Hi everyone! Today I’m going to share my new version of my lively posts! From now on, they’re going to contain all my hobbies!

Basically my books, entertainment, and other items are all going to be found here to condense the monthly recap posts. I figured it was odd to do two blog posts a week all month and then suddenly blog five days in the last week, and it really didn’t work with my schedule so I had to change it up!

Also I totally thought I had already scheduled this and posted this so today you’re getting two posts, as this was supposed to go up on Sunday but didn’t. I must have gotten distracted with homework and class and imagined it. I feel so bad but now you get two posts in one day. This one in the morning, and the next one at the usual time later today.

So now my Lively post (all my hobbies) will be on the second to last Sunday of the month and anything that happens before the end of the month will have to be included in the next month’s post. My Favorites will be the last Wednesday of the month and that will be more or less the same as always. The last Sunday will be my Life post and then my If We Were Having Coffee post with my One Second a Day videos (if I keep doing them because I always forget!) will be on the first Sunday or Wednesday of the new month after those posts above are done. There may be some slight adjustments based on the way the end of the month falls but there you go! You’ll notice my MBA update is missing from there and that’s because I think those updates should be their own posts and I want to update as things happen and be more flexible with that post on when it goes up.

As for this post, there are four main categories of hobbies I’m going to focus on. Books, Entertainment, Active Life, and Writing. There’s also going to be an “Other” category at the bottom for more hobbies I practice less frequently and some subcategories within those main ones but that’s the basic idea.

And onto my hobbies!

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Books

So this month I read three books! Yay! That puts me at eleven books read this year so far. I’m three books behind to reach my goal of twenty this year but I think I can catch up. My biggest issue right now is that my library doesn’t seem to have the books I want and I can’t get them from other libraries that can ship it to mine. They also don’t seem to be on Barnes & Noble’s website as they’re not widely available but I’ll try to track them down after my second class ends this week (then I’ll just have one class!).

Estee Lauder: Beauty Business Success by Rachel Epstein

This was a biography of Estee Lauder’s life, the founder of the Estee Lauder make up empire. I really enjoy Estee Lauder products and so when I saw this book available for sale at the library’s book sale I grabbed it. It’s a children’s book, I would say likely middle school level, but it was very informative and was a great synopsis of her life. I would assume it likely cut out any major scandals if there were anything to spare the children’s minds but it seemed to include the major points of her life. I really liked learning about her and this was a great introduction. I won’t keep this book so I’ll add it to my donate pile but it was fun!

I gave this book 3 out of 5 stars. It was to the point and interesting, and I did like it!

Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandburg

I can’t believe it took me this long to read Lean In! I mostly read it as one of my MBA buddies recommended it and I had been putting it off as I didn’t think I was at a point to be able to absorb the material and be open to it. I’m really glad I did read it now though. I’m completing my leadership class now and it was very timely and relevant there. Although I haven’t been anyone’s manager or anything at work, I have had leadership roles in school and sports before, and am naturally a leader so it was great insight to learn more about Sandburg’s experience as a leader, particularly at Facebook. I would recommend it to everyone, not just women as there’s plenty about men in here to. It is meant for a woman audience but I thought men would enjoy some of the points and stories as well.

I gave this book 4 out of 5 stars. I would have much preferred it to be longer and more detailed. I think the length did limit how deep Sandburg could dive into the number of items she wanted to touch on.

Great Leadership: What it is and What it Takes in a Complex World by Antony Bell

Great Leadership was my assigned text for my leadership class which I’m finishing up this week (at the time of posting this I’m in class nearing the end of the last session and just have to finish my final paper). I didn’t have high hopes for this book as I don’t often find assigned texts to be very good. The book claimed not to be a how-to guide, but rather a book meant to get you thinking, and it was exactly that! This book took the concepts of character and competence within leadership and broke each into it’s own section to allow the reader to be able to delve into each.

I gave this book 4 out of 5 stars. I felt that it was very thought-provoking but there were items that were redundant and perhaps dragged out a bit too long while others weren’t looked at closely enough. I also felt that it didn’t address the gender gap in leadership at all and I would have liked to see that.

Entertainment

Movies & TV

I did watch a documentary on Netflix called The Last Secrets of 9/11. I saw it come up around 9/11 so I figured it would be an interesting documentary to watch and a timely one as well. Of course, it’s not easy to watch. I remember the events happening and the day in school after the school administrators came in to tell us about it. Watching the documentary was moving. Out of the many people that lost their lives, many bodies have not been identified and were never recovered. There were many times when the documentary pointed out that the investigations had closed and then reopened years later as technology advanced or additional bone fragments were found. I did think it was a well made documentary.

On a more upbeat note I watched Iliza Shlesinger’s Elder Millennial comedy special on Netflix. I had seen a YouTuber mention this one and I’m glad I tried it! I did think the beginning was sort of boring and the end wasn’t relatable for me but the middle portions were pretty funny! I really enjoy how comedians are able to take a theme and keep it going or tie it back later in such a clever way. I believe she has another comedy special on Netflix as well so I do want to go back and watch that one.

YouTube

First up, I mentioned this before but I finally finished Felicia Day’s Charity Livestream for the #KeepFamiliesTogether day! It took me so long to finish it as it’s 12 hours long and I watched only a couple hours at a time usually. Unfortunately I didn’t realize that her shirt campaign that went with the livestream was limited so I missed out but I would have liked to order and get one. I had been trying to save for my tuition payment and order after but the campaign ended by then! Anyway, Felicia did claim the entire livestream that it was not a political cause but a humanitarian one, and said she felt compelled to help out because she couldn’t bare the thought of being separated from her own baby. I felt it could be both but I can see how she wanted to avoid driving away people who would otherwise donate. Anyway, her stream was fun and it was great seeing so many great creators, actors, and overall amazing people stop by to help Felicia rate money! They did raise over $200,000 for Raices Texas to help reunite the immigrant children with the families they were separated from. It was a great livestream and I’m super blown away at how well they did when their goal was originally a tenth of that amount!

The next video I wanted to mention was the Sacconejolys vlog on Emilia’s 6th birthday party! I’ve been watching since Emilia turned 2 so I’ve been watching for four years now! It’s been so fun to see the family grow and Emilia is always my favorite part of the vlogs so I can’t wait to see what happens next for them and see them move into their new home!

And lastly I’m going to pick Jamie’s moving vlogs! I’m sure you know her blog and may have seen this already but I thought they were so fun I had to add them! She has two so I linked the first one here. Congrats again on the new house Jamie and I hope you’re enjoying it tons!

Podcasts

The lastest podcast I’ve been listening to is Reply All. I listened to their episode “#97 What Kind of Idiot Gets Phished?” which was about their staff getting phishing attempts from one of their coworkers after they respond with anger at the suggestion that they could ever fall victim to those scams. Eventually they realize it’s not so easy to tell what is a scam and what isn’t. I found it particularly funny to listen to as my work has done several “tests” like the one this person did and constantly threatens hours long trainings if too many people fail, so it was interesting to hear the same thing happens in other companies!

Active Life

Working out

Per usual, my coworkers and I try to work out at the office gym at least a few times a week. We don’t always make it to our goal but we do try! I think this month I only went one time per week and only one week was twice but we’re trying to get to three times a week for next month!

Writing

Unfortunately not much updates have been done here but I do intend to start outlining after my leadership class is done for NaNoWriMo. Most of my writing this month has been school related, I’ve done two papers so far for leadership and have one more to work on as a final paper.

Other

Games

I should mention that I’m also busy watching all the playthroughs I can of the new Tomb Raider: Shadow of the Tomb Raider video game. I am loving the first part in Cozumel about Day of the Dead and I can’t wait to see what happens next!

Otherwise here’s my Hogwarts Mystery update! Ava Samwise Quagmire is now a fifth year (finally) and a prefect! She is an animagus now, and I chose the bird option for her. She does enjoy DADA but currently still goes to a ton of Transfiguration classes as that’s her favorite. I would say DADA and Charms are tied for her second favorite right now. She now has all four pets and a few have gotten makeovers, and she’s maxed out on her friendship with Tonks now as well, getting really close to max friendship with Tulip. She’s working her way down the line now so hopefully we can max everyone out before the new friends are released. Because the story is taking so long to catch up and the timed events need so many stars Ravenclaw is first place again and she’s the lead person for points earned. Sigh. I wish the story could be released faster!

Music

And music! My favorite song lately has been Ariana Grande’s “God is a Woman”. I love the sound and feel of it, and her VMA performance was incredible!

I’ve also been enjoying Taylor Swift’s 1989 album as I got it from the library. I used to own it but when my previous car was crashed I couldn’t get the CD out from the car. I think my favorite song right now on it that I’m listening to a lot is “I Wish You Would” on top of my previous faves (“Blank Space”, “Bad Blood”, “Shake it Off”, and “Wildest Dreams”).

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And that’s it for my hobbies this month! Let me know what you’ve been enjoying. I’d love to know!

Thanks for reading!

Pamela

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