2022 in Books

Saturday, 31 December 2022 StarrLeave a comment

Another year in the books! 📚

Unfortunately, I didn’t hit my Goodreads challenge this year as the second half of the year really got away from me and I was stuck on a book I wasn’t enjoying very much. (Still struggling with that old resolution to just stop reading books that kill my momentum like that…) But I really enjoyed many of the books I read this year and found myself really excited about reading the first half of the year, so hopefully I can put down the books I don’t enjoy and make more room for the ones that I do in 2023.

Here are the books I read in 2022:

First Cosplay Shoot: Starlight (The Boys)

Monday, 19 September 2022 StarrLeave a comment

A few months ago, I scheduled my first cosplay photoshoot that wasn’t at a convention! (I haven’t been to a convention since before the pandemic.) I actually booked it with the same photographer who did the sole convention shoot I did, Michael Largé, because I liked his work, knew it would be great for the character I wanted to do, and also I was too scared to look for other photographers too okay I can admit it.

While some folks may be unsurprised to hear that I — a certified nerd — watch The Boys, others may be wondering how or why I sit through the graphic violence that I’m typically very averse to. Honestly, I wasn’t too interested in the initial promotions of the show. Superhero fatigue had started setting in, and I didn’t need more superhero media to get into while the MCU still had such a hold on me. But then! I saw a cosplayer in Starlight’s costume and I kind of immediately fell in love with the costume. Stars! Her name is Starlight? Did someone design this character for me? (I would soon learn… not really no haha) But I loved this costume and wanted to watch the show to see if I’d love the character enough to buy this costume and wear it myself.

Starlight, played by Erin Moriarty on *The Boys*

Readers, I did.

TD Five Boro Bike Tour

Monday, 9 May 2022Monday, 9 May 2022 Starr2 Comments

As someone who does not do much cycling at all, I couldn’t believe that I had signed up to bike 40 miles through all 5 boroughs of New York City.

Now that I’m done, I still can’t quite believe I did it! I biked (over) 40 miles through all 5 boroughs of New York City with basically no cycling training at all! And survived to tell the tale!

Starr on a bike in a neon yellow jacket, helmet, sunglasses, and facemask, with other cyclists in the background in NYC — *Confession*: Of the photos I got back from the official photographers, my posture is best in this one as I became increasingly deflated over the course of 40 miles and many hours 😅

2021 in Earworms…?

Friday, 31 December 2021 StarrLeave a comment

On a whim, back in January, I started keeping track of songs that just popped into my head and wouldn’t go quietly. Now, 12 months later, I have 12 playlists of songs that I couldn’t quite get out of my head.

I tried not to post repeats of songs that were stuck in my head for multiple months but in general what you see is what we had, with maybe one or two exceptions for songs that weren’t on Spotify. Another arbitrary rule I set for myself was that the song couldn’t be something I heard somewhere or was specifically triggered by something, with the exception being if I kept hearing it in my head long after that moment. So for example, if I was watching a movie that had a song, it wouldn’t go on the playlist, but if I was still humming it days later, it would.

My plan was to end a monthly blog post with these but I couldn’t even get 12 blog posts out so, in reverse chronological order… here are the songs that were stuck in my head by month:

2021 in TV

Friday, 31 December 2021Friday, 31 December 2021 StarrLeave a comment

Even though I grew up watching too much television in general, I never thought to do a year-end TV recap until the end of last year, when it suddenly became an obvious gap in my year-end recaps! Movies and books but no TV, when I know I spend a ton of time watching TV? (Maybe it was denial about how much of it I was watching…)

Below are the full seasons of shows released in 2021 that I watched this year! To see every show (and movie and book etc.) I watched this past year, including older seasons, you can check my 2021 Media Log.