OK, I'll admit it: this is going to be a mishmash of things that have been “casually consumed” in the most general sense of that phrase. So, instead of only ultra-specific articles of pop culture, I'm going to mention a few other things (you'll see what I mean as I go along). Ahem.

FILMS

Aside from a steady rotation of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit since Christmas (heh), I've seen English Only, Please!, an MMFF entry, which to be honest was the only one I wanted to see. My sister really liked it, and I think the script and the charm is what carried most of the movie. If you think about it, the plot is a little convoluted, but I really enjoyed watching it. Think of it as the journey is better than the destination, which isn't bad at all.

BOOKS

I decided to start the year with The Empathy Exams by Leslie Jamison, which is a book of essays I bought in NYC because Petra said it was good. I've only read a few essays, but it's true—it's good. The first essay, which is where the title is from, talks about her experience as a medical actor.

RADIO DRAMA

Gia tweeted about the BBC's radio adaptation of Good Omens, which is a novel by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett that I really loved reading, but somehow doesn't really seem to appeal to a lot of people who tried to read it. I was a bit apprehensive about this because I didn't really enjoy the BBC adaptation of Neverwhere, but I really like this one, so far.

The site says that you have 14/13 days to listen to it, so I'm thinking they'll pull that off the site after a while. If you're a Good Omens fan, this is a fun way to revisit the story again without doing a re-read.

PAPER THINGS

I retired my Field Notes Cold Horizon (Bullet Journal) and Night Sky (draft journal), which I mentioned here and replaced them with the Red Blooded (Bullet Journal) and Shelterwood (Drafts), which is made of real wood. Ooh! Aah! I guess it's pretty obvious that I'm still in love with my Midori TN system.

If you're curious about Field Notes books, I'm part of the Field Nuts group, which is both amazing and terrifying. A caveat, though: it will probably push you to buy all the things. Just saying.

If you want a sort of primer for FN Colors or special editions Jinnie of Three Staples is going through her collection one by one.

In other paper news, Project Life! I'm just about done with my 2014 Highlights pages. :D Yay me. I'm currently trying to figure out how to print out some of the layouts/backgrounds I want instead of my PL cards (because some of them are really, really “scrapbooky,” if you know what I mean) without having to resort to my Canon Selphy.

TECH/GADGETS/TOOLS

Speaking of the Canon Selphy… I got a Canon Selphy CP910! It's a compact printer that can connect with your phone/device or over WiFi. It can also print directly from your SD Card. I am in love. I got it at Henry's which was about 30%ish off. Mmm. The prints are just about 4×6 inches but they're perfect for Project Life and collaging.

The Fuji Instax Share SP-1 is another printer, but from your smart device to an Instax print! I love it, but it's expensive, so I only like using it occasionally. :)

I've also been taking a lot more photos with my DSLR because of my Sigma 17-50mm, 2.8mm lens! I've always felt awkward toting around a large camera, but I've been telling myself that it's dumb to care, haha. Because it is!

BEAUTY

I haven't been very playful with beauty stuff lately, but I've been coming back to an old favorite, the reliable NARS And God Created the Woman Eyeshadow Palette. I think it's still available now, but all the shades are permanent! My favorite to use are Alhambra and Galapagos.

BLOGS AND OTHER THINGS TO READ

And some things I've been enjoying reading online:

— The Art of Oversharing by Sheena Siao

— Lady and Pups, a gorgeous food blog I found through Joseph's Facebook post

— The Tiny Traveler by Mikka Wee

And, of course, a deluge of Tiny Letters from people I miss hearing from. I've also got one but I am still trying to figure out just what I want to talk about. Where do I draw the line? Stay tuned!

Anyway, that's that, I think! I've got a list of 2014 music releases rec'd to me by the good people of my Twitter feed, so I'm going to work on those~ but for the most part, I've been working and out and about… and doing Project Life.

Let me know what you've been enjoying lately. :) And sorry about this monstrous essay! Wow, this was long, lol.