a whole load of new items added to the catalogue which is to be expected for a home designer game.
Something I was most excited about when I heard about the game was the addition of designing the exterior of the house as well as the interior. In past Animal Crossing games we haven’t been able to place furniture outside with the exception of Animal Crossing: New leaf public works projects. So this was something I was really excited about. I like having that extra bit of freedom.

A house I designed by the sea

One thing that is annoying with exterior design is that you can’t rotate the houses. They are always facing forward which isn’t great when you want the villager to live on the beach and their house looks like it’s going to be whisked away by the sea. You also can’t rotate the camera outside to see things from different angles which again is quite limiting.

A school classroom

I have also really enjoyed building the facilities in Main Street. Mainly because you are given so much space to create these rooms. In previous games, if you wanted to create a school themed room you would have to do it in your tiny house. Now, we can create them in an appropriately sized room and make them look any way we want to.
While I enjoy this overall game concept as a whole, it does have it’s flaws.
For example, I am not a huge fan of the item catalogue interface. I find it really tedious to swipe to each new page of items. I wish we had a scroll bar at the bottom to make it faster to find items. I know you can search with the search feature, but I like to look through all my items to make sure I have used everything I want to when designing a house.
I also don’t like that this game doesn’t run in real-time like all other Animal Crossing games. We now have to save every time we are done creating a house. Which wouldn’t bother me but it’s the fact you have to keep going all the way to your desk. I know in past Animal Crossing games we would have to go to the attic to save, but even then we had the option of pressing start to save from wherever we were. Once we save it turns into a new day in the Happy Home Designer game, which to me just wastes a lot more time. Although it does teach younger children the importance of saving your game. But Animal Crossing has always stressed the importance of saving your game with the character Resetti.
Oh and I also dislike how we have to wear the red Happy Home blazer all the time. You can change your clothes if you are visiting a house or facility but any other time you have to wear the blazer. You can however accessorise your uniform with other clothing items and accessories.
As for the amiibo cards…I did end up buying a couple of packets of them as well as an amiibo card reader as I will use them in the future but so far I have only used one. I can see the appeal of them as many people will want to collect their favourite villagers and I believe it’s the only way you are able to design a house for a special character such as Isabelle. However, I do feel like if you are on the fence about getting amiibo then don’t. It isn’t worth it if you are not up to the challenge of collecting all of the cards. Amiibo cards aren’t essential to the game either so you can still enjoy the game without having them.
I also can see how having an amiibo card reader can be a hassle if you are travelling and want to bring your amiibo cards. It’s just an extra thing to carry around. And you do need to get an amiibo card reader if you don’t have a new 3DS but want to use the amiibo. So there’s that to think about too.
But overall I am really enjoying this game. I have already created half of the facilities on Main Street and am well on my way to designing homes for every villager in town. So despite the few little issues I have with the game I definitely recommend it if you enjoy designing things. Plus, the cuteness of Animal Crossing is definitely a major selling point for me.
So those were all my thoughts on Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer! I hope that you guys enjoyed this post. If you guys want to see more of my Happy Home Designs then follow my Animal Crossing Tumblr: antrim-in-animal-crossing.tumblr.com
And if you are interested in seeing the unboxing of Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer with the amiibo card reader and some amiibo cards then check out my video below:

~ Courtney xx

Meet the Allgoods

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

Hey guys!
So today I thought I would introduce you to my Sims 4 family. This is the sim family that I have been playing with when I am not playing my Legacy Challenge save file.
These are the Allgoods.

I originally started with two sims, but their family grew pretty quickly. I have decided that I will talk about each sim individually and then talk about my experience with playing with such a big household of Sims. I have never played with eight sims at one time before, so this was kind of new to me.
Before we even get into talking about my sims, let me give you a peek at the family tree.

The Allgood Family Tree

So there is Jen, who is the mother, Tanner the father, Alice and Amber who are twins and both married, Elle who is the second youngest and Patrick the very youngest of the family.
Now I can introduce you to my sims! Let’s start with Jen.

Jen was the first sim that I created. She is basically the same as my Aria Montgomery sim however I changed her name, her clothes, and her makeup. She started young adult and originally had the Painter Extraordinaire lifetime aspiration.

Since then, Jen has completed the Painter Extraordinaire lifetime aspiration and is now pursuing the Bestselling Author lifetime aspiration. She is in the painter career, is reaching the elder stage of life and has gained quite a lot of traits.
One of my friends reminded me of the lifetime rewards panel and since then all my sims have been racking up the traits haha.

Next we have Tanner, Tanner is just my Tanner Patrick sim. He started as a young adult and had the Musical Genius lifetime aspiration. As you can see in the photo, he has aged quite a bit.

Since we started, Tanner as aged up twice to become an elder, I find it weird that he ages up slightly faster than Jen because they started at the same time. And he has completed the Musical Genius lifetime aspiration and is now working towards the Successful Linage lifetime aspiration. He works in the entertainer career and, like Jen, has accumulated quite a lot of traits.

Jen and Tanner soon became pregnant with a set of twins. Which was surprising, I was definitely not prepared. The oldest one (or the one I’m going to talk about first) is Alice. She is a young adult and has the Master Chef lifetime aspiration.

Alice currently has a culinary career, and is married to Johnny Zest.

I won’t say a lot about my sims’ significant others. Mainly because they haven’t been part of the family for long. Johnny is one of the premade sims in the game and is an adult, he has the Joke Star lifetime aspiration and is an adult.


Next we have Amber, who is Alice’s twin sister. She is a young adult and is following in her father’s footsteps and pursuing the Musical Genius lifetime aspiration.

Amber is currently in the entertainer career and is married to Alison DiLaurentis.

Alison is a sim I created and added to the neighbourhood in this save game, as well as the other Pretty Little Liars. She is an adult, has the Party Animal lifetime aspiration.

Then we have Elle. She is a young adult and is, unfortunately, the awkward middle child.

Elle has the Friend of the World lifetime aspiration and is pursuing a business career. Elle is also looking for love, but unfortunately due to the size of our family it’ll be a while before she gets married.

And finally we have the youngest of the Allgood children and the only boy, Patrick.

Patrick has the Serial Romantic lifetime aspiration and is currently a high school student. I have tried my teenage sims with a job and school, but that was next to impossible because their needs always dropped so rapidly so, until Patrick graduates he will remain unemployed.

And so they are the Allgoods! Now to talk about how I have been playing the game.
I don’t really have a challenge I have set myself with this household, I’ve kind of just been playing and trying not to cheat. Which has been going pretty well.
The only times I have cheated were to one, get a better bed for Jen and Tanner and two, reduce the ages of Alison and Johnny because they were elders when they married Amber and Alice.
As for the house they live in, it’s not great.

The Outside
The Inside
The house started with three rooms, the bedroom at the back, a bathroom and the living room. As the family expanded, the house also had to expand. It looks pretty basic right now and that’s because my sims didn’t have a lot of money while I have been making renovations to their house. Now that there are mainly adults in the house and they are all working, we can bring in more money and I may be able to design them a better house.
As for the bedrooms, all my sims have their own and I have found the easiest way to identify everyone’s was to add selfies to their respective bedrooms.

Although everyone’s bedrooms are essentially the same, mainly because like I said, we have been low on funds and so it’s not easy to give them everything they should have so as long as there is a place to sleep it’s fine.
As for playing with eight sims on a whole, it’s a lot. I find myself pausing the game a lot to make sure all my sims are doing actions to further their lifetime aspirations. I know I could make the household smaller by having older sims move out on their own but I don’t like the idea of getting rid of sims. I like to have them all in the same place, otherwise I’m not going to play as them again.
The only downside is that now as the younger sims get older, they can’t have anymore children to expand the family. So I don’t know what I am going to do about that.
One thing I will also say about playing as a large household, or just because I’m a lazy sim player is that I never travel outside my lot when I play. I feel like there are too many sims for that and if I just leave with one of them something will happen to the others. Also I can’t be bothered to sit through the loading screens that come with leaving a lot.
But overall I think it’s great to play with so many sims, there is never a dull moment. And it’s great to explore all different types of aspirations and traits at the same time.

The Allgoods pursuing their passions

Another thing I have become obsessed with in the sims 4 is the photography skill. I decided to add all the other sims I had created into the neighbourhood so that the Allgoods could be friends with them and take photos with them…and I think I’ve gone overboard.

All the photos in my sims house

As for exploring the Get To Work careers and the Outdoor Retreat game pack in this save game, I haven’t really been using them. I think it’s because one, when doing the Get to Work careers it takes you away from all your other sims and two, I think my sim family is too big for an Outdoor Retreat. But I will have to get back to using the features of them, mainly because I paid for them so should really use them.
And so I think this is a good place to end this blog post. I know it’s a lot longer than normal but I just love to share my photos. I hope that you guys enjoyed reading, and getting to know a little bit more about how I play Sims 4. Obviously everyone plays their game differently so I’d love to know how you like to play Sims.
Also if you are wondering where I get all of my custom content from (i.e all the clothes my sims wear and the fancy hair) I get it from the Sims Resource website. It is a wonderful place and I love everyone who makes pretty sim clothes. I love them so much.
Again thanks so much for reading and if you want to check out my other Sims 4 save file that I use to do a Legacy Challenge on my YouTube channel you can find it here.
~ Courtney x

Cinema Tickets and Selfies | Pages 169, 178 & 183 | The Pointless Book 2

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

Hey guys!
Today I am bringing you another Pointless Book 2 blog post, this time we are rating movies and taking selfies. Productive.
As always if you guys wanna check out the video it will be below:

The first page I did was page 163, which asks us to stick in cinema tickets and rate the movie. Luckily for me, I’m a huge cinema ticket hoarder. I started my cinema ticket collection in 2011. I just love movies. So for this page I decided to choose movies that I had seen more than once, because then it would be okay to part with the cinema ticket. This is what my page looked like below:

So the cinema tickets are bigger than the page in the book, so I have to fold them when I close the book but that’s okay. The movies I chose were Breaking Dawn Part 1, New Year’s Eve, Fifty Shades of Grey, Jurassic World and Fantastic Four. I haven’t actually seen Fantastic Four more than once but it was my most recent cinema ticket so I added that too.
My ratings were:
  • Breaking Dawn – 5 stars – I love Twilight with a passion and saw this movie four times in the cinema. I’m a Twihard through and through.
  • New Year’s Eve – 4 stars – I thought this was cute. I mean it had a lot of actors in it that I liked and the story was fun and I liked Valentine’s Day so this was similar.
  • Fifty Shades of Grey – 3 stars – Y’all know all my thoughts about Fifty Shades, if you wanna check out the blog post where I talked about it, it’s here
  • Jurassic World – 4 stars – Surprisingly thought it was good even though it was about dinosaurs. However Chris Pratt totally swayed me.
  • Fantastic Four – 2 stars – Definitely not one of my favourites. Plus it was a remake and the last half of the movie was cliche and boring.

So those were my movie reviews, as you guys can see I’m easily impressed at the cinema haha. As long as I don’t fall asleep during the movie I usually consider the movie fine.
The next page that I did was page 178 which was basically just to take a selfie with the Pointless Book and the Pointless Book 2 so here are some of my fabulous selfies:

And finally the last page I did was page 183, which was basically just colouring in but I still wanted to do it because who doesn’t love colouring in?
And so that brings us to the end of another Pointless Book 2 blog post. I hope that you guys liked it, and if you guys wanna check out more of my Pointless Book 2 videos you can click the link to the playlist here.
~ Courtney x

My Bucket List and Random Thoughts | Pages 15 and 55 | The Pointless Book

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

Hey guys!
Today I am here with another Pointless Book blog post! This time we are making a bucket list and writing down whatever is on our minds. Interesting.
If you guys wanna see the video where I filled in these pages as always it is below:

So the first page that I filled in was my bucket list, and I’ve never made a bucket list before so this was interesting. And if I’m honest, it took me a long time to decide what I wanted to write here. I have no idea what kind of things I want to accomplish by the time I’m older…I guess just as long as I accomplish something I’ll be okay. But this is what I managed to come up with…

In case you can’t read it the bucket list reads:
  1. To travel the world
  2. To publish a book
  3. To code my own website from scratch
  4. To go on a huge shopping spree Blair Waldorf style
  5. To attend vidcon or any other YouTube convention
  6. To visit my favourite social media headquarters
  7. To play a part in the next big technology innovation
  8. To visit the “Friends” set in Hollywood
  9. To meet one of my favourite celebrities
  10. To earn enough money to be able to afford a comfortable lifestyle, not having to worry about bills etc.
I don’t think any of these goals are unreasonable…I mean I feel like these are honestly things I could do…well maybe not play a part in the next big technology innovation, but I do want to create a cool gadget or something. It’d be fun.
The next page I chose to do was something less serious and that was page 55 to write whatever was on your mind until you get to the bottom of the page and this is what my page ended up looking like:
So for those of you who don’t know I actually mainly write joint up…normally when I fill in the Pointless Book or am revising I don’t because it makes it easier to read but any other time it’s usually joint writing.
And in case you can’t read that here’s what it says:
So I am currently filming a video and decided this was the page I was going to fill in for it and I have no idea what I am going to write to fill this space. This is probably the most I have written since I went on summer holiday and it feels weird. At least my handwriting is okay. Don’t know how I’ll cope when I got university and have to write loads. I mean literally my hand hurts haha. Not used to holding a pen for so long. I definitely prefer to type things. Also currently listening to Taylor Swift which is nice. And of course, I can write her name really nicely compared to the rest of this which is a mess. Oh well. I guess I needed this I really should get back to handwriting things. At least sometimes. And omg here we are at the bottom of the page hallelujah! 🙂
Sometimes it is really hard to write down what is going on in your head because you think faster than you write so it ends up looking a mess like my page did haha but it’s fine I think my writing could have been a lot worse and that’s because I have seen it a lot worse.
And so that is it for this Pointless Book blog post, I hope that you guys liked it. I’m not sure if I’ll come to complete everything on my bucket list but if I do, I’ll be sure to tell you. 🙂
~ Courtney x

Results and The Future

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

Well, guys…
I did it.
I passed my A-Levels and I am going to university.
Who would have thought?
Well actually everyone I know. Everyone had so much faith in me haha. I also had faith in myself. I mean I know I worked hard. My mock grades gave me a lot of hope and so I knew that I would at least pass.
I didn’t just pass, I exceeded what I thought I would do. I never know exactly what I’m going to get. I just knew I’d never get my mock grades they were too high.
For those of you who are wondering what my mock grades were they were 2 A*s and an A. I didn’t actually get that but if I had I’m sure you would have heard about it haha.
My actual results were more realistic. I just always feel weird sharing them with people. I don’t know why either, it’s not like they are bad by any means I just don’t feel like it’s other people’s place to know. Other than my friends and family.
So I don’t think I’ll share my real results.
Y’all just need to know I’m going in the right direction.
So, it is now 8 in the morning, I haven’t slept and I’m just…content.
I don’t know what else to say I mean I know I have to be down at the school in an hour to get my paper results – not the actual certificate but just the piece of paper that says what you got because, it’s tradition.
I’ll see my friends, we will go and celebrate. We can enjoy the rest of our summer without having to worry about the future. We have a plan. And it’s great.
I’m so nervous about university, though…It’s going to be so different from secondary school. I mean I have been doing the whole school system thing for 14 years of my life and so to do anything else seems strange…
I know I’ll adapt, but initially it just seems scary. It is also exciting, I mean it will be good to meet people who have the same interests as me and to begin focusing on learning about something I’m interested in.
It’ll be exciting to be in a new learning environment and to have that “university experience”.
I guess I just have mixed emotions about it now. I mean for the longest time I didn’t even know if this was something I really wanted. Being thrown into the process of applying to university and having to choose a course wasn’t exactly what I thought. It stressed me out a lot knowing that this one choice would determine my whole life.
Although as time went on I knew this was the right decision. I know what I want to achieve in the future and this will be something that will help me along the way. I know not everyone chooses university as their next option after school but for some, it is the right choice. But that’s a choice I needed to make on my own, I had to know it was right for me and not right because someone pushed me into it. And I think that’s the most important thing about this whole thing, your future has to be your choice, no one else’s.
So the future does indeed look bright.
I have no idea how university will actually go for me. If I’ll love it or hate it or just be okay with it. I just know it’s where I’m going for the next four years. So I better saddle up.
Wish me luck!
~ Courtney x

Game Over, Charles – My Pretty Little Liars Summer Finale Reaction

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

Um…what?

So…last night I watched the episode and I filmed my reaction immediately, like didn’t even really check on social media didn’t really have time to let things sink in and I was kind of just…in a daze. Trying to process everything that happened. If you guys wanna check out the raw reaction to the episode check out the video below:


It is now the next day and I have had time to process everything, watch the episode again and go on social media to get the general thoughts on the episode.
Here’s the deal, PLL fans are not happy. And I can agree with a lot of them, I can see why people are angry, I have seen the lengths people have went to make their own theories and I can see how they’d be disappointed with the real thing.
I have to say I’m only like half disappointed with the episode. I mean I was definitely shocked when A turned around and it turned out to be CeCe. I was not expecting that. I was so sure A was a guy that I just…kind of shut down the idea that he could be a girl. 
In fact, to me the whole transgender thing was a surprise. I didn’t think Pretty Little Liars would take that route. Mainly just because I didn’t see that being the style of the show, I’m fine with the way they went with the story but I just wasn’t expecting it. I saw a lot of theories about Charles being transgender, but a lot of people thought that Charles was originally a girl wanting to be a boy and not the other way around.
One thing I am definitely not okay with was Sara being Red Coat/Black Widow. And I know I’m not the only one. I said in my last blog post I didn’t want Sara to be Red Coat. She was only introduced this season and there is literally no motive behind why Sara was doing this or why CeCe chose her at all. I just…I don’t get it. Why Sara. She’s so…annoying. I really don’t like her so the fact this happened was just not okay with me.
But can we please talk about when Emily punched Sara? Because that was one of my favourite things about this episode haha.
I am also not sure why everyone is okay with what CeCe did to them. Like, she almost killed them and tortured them for years and yet they seem to be pretty willing to let it go. I’m sorry, but I wouldn’t be. I can understand why Alison would, but I don’t with the other girls. CeCe may have said she loved all of them, but I just don’t see how she did.
One thing we were promised is that we would feel sorry for A. And I sort of do feel sorry for CeCe but at the same time that doesn’t make what she did okay. 
I also don’t understand the whole Mona and CeCe in Radley thing. I mean I understand CeCe agreed to play the game with Mona so that she could get out of Radley but why did she love hearing so much about the girls.
Did she really only punish the girls because they seemed happy Alison was gone?
And what are the odds of Bethany picking that yellow outfit to wear to escape Radley on the same night Alison was wearing it?
Because Bethany ends up stealing CeCe’s clothes and going after Mrs D for having an affair with her dad and so CeCe follows her and hits her with a rock. But that turns out to be Alison…so CeCe hit Alison.
Which leads us to…Mona killing Bethany. Um…what? I’m sorry, but there were just so many people in that general area that night Alison disappeared. I mean seriously can we just get a full episode with everything they said happened that one night. I need to know how everything played out. From the barn to Alison going to the kissing rock to Bethany getting murdered and Alison being buried alive. What really happened?
One thing I have to applaud Pretty Little Liars for is that they did give us a lot of answers. I know they may not have been the answers everyone wanted, but they definitely gave us more in that one episode than they ever did in the rest of this season. So yay for them finally following through on something haha.
Now moving onto the flash forward of five years…
Alison writing on a chalkboard…she is Mrs something…so is she married? If she is, every Emison shipper is gonna be heartbroken and we all know it. I kind of thought she just changed her name for safety reasons because at first I didn’t notice she wrote Mrs. Also she’s a teacher! Did we expect that to be Alison’s profession?
Also, he is coming for Alison so…you know someone new is after them. What else is new? Haha.
I’m excited about the time jump mainly because they are no longer going to be in high school. Which is good because they can’t pass for high school students for much longer, well maybe Sasha Pieterse can but that’s because she’s 19.
And of course, there are things that this episode never really answered…like who killed Mrs DiLaurentis, or if the mums ever made it out of the basement…these are things we all need to know. Hopefully, we find out in the upcoming episodes…
As for who I originally thought was A…well, I was kind of jumping on the Wren train with a lot of people but as we got clues revealed to us last night I made a spider diagram and CeCe’s name was on there!


I also made notes during the episode so I remembered what to talk about haha…it’s a little bit of a mess…



So what did you think of the Pretty Little Liars summer finale? Did you love it or hate it? Let me know in the comments below!
~ Courtney x