Embracing New Genres in 2024, Part Three: Austin Butler's Year

I took my time with this one, so thank you for your patience. (I may probably still be revising this a bit and adding more details even now with it being live but) Enjoy! :D

Um, prepare for some fangirling in this one. lol

So...I don't know if you have noticed, but I am a huge fan of the actor Austin Butler these days. I wasn't sure if his 2024 projects should be its own blog post. I attempted to include all of my 2024 movies in one post, but I just wrote a lot for certain sections, so I felt that perhaps to condense I should make his filmography its own piece. I actually like this. I was interested in writing a blog post essay spotlighting his career anyway, so this is a good place to start. 

You're welcome.

Embracing New Genres in 2024, Part Two: Movies

I certainly watched more movies than read books in 2024, to the point where my local AMC Theatres had become my second home and I forged a first name basis friendship with the woman behind the snack counter. Hi, Cathy! 😃 (Her name being Cathy is even more significant once you keep reading. lol)

Embracing New Genres in 2024, Part One: Books

Happy New Year 2025! I decided to post my first blog post of the year on the 14th Anniversary of Taking it One 'Stef' at a Time! Huhhh??? How about that?? I haven't done that in a long time! lol 

Reflections about...Pretty Woman at State Theatre New Jersey on Sunday, October 8, 2023 at 6:30 PM, Getting Inspired to Achieve My Dreams, and Meeting a Couple of Kitties! 😉

Why not celebrate one month before my birthday with some musical theater?

Reflections about Barbie (2023), Tuesday, July 25, 2023, 1:30 PM: A Movie Review...Finally

I held off from publishing this until the strike was over, but I wrote it the night I saw it because I wanted to get my thoughts down about the film while it was still fresh in my mind. I don't really have a full blown analysis planned for this one, but rather bullet points that I want to get off my chest. Might be a nice change of pace here. I'll try to keep this spoiler free. 

Reflections about...My First Time Seeing CATS Live at the Mayo Performing Arts Center on Sunday, March 12, 2023 at 7 PM, and My Many Other Thoughts About the Musical

(I wanted to publish this way before the National Tour of CATS closed but kept needing to work on it more LOL!! Although, it is good that I started early so that it was pretty much ready for publication right when the tour closed and I didn't spend months starting now working on this to the point where it no longer felt current. I didn't know that I was going to have so much to say about this show and I just kept realizing and discovering more things I wanted to talk about. I was originally just going to tweet about it, but then it turned into a full blown blog post. 

I eventually published this and aimed to do so on June 12, exactly three months after my show and before their final week of shows in order to meet my deadline of actually publishing this before the tour ended. But now since I talk more about the end of the tour and all of my emotions about that in this too, I felt that it was more appropriate to publish this right as it was ending and after the fact as kind of a send-off. I'm finding that I'm still updating and perfecting this piece as I think of stuff I want to mention while it is live too, including this disclaimer introduction. lol Hopefully I will finally settle it soon though. I wrote a lot here and I feel like I may be rambling a bit, so feel free to just visit when you can. I kinda wrote this conversationally but it also seems to have turned into an academic essay as well, so please enjoy either way. lol 

I've seen that fans send the cast fan art. I'm not artistically inclined like that lol, so I feel like this is my way of contributing to that too. Sources of mine include Wiki sites, all around Google and YouTube searches, book excerpts, and others that I cite.)

I'm a dog person, so therein lies a reason for the disconnect between me and this Andrew Lloyd Webber Tony Award-winning musical all this time. lol

But I get it now. After 30+ years, I finally understand the CATS hype.

And now I have a LOT of thoughts and feelings about it, as you will soon find out. lol

Stef's 2022 Top 22 New Year's Resolution Reading Challenge - The Results

Happy New Year 2023! This is a blog post a year in the making, that I had to finally update lol. Here are the books that I have read in 2022, per my Top 22 Books in my To Be Read List of 2022, and some of my thoughts about them. :) I will also include some honorable mentions of books that I have started this year but haven't proceeded or completed.

There is only eight here and some of them aren't from the original list, but the important thing is that I did read! lol

Top 22 Books on my To Read List for 2022

One of my New Year's resolutions is to read more. Every moment I get the urge to needlessly and aimlessly scroll on social media "liking" posts and/or getting depressed and irritated or get stuck watching some classic back to back late night TV or YouTube videos, I want to put my phone down and turn the TV and laptop off to pick up a good book instead. It relaxes me, takes me out of the real world for awhile and into a new one, and helps me sleep better, which is another one of my resolutions. 

Happy Stef and Abby Go To The Movies Day

Do you ever invent your own holiday? This is what one of my best friends Abby and I did.

Happy 10 Years to 5 Seconds Of Summer! 😃

Today marks the 10 year anniversary of 5 Seconds of Summer's career. They even have their own hashing emojis on Twitter to commemorate the occasion. lol

My Lost Interview With Serge Onik

I'm in shock and so heartbroken about this. I can't believe this. It doesn't feel real.

Dancer Serge Onik has passed away at age 33.

Technical Difficulties Here at Taking it One Stef at a Time

So...I don't have my own computer right now. I haven't had one for over a year. Lol 

Happy One Year Anniversary to 5 Seconds of Summer's Fourth Studio Album CALM! :D

One year ago today, 5 Seconds of Summer released their fourth studio album CALM (2020) and it was one of the best things to ever happen to me.

Anyone Can Write...Right?

Okay. Today I'm going to address some social media drama that you may or may not have heard about.

A Spotlight On Ashton Irwin and a Track-By-Track Review of His Debut Solo Album SUPERBLOOM (2020)

During quarantine, I wrote an entire thesis gushing about how awesome 5 Seconds of Summer (5SOS) is. All four members of the band are great, talented guys and I love their friendship and teamwork.

But for this blog post, I'm going to play favorites a little bit and focus on my lane. 

(This is another piece that I am ending up perfecting and adding to as it's live. lol :P I did manage to publish and share this one, but I have been reverting it to drafts because I always feel like it is not ready yet as I revise. I also consider it kind of long and maybe too personal on my end and I'm not that comfortable revealing too much about myself. I love this album so much that I want to be sure that I do my writing about it justice. However, I do think that this is a decent piece and I did have the intention of sharing it, so I'll do my best with it. I want to finally leave it as is once and for all and stop being a perfectionist with it soon.)

One fine day in September, I decided to check Google for some updated news. Imagine my surprise as an Ashton Girl to see THIS:

An Honest Conversation About Race Between a White Woman and a Black Woman

Growing up white, I was conditioned to stay away from discussions about race. It was just a topic that I was supposed to avoid because I was white and it wasn't my place. Of course I learned about black struggles in school and befriended and talked to black people, but bringing up blackness and whiteness on my own as a white girl was very much advised against because it would likely be offensive and start trouble coming from me, regardless of what I said. (Although, I should acknowledge that I do recall having briefly discussed race in some of my writing, interviews, and other arts analysis.)

I Never Thought That THIS Would Make Me Happy... Or, How I Came to Love a Certain Boy Band

About time I posted on here again, huh?

I've been keeping the following to myself because I consider it a private, personal situation for me and am a bit hesitant to admit to this, but I also feel compelled to blog and share about it as well.

There are some inner issues that I am working through, feeling extra nervous, depressed, or overwhelmed about things lately. It was my 2019 New Year's resolution to overcome this, and it had gotten better in January, but I still found it trickling over a bit, for nobody changes overnight.

Cheers to New Beginnings 2019!

Happy New Year and Happy Anniversary to Taking it One Stef at a Time! :D

I'm excited about 2019. 2018 was somewhat of a difficult year for myself and my family, but a lot of good things happened too. I'm excited to see what this brand new year of new beginnings has to offer. I anticipate a lot more good things. The future is open and bright.

Oftentimes when I think of new beginnings, especially the new year, I feel like it's often a need to make an automatic switch to be a new person. However, I have to keep in mind that improving myself is a process and an ongoing project. Changes don't happen overnight. But it is a brand new year and I am excited to see what new experiences and successes I can accomplish. I am blessed to have gotten this far in life and I'm looking forward to what's next.

I'm also looking forward to contributing more to this blog again, depending on what I want to do with this blog further. I think I've been doing pretty good so far even though I was kind of on hiatus for a bit back there LOL. This month is also a great time to kick off my series of blog posts detailing my life lessons throughout my first ten years of adulthood so I hope to start sharing those soon. I think they're probably ready. I just have to tweak them all a little bit but I'll be hopefully sharing the little by little. Maybe I'll also resume other things as well, like my YouTube channel and podcasts. I haven't posted on them in like a year so I'm not sure if I'm going to return to that or not but we'll see.

It's nice to have a clean slate and to try to have a more positive outlook with less concerns and needless worries than before. I enjoy incorporating this mindset. I feel good and have good feelings about this new year. I have a list of resolutions that I'm planning too so I'm hoping I can keep up this momentum.

Once again, happy New Year to you all! Let's make this a fantastic one! :-)

-Stef :)

Thoughts on Turning 28 Years Old

A lot has occurred to me lately, one being that I really need to resume blogging on here again. 

I had this rule that I should blog at least once every month, and now I have broken that rule and am behind. I never thought that would happen. I've been on hiatus for several reasons, but I also don't want to lose this blog either.

So yeah, I am now 28 years old. I started this blog when I was (Wow!) 20. 

When I turned 25, it was a big deal because I considered it a milestone. When I turned 26, I was excited because I liked the number, but I was also perturbed because this meant that I was now in my LATE twenties. By the time 27 rolled around, I wasn't sure what the significance of my age would be, but then I discovered a connection between myself and Pennywise, Stephen King's It, so then I was quite pleased with being 27 as well.

But when I was thinking about turning 28, I initially lacked any knowledge of what would make this particular year unique, other than the fact that I have only two years of my twenties left, which I don't really want to think about much.

I like random, not as significant birthdays though. There's less pressure to make the celebration "epic."

But then it dawned on me that 28 marks 10 years of me as an adult. And my, what many experiences and life lessons I've made, and am still making. 

As a side note, a few years ago I also created a main fictional character who is 28, which is a nice association too. I also tend to prefer even numbers, so this is another thing I like about 28. LOL

I graduated high school at 18 (TEN years ago!), so therefore these past 10 years have consisted of me going to and graduating college and starting my freelancing, along with part time jobs and other extracurriculars along the way. During this past decade was when I created this blog, of course, as well.

So I'd like to celebrate these last 10 years throughout this year with a new "Taking it One Stef at a Time" series of small essays detailing some life lessons I have learned so far. There's too much information for one blog post. lol ☺️

One lesson I have learned, that I have known and realized since childhood anyway, is to try to treat everyday like it is your birthday. You know that just general good feeling that you have on your birthday when everything is heartwarming and positive? Everyday should be like that. 

The way I see it, birthdays are a celebration of gratefulness for being alive another year.

Recently I went to a friend's web series screening a few days before his 30th birthday and asked him how he felt about soon exiting his twenties.

"Good," he responded, confidently and matter-of-factly. And I believed him too. He seems prepared for this next decade of his life, so I am hoping to treat my next birthdays the same way. This is not the end, but a new beginning, and I've had plenty of those these past 10 years.

In these essays I'm also hoping to be a little bit more candid and honest. A lot of times I don't like revealing much about myself (typical Scorpio LOL), but I think these essays in particular probably call for it a bit.

Stay tuned to the wisdom and stories I hope to impart. At least all of the wisdom a 28-year-old would have anyway. :)

Either that or I'll just save all of these essays for a future memoir. I've been wanting to write one! lol 

28! Let's make this year great! That's my motto for this year. My motto for when I turned 26 was Twenty-Sexy. ;-)

Writing Plays!

Lately I haven't been blogging (although I am working on some drafts) because I have been focusing on another type of writing. Yes, my freelance writing of course, but also tapping into my creativity...playwriting!

I've been playwriting for most of my life, but this is the first time I really felt so connected to one of my plays and feel like it can go somewhere. I think this might be the one. :D

This month, the night before the 2018 Tony Awards actually, I finished the complete first draft of a play I have been working on! It felt like such an accomplishment for me because I have been brainstorming this story since about 2012, so this has been almost a decade long project. In fact, it is going on that.

Finishing this draft made me more confident to finally improve it for a submission and even write sequels to it, which I have already started. But I need to calm down because I still need to perfect the original, which is proving to be a little difficult for me, but it is coming along.

I love how excited I feel about this play. I don't know how often I talk about this on here, but I'm often in search for something to excite me, something to look forward to working on everyday. This is proving true for my play(s). I've also deactivated my social media in order to not get distracted. This is so beneficial for both my writing and well being. Removing myself from social media helps bring myself up. (My frustrations with social media is another blog post in itself.)

I am so consumed by my plays and developing these characters that they are feeling more and more like real people. Everywhere I go I think, "Hmm. What would my characters do in this situation?"

The piece is loosely somewhat autobiographical, with the main character serving as my alter ego. I feel like the concept is very relevant to today, especially for millennials like myself, and it's also an ensemble piece, something I have always wanted to write! So I have a great feeling about this, especially because the one act I wrote not too long ago isn't really much of a success due to its nature (but there's probably a home for that too!). But I think that this new story is much better.

I am so proud of it that I'm afraid to let more people see it, although I am feeling confident enough that it might be worthy of someone else's read. Right now the only people who have read my work are some of my fellow writer lady friends. I could think something is brilliant but someone else might think it's stupid. I know my plays are going to have their critics (In fact, I welcome them.), but I'm also not prepared to share this with the masses just yet because I fear that all of my work on this will be in vain. But I do want to do something with it. I even have some people in mind for the roles!

I just love the fact that I am being so non-stop productive with my creative writing right now. Sometimes I hit hiatuses that last for too long because I either have no ideas or the ideas I have are hitting roadblocks. That's what happened with this story multiple times, hence why it has taken me a few years.  I didn't know what to do with them next, and so therefore I don't want to lose my adrenaline again now that I am facing some struggles with it again. 

'Tis the life of a writer, I guess. :)

-Stef :) 

P.S. I really like how short and sweet and to the point this blog post is. Hopefully I'll be able to deliver more like these too. I want to bring some changes to Taking it One Stef at a Time, much in part inspired by my dad's blogs (Click the link and then hover over the "BLOGS" tab). :)