January 2018 In Review

Hello everyone!

Today I wanted to bring you my update for the first month of 2018!  Wow, can you believe it's already over?  I'm a little bit in shock if we're being honest; where did all the time go already?!

So, I kind of struggled with whether or not I wanted to post this for you guys!  Since I'm doing my 18 in 2018 project, I didn't want to just constantly write about the exact same things over and over for you.  However, there are things I'm doing in my life that aren't on that list that I still wanted to share! There might be some repeats, but I'll link any reviews in my 18 in 2018 post back to these so I'm not actually repeating myself!

Events: 
The biggest part of January was that school started again!  I've been in classes for over a month now, and I have to say with the exception of one class, I'm really loving how it's all going!  My classes are 1 1/2 hours instead of just 1 hour, so I have class four days a week versus five.  I get to have my Fridays off to catch up on homework or get ahead!  I really love the way my schedule ended up being, even if it does mean I'm on campus for 10 hours on two days. 

I also bought a new Keurig this month!  I've made a conscious shift in my spending habits and was using an old Keurig my dad gave me instead of buying coffee every morning.  Unfortunately, it decided to stop working so I had to invest in a new one.  In the end it all worked out, because I absolutely adore it!  It's got a touch screen and water reservoir, so I don't have to fill up a cup every morning, plus it fits my travel mug so I'm not pouring coffee from a small mug to my larger one. 

Finally, I went through my entire GoodRead's want-to-read shelf and cleared it out!  I used to have over 2,000 books on my shelf, most of which I haven't even heard of.  Why were they even on there??  I'm so happy to say that I'm now down to 827 books.  This is still kind of a crazy huge number, but at least I know that all of the books sound like something I would be happy to pull off of my list and read!  Plus, a lot of them are books I own either physical or digital copies of. 

Books:

The first book I finished this month was Unconscious Branding: How Neuroscience can Empower (and Inspire) Marketing.  It was a required read for my Buyer Behavior class, which of course I did not read during the semester, but I thought was so interesting I wanted to finish it.  It's a very information heavy read, but something I'm glad to have finished!  I enjoyed learning about how the unconscious part of our brain controls so much of our daily lives as well as our spending habits and how to connect with it as a marketer.  I ended up rating this at 4/5 stars.

 

While I'm definitely old enough that this doesn't really count as an actual book read, I wanted to give it a quick go before I passed it on to my 8-year-old sister.  Hopefully she enjoys it; I know I did!  The Pony Pals is really a standout series, as it's not just about the horses, but about the young girls and how they all learn from their experiences.  I'm surprised by how much it really appeals to me.  I gave it 4/5 stars as well.

The Hangman's Daughter was the most disappointing book of the month.  I enjoyed the concept of a man trying to prevent a witch hunt, but the writing really threw me off.  It was super interesting in the beginning and end, but was so slow in the middle. There could have been about 75 less pages in this and the same resolution would be had.  I was also super uncomfortable with the way they treated the title character, Magdalena.  She wasn't in 3/4 of the book, and when she was, I did not like her as a character in the beginning and didn't like how everyone else interacted with her in the middle and end.  I'm okay with the resolution, but there was just so much more that could have happened with this that didn't. I gave it 3/5 stars.

TV Shows:

Alright, so Total Drama Island is a show from my younger years that I really loved!  When I was browsing Netflix I saw that this was on there and I added it to my 18 in 2018 list, and then I decided that this was the show I wanted to watch after taking a pause on Buffy.  I got from episode 1 to 17, which is pretty great! There's only 9 episodes left in the season, so I could get through it in February if I really wanted to. We'll see!  It's a really funny show that's surprisingly adult for being on Cartoon Network.

Before I can start on Season 3 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I have to get through season 2 and let me tell you guys, I've already seen it and I got to the next episode and had to stop.  It's a really heartbreaking one, and I just didn't feel like putting myself through the emotional wringer. I started on episode 13 and got to 17.  If you haven't seen this show, try to watch it! It's so great, I can't wait to keep going in February.

Things I Love this Month:

If you're looking for music to help you focus or relax, this is it!  This playlist has been on repeat all month and will probably continue to be.  I use it when I'm working on homework because there's no words and I really love the calming nature of piano music.  I highly suggest listening to this if you need to focus your mind on a task and struggle to do so!

Well, that was January for me!  February is likely to be a busier month school-wise than January was since we're getting into the bulk of learning now.  I'm hoping I'll have some interesting stuff to share with you all!

How did January treat you?  Did anything fun happen? Let me know!