Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) Review

With great power comes great responsibility, and the creators of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse MUST have felt some sort of responsibility to the fans when making this, because they knocked it out of the park! I’m so glad I was able to see this one while it is still in theaters. In fact, I would happily go back just to watch it a second time. If you get the chance, the animation is so good that you’d be doing yourself a favor to go see it on the big screen while you still can. The artistry is top notch, with utterly fantastic color schemes and character designs. It was a real treat visually, but rest assured, there is much more to the film than just that.

It’s the age-old story: boy meets spider, spider bites boy, boy turns into Spider-Man. If that wasn’t enough of a game changer for young Miles Morales, getting bombarded with other Spider-Men, Spider-Women, Spider-Pigs and Robots from different parts of the multiverse just might be. Miles will have to be a quick learner and get his Spidey sense and abilities under control if he hopes to save his own little corner of the spider-verse from being torn apart.

I genuinely think this is a film that longtime fans and even non-fans could both enjoy. There are all kinds of fun references throughout the film, but they’re not something that would leave you feeling lost if you didn’t get them from prior Spidey material. There were even some surprisingly touching parts that really tugged at my heartstrings. (Especially a certain cameo if you know what I mean.)

I’m not crying, YOU’RE crying! *sniffles*

The characters were great as well. Mistakes were made, no one was perfect, and our main character Miles was someone you could really root for.

Into the Spider-Verse took some great artistic liberties all while sticking close to the heart of the content and knowing what the fans would hope to see. It even has a good time poking fun at some prior moments in Spidey history. Even though I didn’t get the chance to see it until 2018 was technically over, it was hands down my favorite film of the year. ❤ It even ended up winning the golden globe for the year for best animated feature film! Did any of you guys get the chance to watch it yet? What did you think? What was your favorite film of 2018 (animated or otherwise). 🙂

 

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2018 Wrap-Up

2018 has been a crazy year full of big and exciting new adventures. Mr. Moth and I went home hunting and moved into our first house together, we both applied for/received promotions at our jobs, and we did a lot of work around the house/yard in our first year of home-ownership. During this time I also worked on my resolutions for 2018 and I’m pleased to report that I didn’t do too shabby. 😉

Concerning my READING GOALS for 2018: I completed my GR reading challenge goal of 50, and I explored reading more poetry like I hoped to do as well. My only reading goal I messed up on was that I still didn’t read all the neglected, unread books already sitting on my shelves. Sigh . . . I suppose that’s the curse of any lover of books, though, isn’t it? We always wanna obtain more books even before we’ve finished all the ones we already have at home.

Some of my reading highlights of the year included discovering a new author I really enjoyed in V.E. Schwab. I’ve only read her book A Darker Shade of Magic so far, but I will definitely be checking out more of her work in the future. 🙂 I’d say all in all, my top 2 favorite novels I read this year were Strange the Dreamer and The Great Alone.

Concerning my CREATIVE GOALS for 2018: I had sort of an iffy year in the creative department. I did more writing and drawing like I intended to do, but with everything going on I just never seemed to make it as far as I wanted to with my creative goals this year.

I participated in Inktober and Women’s History Month by producing multiple new ink drawings, as well as experimented with some new watercolor pens during Shark Week to produce a new whale shark illustration.

EPSON MFP image

EPSON MFP image

EPSON MFP image

As for writing, I did more of that and am really excited about my current writing project. I recently shared the currently-private details with my BFF, the lovely Cupcakes & Machetes and she shared in this excitement, making me that much more motivated to not be the notorious project hopper that I am and see this one through. I participated in NaNoWriMo and although I didn’t make the full 50,000 word count I’d hoped for that month, I didn’t give up and got some good writing in which I’m pleased about. 🙂

I did try a new creative thing this year that I hadn’t even been planning on, and that was face painting. Mr. Moth and I both required skull makeup for the Halloween event we attended this year, so I gave it a shot and was totally thrilled with the results.

Concerning my HEALTH/FITNESS GOALS for 2018: This was another set of goals that I worked on but would have liked to have been able to push myself further with. I did make a few gym buddies, I took some different classes at the gym and tried lots of new things there, pushing myself out of my comfort zone quite a bit. Me being my very introverted self, I’ve always preferred working out at home to going to an actual gym, but I think that really changed this year. I wanted to try hitting the trampoline park again and finding new active hobbies like that, but the gym was pretty much my go-to in that department this year. Maybe next year?

All in all, it was a pretty damn good year for me as far as milestones and working on goals. Any growth and development one can make to oneself is always a plus, right? I know I have lots of exciting new things I want to work on in 2019, but we’ll save all that for my upcoming New Year’s Resolution post. 😉

TOP MOVIES I WATCHED IN 2018:

Deadpool 2

Black Panther

Avengers: Infinity War

Fantastic Beasts 2

The Incredibles 2

Game Night

Coco

TOP SHOWS I WATCHED IN 2018:

The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina

Attack on Titan

American Ninja Warrior (and it’s other counterparts)

Channel Zero (I didn’t really care for this show previously, but this season was much better!)

The Jim Jefferies Show

American Horror Story

Insatiable (this show got a lot of hate for not being PC but it’s a dark comedy. The characters are supposed to be flawed, messed up people with flawed, messed up views. I binge-watched the hell out of this.)

Riverdale (Okay, first of all, WTF is going on with the writing this season, also I can’t pull myself away.)

Anywhoooooo, I hope you guys had a productive year working on your goals and that you made lots of amazing memories in 2018. Here’s to everyone having a fantastic New Year! ❤ Best of luck to all of you with your New Year’s Resolutions and let’s make 2019 the best it can be! 😀

And, just for funsies, here’s a picture of Bailey taking a nap. Something I’m sure we’ve all been ready to participate in after all the recent holiday chaos. 😛

 

I’m Baaaack!! (November Wrap-Up)

Hello!! ❤ Wow, it seems November zipped by before I could even blink! I was hoping to get to do this update yesterday but I spent the whole day doing holiday shopping and playing with baby hedgehogs. I’m so glad to be back from my month-long hiatus, though! 🙂 I’ve missed all you marvelous people and I’ve missed blogging. I think that, although November didn’t necessarily go according to plan, it was a good month for me, and I hope it was for each of you as well. ❤

So, first thing’s first, let’s talk NaNoWriMo! So, how did I do, you wonder?? Well . . .

I didn’t end up making the goal of writing 50,000 words for the month, buuut I did keep at it, even when I knew I was too behind to accomplish the NaNoWriMo challenge successfully. I didn’t give up, and I made progress with the book I’m writing so I’m not completely heart-broken. Instead of the intended 50,000 words in 30 days, I wound up with 36,595. Not quite what I’d been hoping for, but I’m not going to beat myself up about it. How about you guys? 🙂 Did you participate in NaNoWriMo this year? If so, how did you do? I’d love to hear about it!

Even though the goal was to do nothing but write this month, I found myself constantly being pulled in different directions: hanging out with my loved ones, reading, work, playing games and watching movies . . . the list goes on. My willpower was weak, but my month was full of fun and good times so I regret nothing. 😛

BOOKS/GRAPHIC NOVELS READ IN NOVEMBER:

The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson (I got side-tracked when I started this in October for Halloween but ended up finishing it in November.) 4/5 stars.

Parasite, by Mira Grant (November’s book club pick for Sci-fi month, courtesy of my real-life BFF and blogging buddy Cupcakes & Machetes. You can read her review of the book here.) 😉 I’m hoping to do a review for it myself soon as well. 4/5 stars.

Strange Candy, by Laurell K. Hamilton (a collection of Paranormal/Urban Fantasy short stories.) 3/5 stars.

Rat Queens Special: Orc Dave #1, a standalone issue of the Rat Queens comic featuring the character Orc Dave. Definitely an enjoyable little read. 5/5 stars.

Rat Queens, vol. 2, so glad to finally be reading this series again. (Review for this and the Orc Dave special to come soon!) 😀 5/5 stars.

Saga, vol. 9, the latest volume of the series and the last we’ll get for a good while as the series takes a hiatus. As per usual with this series I had ALL THE FEELS! (There’s a review for this one coming soon as well.) 5/5 stars.

A Darker Shade of Magic, by V.E. Schwab (my first time reading anything by this author and I will definitely be checking out more of her books!) ❤ 4.5/5 stars

Spread, vol. 4 and vol. 5 (Woohoo! Finished the series.) I liked it. Didn’t love it, but I liked it. 🙂 3/5 stars.

I didn’t plan on reading much this month, but with the frigid early winter that has hit my home state, I was feeling the cozy-stay-in-and-read vibe and I just went with it. Michigan got ripped off when it came to autumn this year so I’m rebelling in the only way I know how: isolation under blankets with good books and comics. 😛

Looking forward to catching up on everyone’s blogs, but it might take me a bit, so feel free to tell me about or link me to any of your posts if you wanna share some of your own recent updates/news. ❤

 

Happy Halloween, My Dears!

What a wickedly wonderful October it has been! Now that we’ve finally arrived at this most excellent of holidays, I just want to wish each and every one of you a Happy Halloween! ❤ November is nearly upon us, which means my month long blogging hiatus I mentioned previously is about to commence. It’s all in the spirit of NaNoWriMo and I will miss each and every one of you in November, but I shall return come December. (Hopefully with news of a successful NaNoWriMo.) 😉

To those of you also participating in the challenge, I wish you the best of luck and look forward to seeing how you do when the month comes to an end.

Now, let’s get back to the Halloween talk, shall we?? 😀 This Halloween was basically a month-long affair for me. Between doing Halloween-related activities all throughout the month at work and nomming on ALL the pumpkin goodies, I also squeezed in some ghastly good times binging on horror movies/shows and partaking in frightening festivities. The highlight of which has been, without a doubt, the big halloween bash that is Detroit’s very own Theatre Bizarre! Mr. Moth and I attended the event, hosted in the Detroit Masonic Temple (the largest Masonic temple in the world) where they transformed eight floors into a wonderland of curiosities and Halloween delight.

With burlesque performances, live bands, fire dancers, contortionists, body suspension, a ghost train, and so much more, we wound up being up well into the early hours of the morning hustling around to see as many of the sights as we could.

One of the rules for entry into the event is that costumes are absolutely mandatory. We decided to go in matching black and white attire and dress up as skeletons for the night. Originally, the plan was to get our makeup professionally done, but the makeup place was booked the day of the event so I sucked it up and bought the needed cosmetics and ended up doing our makeup myself. I’ve never tried doing face paint before, but I’m pretty happy with how our makeup turned out. We got a lot of compliments throughout the night from people. 🙂

The Gruesome Twosome (Mr. Moth and I) in our costumes.

It was utterly amazing seeing the way they transformed the historic building into a sort of hellish vaudevillian escape. It was something I’d been wanting to experience for myself for some time, so I’m beyond happy that we went.

 

I hope each of you has been having an equally fun October and has a wonderful Halloween! Looking forward to catching up with everyone come December when NaNoWriMo and my month-long blogging hiatus come to an end. ❤ Take care, everyone!! ❤ ❤ ❤

Oh, and here is my final Inktober drawing. Wish I’d had time to do more of them throughout the month, but it is what it is! 😛

Plague Doctor

 

 

Getting Ready for NaNoWriMo 2018

Hey, everyone! 😀 I’ve really been enjoying getting to post a lot more again this month, but I wanted to give you guys a heads up that I’ll be taking the month of November off from blogging to focus on participating in National Novel Writing Month (aka: NaNoWriMo), or “Nano Rhino” as I like to call it. 😉

Taking part in the challenge to write 50,000 words in one month is always difficult, but it’s also a lot of fun. It takes a lot of time and effort, so I’m heeding the advice of The Shameful Narcissist, and avoiding distractions throughout the month that could hinder my word count goals throughout November. Sadly, this means no blogging for the month, but I think it’ll be the only way I’ll reach that goal and complete the challenge successfully this year. Things are always so busy, so I’m going to have to devote any free time I can get to working on my writing. Plus, it’ll really help me reach my goal of having my first draft for my book DONE before the start of the new year. It’ll be a lot of work, but I’m hopeful I can bust my ass and get it finished.

I’ll still be posting more throughout the rest of October, and I’ll miss all you fabulous people in November, but things will return to normal again come December. 🙂 I’d love to see this first draft finished by the end of December. It’s been a while since I’ve completed a first draft for a book I’ve written. I went through a notorious project hopping spree (something I’ve always been terrible about) but I’m feeling really committed to this current project I’m working on. I want to see it finished and I’m going to do whatever it takes to make that happen.

Are you planning on participating in NaNoWriMo this year? Got any big projects you’re working on that you’re excited about? Let’s talk about it! I love the creative process, no matter what form it takes, so I always enjoy reading about what you guys are creating and working on. ❤

 

First Week of October

Woo! We’re officially one week into the bestest month around: OCTOBER! 😀 If you’re like me, October is basically a month-long celebration of Halloween and just fall in general. After seeing the lovely weekly update post Cupcakes & Machetes put together to sum up her adventures throughout each week of the month, I decided to be a copycat and join in on that fun. So here we have my first of four weekly updates for the month of October:

The first thing I decided to do once October hit was to bust out the sharpies and ink pens and finally participate in Inktober. (If you don’t know already, this is a month-long art challenge held each year where artists produce a new ink drawing each day of the month.) Anyone can participate and it’s a good way to brush up on your ink/art skills. 🙂 I know I have a very busy month ahead of me, so I’m going to do as many as I can each week, but I’m not putting pressure on myself to get all 31 done. I’m doing this strictly for fun and practice. 🙂 Here are my new ink drawings I was able to get done this week:

This one is based off some cool vintage Halloween art I found.

Other Halloween/Fall-related activities this week included:

Making delicious apple cider slushies.

Getting gifted (and trying) some delicious types of apples I’d never had before.

Watching a couple horror movies. I started off slow, only watching The Witch and Hell Fest, but it’s a start, and the month is still young! 🙂

Mr. Moth and I worked on putting together our costumes for a big, upcoming event we’re attending for Halloween. (More details on that at a later time!) 😉

I worked more on decorating my room at work for Halloween. One of my bulletin boards is decked out in The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, and the other is a big tree I made with fall leaves filled with skeleton owls I had my group work on for Arts & Crafts day. 🙂 It turned out really cute.

I finally finished reading (and will soon be posting a review for) the book Even White Trash Zombies Get the Blues, by Diana Rowland.

Aaaand that about sums up my first week of October. What spooky and fall type fun have you been up to so far this month? 🙂

Hell Fest (2018) No-Spoiler Review

It’s October, boys and ghouls, so that means things are about to get pretty spooky around here! Halloween is fast-approaching, so what better time to sink your teeth into a bunch of horror movies, new and old? My first horror movie review for the month is for a film that just hit theaters September 28th called Hell Fest.

I’d seen the trailers and felt pretty indifferent to going to see it or not, but Mr. Moth was just curious enough about it to want to check it out, so I agreed. ‘Tis the season, right? 😉 Plus, he’s going to see the new Halloween movie with me when it comes out, so I kind of had to be a good sport. 😛

Unfortunately, it didn’t take very long into the movie for even him to say, “I think this may be one of those bad horror movies that’s just actually bad.” Not to say that it was a total disaster of a movie, but it was pretty middle of the road in my opinion. I’ve seen worse, but I have definitely seen far better and more memorable. I will say, though, that Hell Fest does a good job of making you excited for Halloween and haunted attractions. If Hell Fest itself was a legit thing I would want to go and experience it for myself (minus the stabby stabby parts, of course!)

The movie also (briefly) has horror icon Tony Todd in it, so that was cool. 🙂

Hell Fest is your basic sort of slasher film, set in a massive horror themed amusement park. If you’ve seen your fair share of slasher flicks, I think it’s safe to say you probably know the drill by now: masked killer picks group of young adults to terrorize, lots of stabbing, making out, and questionable decisions ensue. I think the main thing Hell Fest does have that sets it apart is the cool setting it takes place in. If you love Halloween and haunted attractions you’ll probably be able to appreciate how much effort must have gone into all the different sets, mazes, costumes, props, etc.

Aaaaand, in case you missed it, here’s the trailer:

So, that pretty much sums up my review for Hell Fest. I’m looking forward to feeding into my horror cravings more throughout the rest of October. How about you?? Watched any good horror movies recently? Planning on binge-watching a bunch before Halloween? Let’s talk about it! 😀

Flower Friday Post #2

Woo! 2 posts in 2 days! It’s been nice posting more again this month, but I have some catching up to do one everyone’s amazing blogs this weekend. Looking forward to seeing what all you people have been up to. 🙂 ❤

They say April showers bring May flowers, but it feels like May has been the month getting all the rain this year. I managed to sneak outside on a couple recent non-drizzly days to get some more spring photos, though, so I was happy about that. I love heading outside to see what is growing and how much the yard can change in such a short period of time. 🙂

I’m not exactly sure what these pink flowers were that came and went rather quickly, but they were gorgeous while they lasted. I’m thinking it might be a crabapple tree, but I’m not sure yet. They popped up all over one of the trees in my backyard and were gone again before I knew it. Now it just looks more like this:

A couple alliums popped up just recently as well in one of the flowerbed areas beside the driveway. I like the little splash of purple from them.

So, one thing that had me a little bummed was the lack of flowers on the rhododendron we have out back beside our weeping cherry tree. I’ve seen others with flowers right now and meanwhile ours is just kinda like, “Nah, bitch, I don’t wanna.” Buuuuut, today I was elated to discover this bad-ass lone beauty!

Aaaaand even though this part isn’t technically so much flower-related, the blackberries are beginning to do their thing. I’m hoping we wind up with a bunch of them sometime soon. That way I can try a bunch of new recipes with fresh blackberries like Cupcakes and Machetes suggested. 🙂

Well, that’s it for this week’s Flower Friday post from me. Be sure to pop on over to Read Rant Rock & Roll to check out their Flower Friday posts (along with all their other awesome posts.) 😀

Hoping everyone has an amazing weekend! It’s a three-day weekend for me with Memorial Day being on Monday, so I’m definitely ready for it.

Flower Friday: Weeping Cherry Blossoms

I’ve been loving Read Rant Rock & Roll‘s awesome Flower Friday posts for a while now, so when they recently suggested I join in on the fun, of course, I decided to do just that!

I’ve been snapping plenty of photos since the first plants of spring began to bloom, so I’m excited to get to share some of them with you. 🙂 For my first Flower Friday post I thought I’d share a couple quick pics I took from the weeping cherry tree in my backyard. I love this tree so much. ❤

Like your traditional weeping willow tree, the weeping cherry tree has cascading branches that hang low, but are covered in hundred of beautiful little white or pink blossoms.

 

 

Upcoming June Book Club Read: The City of Lost Fortunes

Last month I read a really good review from none other than the fantastic Kim over at From Hook or By Book, and I just knew I wanted to read the book. Her excitement about The City of Lost Fortunes made me excited to read it as well. 🙂 So, I promptly added it to my towering, ever-growing mountain of TBR books, and I nominated it for my book club’s June meeting which I will be hosting. Votes were initially split between The City of Lost Fortunes and Making the Monster: The Science Behind Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, but eventually The City of Lost Fortunes won the vote.

Here’s the synopsis from Goodreads:

The fate of New Orleans rests in the hands of a wayward grifter in this novel of gods, games, and monsters.

The post–Katrina New Orleans of The City of Lost Fortunes is a place haunted by its history and by the hurricane’s destruction, a place that is hoping to survive the rebuilding of its present long enough to ensure that it has a future. Street magician Jude Dubuisson is likewise burdened by his past and by the consequences of the storm, because he has a secret: the magical ability to find lost things, a gift passed down to him by the father he has never known—a father who just happens to be more than human.

Jude has been lying low since the storm, which caused so many things to be lost that it played havoc with his magic, and he is hiding from his own power, his divine former employer, and a debt owed to the Fortune god of New Orleans. But his six-year retirement ends abruptly when the Fortune god is murdered and Jude is drawn back into the world he tried so desperately to leave behind. A world full of magic, monsters, and miracles. A world where he must find out who is responsible for the Fortune god’s death, uncover the plot that threatens the city’s soul, and discover what his talent for lost things has always been trying to show him: what it means to be his father’s son.

You had me at “gods, games, and monsters”. 😀 I’m greatly looking forward to reading this book soon. It only came out in April of this year, so it’s still pretty new. Is it one you’ve read yet? If so, I’d love to hear what you thought of it. Maybe it will make its way into your TBR list like it did mine. What current books are you most excited to read right now?