Tag: Feature

Compassion, Train Tracks, and the Comment Section (+ I Have A Question) | Fourth Friday Fangirling

Less intro, more fangirling. Okay? Okay!

Let’s do this!

In this month’s FFFs, you have compassion, the comment section train, and train tracks. Oh! And I have a question for you at the end :D | Fourth Friday Fangirling

All Over the Blogosphere

Inspiration and Motivation – Valerie of This Vegan Life’s latest post, “Life is Actually Easy,” gave me an interesting perspective on the difference between inspiration and motivation. She also reintroduced me to meditation, which I’m thinking of doing again soon.

{About blog: This Vegan Life is a vegan lifestyle blog by Valerie Cody. Here, she shares not only scrumptious recipes for vegan peeps but also ways to have a more spiritually grounded life. I also love the vintage collage feel of her feature images.}

An Alternative RealityThrough sharing a fun fact about train tracks, Ellie of Ellie’s Blog wrote a thought-provoking post on tradition and how we generally lack the ability to step away from “what works” in “The Distance Between”. It’s brilliant and a must-read!

{About blog: Ellie’s Blog is a personal blog by Ellie, a 23-year-old from New Zealand. She writes about opinions, self-help, travel and poetry. Another great post you should check out of hers is “The Generation of Instant Gratification.” I know right??? You could already tell it’ll be a brilliant post 😀}

“Faith Crisis”In this absolutely amazing post by Kate of Aroused, “Faith Crisis,” Kate opened the door in my head as I thought about religion and politics and how we have lost faith to institutions.

{About blog: Aroused is a creative blog by Kate (aka calmkate. So that’s def not me) Not being biased because we’re namemates here, but her blog is a total gem. She shares photographs of beautiful everyday things and writes thought-provoking posts and poems like this one}

ReflectionA beautiful short story from My Life Online’s Becca, “A Personal Story” will definitely resonate to anyone who is struggling with accepting a part or parts of their selves. As someone with a low self-esteem and has an issue with self-confidence, this shook and moved me.

{About blog: My Life Online is a blog by Becca. She has now moved to a new blog, Becca and Beyond.}

All Over the Rest of the World

Nur HudaYou probably knew about this already because things like these get featured on news real quick. But anyway, in case you didn’t know: remember when authors got together to hold an auction for the victims of the devastating Grenfell Tower Fire? One of the authors who joined is the amazing Philip Pullman who pledged a named character for the second part of his upcoming book series, La Belle Sauvage. It’s an amazing lot to bid, right? Then one James Clements posted this:

James Clements bid on Authors for Grenfell

The response? An amazing comment train of people adding to Mr Clements’s initial bid. It was overwhelmingly good and I got teary-eyed just scrolling through the comments section.

Responding with Kindness In this Twitter thread by Sierra Abrams (@sierraiswriting) she shared a story on how she responded with kindness to a person who deserve it the least. It’s an inspiring story and worth the scrolling, trust me 😉

A Not So Perfect LifeI recently subscribed to Emma Gannon’s podcast, Ctrl Alt Delete. One of the first episodes I’ve read is Episode #58: Sophie Kinsella – A Not So Perfect Life. And being a HUGE Sophie Kinsella fan, I couldn’t just NOT listen to it. And I did not regret it one bit.

This episode talked about how social media has changed our lives and the emergence of our glamorous online lives. That, and Sophie Kinsella’s writing process. Which is interesting to listen. Plus *whispers* her accent and Emma’s accent are wonderfuuuuuul*

*yep, I’m still obsessing over accents. Not ashamed of it one bit.

What I Am All Over

Personal Achievement: I am so proud of this drawing that I finished editing for-web this month. I’m slowly trying to put more effort and attention into backgrounds plus I’m getting better at painting leaves 😀 Still have to work on painting flowers but celebrate the little victories! <3

Music: ラ・ム・ネ (ra-mu-ne) by Snail’s House (Such a happy music! Listen to it below)

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/248335820″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

Poetry: “someplace silent” by Kiya of Flawed Silence (obviously not being a total fangirling unicorn here mehehe. PS Kiyaaaa I miss you, you wonderful unicorn youuu <3)

Photo:

I found this through Brain Pickings; made by Wendy MacNaughton and Courtney E. Martin. If you want a print, you can buy one through here. All proceeds will be donated to Hedgebrook, a rural writing residency for women.

So I Have A Question:

I’ve been thinking about this for a while now. But I’m not really sure how many of y’all use Pinterest. So I’m going out on a limb here…

Would you like to join a Pinterest group board where you can discover new blogs and promote your latest blog posts?

I notice so many wonderful Pinterest-worthy blog images that go with all your amazing posts. And I kept thinking how totally amazing it would be if you could extend your reach to Pinterest. Also, hehe, I want to discover new blogs. I did all the blog-finding tricks up my sleeve—Twitter blog trains, searching for tags on Reader, other blog’s comment section… But I’ve discovered that my best way of discovering new blog is through Pinterest. Obviously, because I’m such a Pinning Wizard™.

Anyway, it’s just an idea that had been simmering in my mind for a while now. Let me know what you think! Or I’ll just crawl back to my cave of awkwardness.

Happy weekend, awesome peeps! <3

Come in, come in. We have PIE! | Fourth Friday Fangirling

I gotta admit, much as I was excited for this feature, I didn’t get to explore as much new blogs as I wanted. But I still got to find really awesome posts and bloggers to share and feature for this month.

Because can you really believe that not much had happened in the blogosphere??? I refuse to.

Gathering all the posts I’ve bookmarked and blogs I took note all throughout this month, I realized that I unintentionally had a sort of theme going on.

PIE!

Perspective, inspiration and energy. Which, let’s face it, are pretty abundant here, don’t you agree?

Ever since I started college, I’ve always wanted to see things in different perspectives. I guess it started out after I watched a video of Hank Green where he said something about people’s differing worldviews and this book I read. Gosh, those were so long ago, I forgot what they were.

Their impact on me remained, though. Both the video and the book made me want to understand and be more considerate of the things and people around me. I became an Anton ego.

Related image

But…you know, a bubblier and happier Anton Ego, I’d like to think. (We both have sophisticated tastes tho hahaha)

When I think about it now, it was no surprise that I went to the blogosphere to find those varying perspectives. I’ve had this blog for nearly three years and I’ve seen so many inspiring and energetic people with opinions similar and different from mine. If that doesn’t make you more open-minded, I sure don’t know what will.*

For this June, I want to share some inspiring and personality-driven blog posts and blogs from bloggers you may or may not know. One thing I can guarantee for y’all lovely peeps: these are packed with perspective, inspiration, and energy.

*Perhaps opening your skull will make you more open-minded, hmm? Get it??? 😀 *crickets chriping* Kfine.

Come in, come in. We have PIE! | Fourth Friday Fangirling | Teen bloggers' impact, regrets, redemption, and telling it like it is. This first feature is kinda packed, if you think about it. BUT SO GOOD I TELL YA! :D

 

Teen Bloggers: Impacting the World, One Blog Post at a Time

I’ve always felt blessed that I spent the last… *mutters and counts* three years of my teenage years skimming through the Teen Tag of WordPress. Through it, I got to meet the most spunky, inspiring, hilarious and purely awesome fellow teenagers who are, honestly, more awesome and opinionated than I was at their age. (Gosh, I sound an old lady. Just so y’all know, I’m still nineteen 😉 )

Two of said awesome teens posted two inspiring blog posts this month that had me so inspired, I think I fangirled over their comment section more than was publicly appropriate.

Elm of—oh gorsh, we can all agree we only have one Elm in this part of the blogosphere, right???

Anyway, if you haven’t read it yet*, Elm shared a few weeks ago about how she was going to speak to a group of students in Dorset, “My Blog in the Real World”. I was beyond ecstatic reading her post and felt completely inspired.

This just shows how we bloggers—no matter how small or big, young or old—have a voice and the capability to impact people. And I’d like to quote Elm on this:

Remember that your words can mean something; it’s words that can change people’s minds and let them understand things which they otherwise wouldn’t.

I may not be able to help everyone or do everything I want to do. However, what I can do is worth it. What I can do is help as many people as I can and speak as loudly as I can.

Don’t be afraid of taking new, potentially scary opportunities. It could change your life, or the lives of others, one day.”

And then there’s Bea of Child of Cynicism.

OHHHMYGOSHHHH HER POSTS AHHHHH!

If you don’t follow her blog yet, I urge you to. Like seriously. Just get out of here right now and go and click follow. (But do come back afterwards, because I still have like two or three more blogs to feature below hehe)

She doesn’t have a regular posting schedule but, I can guarantee you, every post of hers is inspiring and thought-provoking. I am basically a puppy wagging its tail when they see their human companion in the vicinity whenever I see she has a new post. They’re the kind of posts that make you question how the world around you truly works and make you think of certain societal issues.

Her post “To Teenagers, Everywhere” is a short yet straightforward and incredibly inspiring message to teenagers who are struggling with school-works and exams at the time. Because let’s face it, we teenagers have practically spent most of our lives in the classroom. Don’t you sometimes wonder about your self-worth whenever you failed a test or flunked a subject? I know I did, and still sometimes do.

Bea’s post is a helpful reminder that, no, you are more than your grades and your self-worth isn’t measured by your academic performance. Here’s a little snippet:

Please take the time to realise that your grades do not define you. That they cannot measure the content of your kindness, or the vastness of your intellect. They do not determine your intelligence, nor do they determine your future.

An Inspiring Advice on Regrets

I remember discovering Corey of The Nostalgia Diaries a few months back (or was it last year…?) when I joined one of the blog parties hosted by Steph of Scale it Simple. The Nostalgia Diaries has since become one of my go-to places for Internet therapy and I always leave her blog feeling comforted and reassured. Her writing does that to you. (Or me, in my case.)

Her post, “On the Road of Life: Let There Be No Regrets” resonated to me so much despite our age difference. It just goes to show that we all go through similar struggles in life, despite how we may be in different levels in this game called Life. Seriously, I want to like quote the entire-freakin-post because her writing is that good but that would make this feature post incredible long already* so here’s me trying to restrain and sticking to, like two paragraphs instead:

“I sometimes wonder what my life would have been like if I’d stayed back in Ohio. My guess is that it would be very different than what it is like now, but then again, how am I to know? Would I be married? If I was, would we have a perfect little suburban house? Would we have a couple of kids? Would I have a different career? Would I even be working at all? Would I love my life? The only answer I can give to these questions is maybe. Maybe, maybe, maybe.

Maybe not.

I could sit and wonder about what my life would be like, but where would that get me? Engaging in that kind of wonder can be a slippery slope, because oftentimes it can lead you down the road of regret. To be perfectly honest, that’s not a road I want to be on.”

*Like dude, I reached the 1000th word here already

Redemption – A Cinematic Poetry (Seriously.)

I just discovered Sarah and her blog, Developing Brakes, this month and I’m so happy that I did. She likes to muse about life in general and share her poetry. One particular poem of hers became this stunning short film with the help of her friend, Sam Neff. You can watch it below.

PLEASE TELL ME IT MOVED YOUR HEART TO PLUTO AND BACK.

Because that’s what it did to mine the first time I watched it. I watched it a second time for this feature post and mygash, I think my heart went for like FIFTY ROUNDS in the Milky Way before it settled back to its place on my chest. It’s so beautiful.

Telling It Like It Is

I read that there had been an influx of new bloggers recently but I wouldn’t know just how many there are because I don’t know where they hang *laughs nervously* So if you’re a newbie over here, please do come and say hi or holler or like contact me via email or through social media! I’d love to check your blogs out! 😀

Anyway, Lisa of Diary of an Average Girl is relatively new. She started her blog last April and already she’s made an impression on me. As in, staring at her no-nonsense and tell-it-like-it-is personality with wide-eyed wonder. It’s refreshing and I like reading blog posts with the blogger’s personality just oozing out of every word.

Her post, “Politics, Blogs and Influencing Opinions” addresses the impact of Internet influencers to politics. She even pointed out how some of these influencers seem to be pushing their own political beliefs into their followers, instead of becoming a guiding light, that person who can help their followers in creating well-informed decisions, politics-wise.

And I completely agree with her. I’ve had the same problem with my generation lately. I mean, it’s good to see that a good amount of our country’s youths are starting to become politically aware and are voicing out their opinions. But in most cases, they are more opinionated yet not exactly informed. And that’s the problem. That’s where influencers could come in and help fill in that gap. Here’s a snippet of her post:

Like I’ve said I truly believe everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but if you take on the title of a ‘social media influencer’ then you need to bear in mind that you are in fact influencing people’s opinions.

(…) Despite this, I haven’t actually found any of these political opinions being thrown at me every time I click on an Instagram’s story, helpful. Quite the opposite, I find it off-putting. The reason being, that none of these opinions are providing me with any helpful information. No facts or figures are being given, no discussions about election manifestos. Instead, just a quick ‘vote this party because they’ll protect the NHS’ or ‘vote that party because they’re better for brexit’, but no reasons why are provided.

I hope you loved all these, bloggers and blog posts I featured. And I hope you’ll take the time to check their blogs out. They are all incredibly awesome. 😀

Of course, I truly believe there are more incredibly awesome bloggers out there waiting to be more known and I’ll do my best in the following months to find them and give them this tiny platform of a feature and spread the lovin’ they definitely deserve. 🙂

Happy blogging, awesome peeps! <3