Hello everyone!
I’ve sat around most of today just resting up and getting back energy from the NYE festivities at our place and doing little cleaning up and such. Its been really fun. Of course, I did promise a 2018 look ahead. Call it resolutions or plans or whatever you’d like. There’s not going to be a ton of change this year however, I’m trying to set some solid goals and keep them going. Let’s call it just updates for all the sections of this blog.
Twitter update
I’ve wanted to change my crappy Twitter handle for years instead of the horrible tranquildr3ams. Emphasis on the 3 instead of the e. It reflects how old I am and what generation I grew up in, I think. With that said, it also looks super bad now especially I’m trying to at least seem slightly legit and get press passes and such. So here we are…after seeing that TranquilDreams and Tranquil_Dreams was taken, I ended up just doing TranquilDreams_
New Twitter Handle: @TranquilDreams_
Everything should be updated so there shouldn’t be a ton of confusion.
Blog Plans
Lets start with the blog plans for 2018. We’re looking at Movies, Books, TV Binge, Baking for the main categories and then the Weekly Adventures category will be its own little thing.
MOVIES
As of starting this year, I’m missing reviews for Wonder Woman, Kong: Skull Island, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and 47 Meters Down. Those will be going up shortly over the next week as I rid the backlog of reviews that need to be posted.
Movie reviews do the absolute worst on the blog as a first impact post however some reviews do have views in the long term. I keep them here because I truly do enjoy watching films and sharing my thoughts on them. Plus, Fantasia Festival reviews do well and I love covering indie films a whole lot. Creative new ideas from these great artists and creators are something I truly appreciate. With that said, I have refrained from reviewing Hong Kong films which most of my cinema roots stem from in the last few years because no one actually reads them. They just are for my own enjoyment. Seeing as this category has so many other talented writers reviewing the American cinema, I’m probably going to dial it down a notch and do more foreign cinema with a heavier focus on catching up with Hong Kong cinema. I miss it so much and maybe it’ll help introduce something new to those of you who are interesting in international cinema. If not, at least I’ll enjoy it thoroughly myself.
With that said, I’ll still review everything I watch and if you’d like, join me on Letterboxd to see how I rate movies since I don’t share ratings here. My username is TranquilDreams.
BOOKS
I fell short of the Goodreads challenge in 2017 on a technicality. However, I can’t remember if I did change my original goal. I might have done it halfway through the year. Regardless, this year’s Goodreads Reading Challenge is at 25 books. I decided to set it a tad lower because I want to jump back into The Classics Adventures. With that said, I’m picking up right where I left off at the end of 2015.
This year, I’m going to work on:
- Northanger Abbey (to finish the Jane Austen novels)
- Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass
- Jules Verne novels
- Anne of Green Gables (hopefully) and/or Emily of New Moon
- Finish reading IT (the break was way too long)
Of course, I’ve grown a profound love for graphic novels and comics along with trying to get some more ebooks off my Kindle. It’ll be a nice mix of stuff but it should be fun. Currently, I have Josie and the Pussycats and a novella to share the review for which will be coming up next before I start the new endeavors.
TV BINGE
TV Binge finally got its own section. I change the structure on how I review these ones with every single series and hopefully this year I’ll settle on a way that I’m happy with. We have more than enough sitting in backlog to get written up: Gilmore Girls Seasons 5 to 7 + A Year in Life, Ultimate Beastmaster Season 2, Stranger Things Season 2 are the priority to wrap up. Aside from that, this year, I’ll try to actually dive more in foreign as well to cover Taiwanese series as well as Hong Kong TV series that I’ve bought for years and never actually got around to watching until this past week off from work.
Of course, for your viewing pleasure, I also have some TV series I want to catch up with:
- Hemlock Grove Season 3 (Final)
- The 100 (catch-up)
- Grey’s Anatomy (catch-up)
- The Vampire Diaries (up to finale)
Some series that I’ve never actually watched and always get told to watch:
- Hannibal
- Supernatural
- Black Mirror
A Series of Unfortuante Events will get its Season 2 on March 30th so I’m pretty excited about that. 3% also has Season 2 coming up this year as well. Lots of stuff to look forward to.
BAKING
Suffice to say that cooking and baking has truly taken a backseat and it was replaced by Goodfood recap which I have a lot of fun sharing with you all. If you ever see a recipe that you like, don’t hesitate to ask me for it. I’d love to share the link with you. If you are a fellow Canadian and have access to the service and want to try it out, I have free meal vouchers that I can send you so you can give it a go. Just drop me a comment or an email with your email and I’ll get that sent over to you.
I’ve been thinking a lot of cooking more and getting back into the baking groove. People say third times the charm, right? So lets do this again. I’m set on getting this project done even if it takes 10 years. We’re doing the Baking Through Disney goal again. If you are new here, you can check out the page HERE. The progress has been nothing short of sad and pathetic. Don’t you worry! I figured out the Fantasia and the Dumbo baking now and I’m not going to change my mind. I’ll free up time and get the motivation and we’re going to get it done. I’m going to start watching more of the movies so that at least we have the movie reviews going up to see how Disney progressed while I ponder away on making delicious desserts.
MISCELLANEOUS
- Music Obsessions: no change, remains on the first weekend of the month
- Sunday Lists: every other Sunday will have a faves or best to worst list
- Game Warp Podcast: Updates for only featured reviews. I urge you to subscribe to the channel for other reviews or like our Facebook page
- Unboxing: Meowbox is the only one still active on a quarterly basis.
Big Change in Setup: My Weekly Adventures has the biggest change. I’ve pondered for a while about this. I used to post gaming related stuff on the Tranquil Dreams Youtube channel. With my increased love of video editing, I’m planning to revive the channel. I’m still trying to get that movie-related project going however I’m not really happy with the angle I chose so I’ve been thinking about it more. Unboxing only still Meowbox so thats going to be very minimal. With that said, I might start doing some vlogs for the Weekly Adventures. Who knows, the blogs always been about adventure so we’ll see where thats going to go.
Personal Life
This is getting super lengthy! This year’s personal goal:
- Be more organized
- Less procrastination
- Eat Healthier & Get back into a workout regime
That’s what’s up for 2018!
Some vague goals but I’m keeping things attainable!
What do you think? What are your goals/resolutions (if its your thing)?
Tranquil Dreams 