The Renaissance Project- Take Two (or Three....)

Happy 2015 everyone! Today I want to talk about The Renaissance Project. Its that thing that I started at the beginning of last year and then kinda let it slip away. Well, I'm going to go over what I accomplished, what I didn't, and then set my new shiny goals for this year :)

Here are the goals that I set for myself last year:

Personal:
*lose 20 lbs
*visit the Old Zoo in L.A.
*read 10 books
*keep up with Rat Queens and Sex Criminals
*visit one National Park
*more road trips
*make more time to be creative
*Project Life (monthly, not weekly)

Well....I read ten books (yay!). I lost ten pounds because of my health issues, but then gained it all back and then some when my doctors started messing with my medications (bleh). I sorta kept up with Rat Queens and Sex Criminals, then my local comic book shop closed because they let their personal life drama interfere with their business life, so I'm currently on the hunt for the issues I'm missing (plus, I started reading like, five other comics too....so its become a thing...). I didn't visit the Old Zoo or a national park. I didn't do Project Life at all, but I did find time to do some creative things, though not much. And the road trips...well, I set myself up for failure with that one. My husband traveled a lot in 2014 for airsoft, and I was hoping that he would take us along for some of those trips. It had been discussed, its not like I was just completely wishing it, but it always fell through. And the trips we were supposed to take to make up for it never happened. I wish I could say that extensive traveling will happen this year, because I definitely have wanderlust fever, but hes going to be traveling even more for airsoft this year, so I'm not holding my breath. I am, however, determined to make it to a national park, but more on that a little later.

Blog:
*four giveaways
*more contributors
*new segments- The Renaissance Project and Currently
*book/comic book reviews
*a mini series based on a Kerri Smith book (How to Be an Explorer of the World)
*improve my social media presence (Twitter and Facebook)

I did alright with my blogging goals. I held more than four giveaways, and I improved my social media presence a little bit (yes to Twitter, eh on Facebook). The new segments didn't hold, like I said, I let TRP slip as the year went on, and while I like the idea of a Currently post, my life just isn't exciting enough for them. Once I like something, I pretty much latch onto it for months, so I struggled to find things to put in my Currently posts. I am thinking of trying it again though, as a monthly instead of a weekly like I originally wanted. I did a few book reviews, but I wanted to do a lot more. And I don't think I reviewed one comic. If I find a new comic book store and start reading them again, I definitely want to start doing those. And the mini series.... I am hanging on to that because I had them written out, I just never posted them! What's up with that?!

Here's a picture of a Scottish Fold for sticking around through this long post! 

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Goals for this year:

Personal:
*get healthy
*visit one National Park
*complete a year of Project Life
*read 15 books

These may seem a little vague (especially the get healthy goal) but I have help! I purchased the Happy New You bundle from Erin Condren; which has a wellness journal, a budget planner and some other stuff. I really want to stay organized this year, so I figured that'd be a great way to do it. I also purchased this sheet from Elise Blaha as a way to track a few different goals (side note, I am really looking forward to the get to work book shes launching this spring. I hope I'm lucky enough to buy it). I also have the National Parks passport, which I've owned since 2011, and have not one cancellation in it. I am determined to change that this year. What's the point of owning one, buying all the sticker sets to make it pretty, and not doing anything with it? I also have the Project Life Planner Pages, which I plan on using to complete PL with this year. I bought it at Michael's during the middle of 2014 when it was on sale. I guess you're supposed to use it as a regular planner, but its not practical for me in that way. And for the books...well, I barely squeaked in ten books last year, but I'm going to push  myself for fifteen this year. I really enjoy reading, I wish I had more time for it.

Blog:
*collaboration with fellow bloggers
*try a few new segments/purging of old ones
*attend a convention as press
*learn to use an editorial calendar
*new layout/learn to make graphics
*sell ads


These seem like a lot, but they really aren't. Some are just editing things that I've written down to remind myself to complete :) I do want to focus on the few things I want to change, and make them really good though. I would also like to mention that I have reduced the pricing of my ads for this year. Selling ads would allow me to get a new background, which this blog so desperately needs. Plus, I'd like to be able to get some really awesome giveaway prizes too. I'd also like to collaborate more with other bloggers or shops. I was able to do so last year with some really great people, and am looking to branch out and do even more this year. And hopefully, if my bridges aren't completely burned, I would like to actually attend a convention as press this year. Last year my health was just too crappy to do it, but if I stick to my personal goal of getting healthy this year, it shouldn't be an issue.

So those are my goals for this year. What are yours?


**The links to Amazon and the Erin Condren main site (not the one that goes straight to the bundle) are affiliate links. If you purchase something from Amazon, I will get a small commission from your purchase, at no extra charge to you. If you are a new member to Erin Condren, and make a purchase using my referral link, you will get $10 off your first order, and I will receive a $10 credit to my account. Thank you for supporting KMT!**

Recently

March was so busy! So this is a recap of what my month was like.

Read:

I spent some time reading Divergent(review here) and Insurgent (review soon). I also read Camp Boyfriend by J.K. Rock, and I have something I think is exciting related to that book coming up soon.Other than that, its just been magazines and comic books :)

Watched: Spongebob Squarepants, Strawberry Shortcake and Pokemon. I let my kids pick most of the shows in March lol. 

Listened To: 

Bastille- Pompeii

That was for the kids, since that song was used in the Mr. Peabody and Sherman trailer, every time they heard it on the radio, we had to listen. And we listened a lot, since four of the five local radio stations I listen to played that song quite a bit lol. 

I spent a lot of the last of March listening to Skylar Astin's Mr. Roboto/Counting Stars Glee performance on my IPod. Love him.

Happenings:  The children and I all celebrated our birthdays, mostly happily. The kids had great birthdays and great parties. My birthday was meh, and the night of my birthday dinner, my mother in law decided to tell me all kinds of horrible things about myself. I still haven't forgiven her, I won't. She has said a lot of evil stuff in the past, and I'm just tired of it. But anyway, besides all our birthdays and parties, I also volunteered to work a consignment sale. It wasn't all selfless. I was selling stuff at the sale, and the owner of the sale gives you a higher percentage back on your sales if you work the event. My sister and niece also came to visit for a week. They live out of state now, and my niece was on her Spring Break. It was really nice to see them, and my whole family even took a day trip to the beach as part of their visit, which was nice (its always nice to get out of town, and I haven't been able to do that lately. My husband has, for airsoft games and other airsoft related stuff, but I don't go with him to those things.). March was also filled with crappy allergies, a lot of doctor appointments, and the flu. Oh! And the IGGPPC birthday, that resulted in lots of Happy Mail! One day soon, I am seriously going to do a massive mail post. I have so much stuff to share with you guys :) I also completed one of my Renaissance Project goals, which was to have four blog giveaways. The Stickers! Giveaway made number five, so while I technically hit that milestone with the House GlaDOS Giveaway, I didn't realize it until giveaway #5 (because I am spacey like that). Busy, busy month indeed.

Krystelle's Book Club- Divergent by Veronica Roth

Divergent

Last year I did a lot of book purchasing, but not a lot of book reading. One of the things I bought was the Divergent series. I'd heard it was set to be the next Hunger Games, and I like that style of story, but I kept putting off starting the series. So fast forward to  the week before the movie was set to come out. I finally sat down and read it. And wow. I'm glad I did. 

The book follows sixteen year old Beatrice Prior, an Abnegation girl who doesn't feel right in her faction's skin. The world as she knows it, is split into five factions that are based on character traits. The Candor are all about the truth, they were black and white only, and say everything that comes to mind. They are the lawyers and judges. The Erudite are the smart ones. Always on the quest for knowledge, they research constantly. They were blue and are the teachers and scientists. The Dauntless are the wild, fearless ones. They jump off trains daily as a way to get around. They wear all black and are the protectors of the city. The Amity are the hippies of the group. Always happy, never negative. They are the farmers and where red and yellow. The Abnegation are basically the Amish. They are selfless, never having much, in favor of giving it to the factionless. They are the public servants, volunteers and the government. They only wear gray and aren't even allowed to look in the mirror except every once in a while, for only a few seconds. When the children hit age sixteen, they are forced to take an aptitude test, which determines which faction they are supposed to belong to. Its faction before blood, and you aren't always guaranteed your family's faction.

Beatrice and her brother Caleb both take the test (and no, they are not twins), and Beatrice's tests results come back inconclusive. The Dauntless lady named Tori that administers her test tells her that she's Divergent, and that she has to keep it to herself or that she could end up dead. Tori doesn't elaborate much more than that, and Beatrice is left to wonder what that means. At the Choosing Ceremony the next day, Beatrice is forced to make the decision of which faction she wants on her own, and she chooses Dauntless. Her brother chose Erudite, much to Beatrice's shock. Caleb was the perfect Abnegation boy.

After the Choosing Ceremony, they go back to their new potential factions, and that's when things get crazy for Tris (she decided that Beatrice didn't fit the Dauntless scene). I can't really go into too much more without a ton of spoilers, and I already plan on dumping a ton of those tomorrow when I review the movie. But the book is very good. There really isn't a slow moment in it, and you get to see what lengths some people will go to to get what they want. It does get very violent in the training compound, and *I think these may constitute spoilers* I will say that if things like suicide, child abuse and rape are triggers for you, please be warned that those issues are in this book. 

Overall, it was a strong book and a great way to start the trilogy. I do wonder why the author thought some of the things she wrote about were appropriate for a YA audience though. While not written in an explicit, adult way, some of the stuff I don't think is suitable for younger readers. They couldn't even put it in the movie in order to keep their PG-13 rating so they could reach that target audience.

Resolution Revolution

Found this relevant to my Renaissance Project.

Krystelle's Book Club- The Bling Ring by Nancy Jo Sales

The Bling Ring: How a Gang of Fame-Obsessed Teens Ripped Off Hollywood and Shocked the World

Remember when The Bling Ring burglaries were a big deal? Its been a few years now, almost a lifetime ago in today's attention deficit world. They were shocking- not only because it was celebrities that were the victims, but because teenagers (rich teenagers at that) were the culprits. In a time when people were grossly underestimating today's youth, they showed that they were smart enough to pull off something big. Too bad it wasn't something beneficial to society. 

I went into this book hoping to be thrown right into the story of the Bling Ring-ers. I remembered that only two really spoke out about it, the boy (Nick) and Alexis, the girl whose one season reality show with E! was centered on this. Instead, this book dragged its way into the story. The book itself was based on Nancy Jo's article for Vanity Fair titled "The Suspects Wore Louboutins", and I wondered if the dragging of the book had to do with her trying to stretch the content of her article to make it book length.  The book is broken down into three parts, with each part having chapters. Part One and half of Two are littered with historical facts and statistics that don't really have a place in the story (she also seems to think that America's inflated ego and the rise of such trash as the Kardashians was made possible by the crashing down of the Berlin Wall. Seriously?). It felt like reading a term paper where someone had just thrown in a bunch of junk to meet the word requirements their professor had set for the assignment. And she appears to be liberal, as she threw in some political jabs that were unnecessary (George W Bush is like Paris Hilton? Its his fault that the Bling Ring kids used the Internet to stalk celebs because of what his administration did? Um, no.). I try to leave my political affiliation out of my reviews, but I really hate when people throw theirs into their work for no reason other than they can. It really took all I had to keep reading through those beginning parts. It bored me.

The second half of Part Two though, and all of Three, finally focused on the case. It really got into the story, and that was interesting. The only two that really talked were Nick and Alexis (Diana, Rachel and Courtney were the other main players), and their stories were so different, you really had to wonder who was telling the truth. Or maybe neither one of them was. When Nancy Jo tried to talk to the other defendants, their lawyers wouldn't allow it, or would deny any comment made (mostly by Nick). Nick sold out his friends on the advice of his attorney (who turned out to be shady himself), Alexis tried to distance herself while still speaking out because she was on teevee (you can still see the season of Pretty Wild, her show, on Netflix. Its pretty funny, even though its not supposed to be.). You can see her story change several times in the book, which I thought was interesting. What was also interesting, was Nancy Jo recalling a night when she kept getting calls from Alexis's mom, but she didn't answer.  They turned out to be from Alexis,who kept leaving voicemails. She was saying the same thing over and over. I remember her doing that from the show. And Nancy Jo put in her book that that whole incident was in fact scripted for Pretty Wild, so she was glad she didn't answer! (The book also shows just how scripted Pretty Wild was. Its amazing. Its pretty much a sitcom with that much script.) 

For all the crap in the first parts of the book, I really enjoyed the last part. It even made me want to rent the movie (and I did, review tomorrow!) I can only half recommend this book though. If the first part of the book didn't exist, I could wholeheartedly recommend it. But it does, so I can't. If you want the abbreviated version though, you can always read the article :) 

Links:

Alexis Neiers' blog 

Q&A with Nancy Jo Sales about the Bling Ring

Ms. Hilton by The Penfifteen Club
(since the Bling Ring Broke into her house five times)

Krystelle's Book Club- The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

The Fault in Our Stars

"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars/But in ourselves." Easy enough to say when you're a Roman nobleman (or Shakespeare!), but there is no shortage of fault to be found amid our stars." pg 111

Wanting to keep up on my goals for the year, I knew I needed to start reading a book right away. Rather than dash straight to Amazon to see what the hot new book to read is, I started to browsing through the stack of books/downloaded Kindle books I'd bought last year, but never had the chance to read. It didn't take me long to decide on one. I'd purchased The Fault in Our Stars right after I'd finished reading for Looking  for Alaska- which was supposed to be the first book review I did for this blog (oops) and also made me a huge John Green fan. 

Now I will try to write this review without any spoilers, but I can't guarantee it. I had heard that this book was sad, heartbreaking even. And I had heard that crying was to be expected while reading it. But that didn't deter me. I finished the book in two days (hey, I have kids to take care of, or it would've been sooner). And yeah, the book is sad. Heartbreaking really. I did get that feeling in my throat a few times like I was going to cry, but no tears actually came out. The movie is set to come out this summer, and while I'd really like to see it in theaters, I know I won't. I will rent it, because having actual people faces to place in this story will make me sad enough to actually cry. And nobody wants to ugly cry in a theater. But on to the book!

"And yet still I worried. I liked being a person. I wanted to keep at it. Worry is yet another side effect of dying." pg 65

At the beginning of the book we meet Hazel Grace Lancaster- a sixteen year old girl living on borrowed time thanks to a cancer drug named Phalanxifor. She is forced by her parents to go to a support group for children with cancer and its there that she meets seventeen year old Augustus Waters- an amputee, thanks to cancer. Augustus is drawn to Hazel instantly, but it takes her a little longer to warm up to him. Their relationship advances quickly, but one assumes that with the cancer comes the ever present reminder that tomorrow is not promised, so its okay.

"(Off topic, but: What a slut time is. She screws everybody.)" pg 112

The pair bond over Hazel's favorite book, An Imperial Affliction, which ultimately leads to a trip to Amsterdam (where the book's author lives), funded by the Genies (the fictitious Make-A-Wish). Its Augustus's wish and Hazel wonders how he receives it if he is considered not terminal. The meeting with the author was....not what they expected, but the rest of the trip was magic (as it should be for a Wish).

"Some tourists think Amsterdam is a city of sin, but in truth it is a city of freedom. And in freedom, most people find sin." pg 157

I can't say much more without giving everything away- but some foreshadowing a little more than halfway through the book pretty much prepares you for the twist you don't think is coming. (Hint: its easier to spot if you've known someone who has had cancer. My grandfather was that person for me.) The book is beautiful though. It doesn't sugar coat its serious subjects (cancer/loss), and it shows you how great young love can be (minus all the sap). John Green gives this generation of teens a chance to pick up a book and read something equally intelligent and relevant to today's lifestyle (Hazel reflects more than once on how people respond to death on Facebook). But more importantly, he seems to give them a chance to get inside themselves, to react and feel.

"It seemed like forever ago, like we'd had this brief but still infinite forever. Some infinities are bigger than other infinities." pg 233

Even though this is a Young Adult novel, I recommend reading it- regardless of age.

Find John Green online:

http://johngreenbooks.com/

https://www.youtube.com/vlogbrothers

*Page numbers with the quotes are from the Kindle. I'm not sure if they're different than the actual book.

Its Goal Settin' Time- The Renaissance Project Revival

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Everybody makes New Year's Resolutions, and usually breaks them within the first month. Or maybe that's just me, which is why I stopped making resolutions years ago. Instead, I like to set goals. I am a chronic goal setter. But I am also a chronic non-achiever, in that, I still usually end up falling short of meeting my goals.

At the start of 2011, I started a New Year's project for myself called The Renaissance Project. It was loosely based on a very old diary entry of mine, where I mused that being a Renaissance woman (in a more modern context) is what I needed to be loved (I was like fifteen at the time, and every movie I was watching had the gorgeous, popular boy falling for the artistic, worldly girl. I wanted that so bad, I just had to be that girl.), and also the very definition of Renaissance that was taught in history class- great changes, all for the betterment of mankind. I started the year off fairly well, until six days into that new year, my grandmother passed away. We knew it was coming, she was ready for it (or so she told me every day after she got really sick), but it hurt. It still hurts. We were very close, and it just hit me so hard. I tried to continue with the project. I was determined to finish something for once, because she has seen me try and fail at so many things, but she always supported me. But the pain got to be too much, the depression too great, and after our birthdays in March, I gave up. Then last year I decided to try again. I even made a website to document it and everything (The Renaissance Project). I thought that maybe I'd gain followers, become accountable to someone other than myself, and that would finally be the trick to succeeding. But can you guess what happened? That's right. I wasn't meeting my goals and I gave up. Again. I like the idea of the blog, and that's why I never took it down. And I might use it again. But for now, I will be attempting the Renaissance Project for the third time, and sharing it here. With you. Below are the first versions of the goals I've set for myself for this year. They will change, I guarantee it. I might meet some of them and expand them. Or I might find that they just aren't working and eliminate them. But I will keep up with them and I will keep going. I have to.

Personal Goals:
*lose 20lbs

*visit the Old Zoo in LA

*read 10 books
*keep up with Rat Queens and Sex Criminals
*visit one National Park
*more road trips
*make more time to be creative
*Project Life (by month, not week)

For the Blog:
*four giveaways (first one starts January 13th!)
*more contributors (if interested, please email jenarynkrystelle@gmail.com)
*new segements- The  Renaissance Project and Currently
*book/comic book reviews (for reals this year)
*a mini series on explorations from Keri Smith's book How to Be an Explorer of the World: Portable Life Museum
*be a contributor on someone else's blog
*improve my social media presence (especially the blog's FB and Twitter)


So there you have it. This is some of what I hope to accomplish this year. I hope 2014 is everything everyone wants it to be :)

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