Me!

(Published: 2019/07/04)

Hello again! If there's anyone out there who is a devoted follower of my blog, you may want to know a bit more about this stranger who writes really irrelevant stuff. As you can probably tell, I am super into music, films, science, graphic design and, obviously, writing. But if that isn't enough for you, I thought I'd give you a bit of a Q and A to chew on (pardon? Chew on?). Well, anyway, here goes:

Favourite Colour: Red. When I was little it was violet and my second favourite was red, but red finished victorious.

Favourite Colour scheme: Red, white, navy blue, and beige.

Favourite Food: Well, I really love my grandma's flourless chocolate cake. In terms of savoury foods, gnocchi is always my number one answer (drools at image of gnocchi).

Favourite Snack: Turkish delight, honey soy chicken chips, dark chocolate covered liquorice bullets, or Buderim ginger bears. Yum. And basically everything that people seem to dislike.. (I always get what I want in the Favourites box though)

Favourite Book: The Burning World by Isaac Marion (it's the sequel to Warm Bodies). I can't even tell you how much I love it. Younger readers beware, it's bordering an adult book. I read a lot, so one book isn't quite enough in this category. I also love Six of Crows (and it's sequel, Crooked Kingdom) by Leigh Bardugo, Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli, and Wuthering Heights.

Favourite Movie: This category is practically impossible. How in the world do I choose one movie! Sigh. This is probably going to end up like the book category. My top two favourite movies are Lost In Translation and Baby Driver. But very, very close are Warm Bodies (great book adaptation), The Imitation Game, The Theory of Everything, Hidden Figures, Begin Again, Four Weddings and a Funeral, You've Got Mail, It Could Happen to You, Almost Famous, and all the Star Wars movies (except The Last Jedi...don't start me on that). And the John Wick movies are officially the best action movies ever made. Pride and Prejudice, About Time, The Post, Rocketman, Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and The Big Short are up there too.

(Oh my gosh. How many is that?)

Favourite TV Show: Currently, Good Omens. Gosh, I loved it and I really want to read the book. To put David Tennant and Michael Sheen together is like putting mint and chocolate together. Masterpiece. My favourite tv shows of all time have been Doctor Who, Doctor Who.....Doctor Who, and................................Doctor Who! And I won't put you through the same thing for Sherlock, but I'm basically crazy about Sherlock too. Seinfeld, That 70s Show, Stranger Things, and Derry Girls also make the list. You can probably tell I'm a major nerd by now, if you hadn't worked that out already.

Favourite Song: I thought the others were impossible. This one is truly impossible. Ok, if I had to choose one it would be 'The Bourne Identity' by The Last Shadow Puppets (and all their other songs). But then I'd also have to add 'You Get What You Give' by New Radicals, '888' by Cavetown and 'Cornerstone' by Arctic Monkeys (and again, all their other songs). I also have to add 'The Heat', 'Julia', 'Time' and 'House In LA' (...and 'Casio') by Jungle. And 'Feels Like We Only Go Backwards' by Tame Impala... Sob. I really don't have a favourite song.

Favourite Artists: Let's just make this plural from the beginning. Arctic Monkeys, The Last Shadow Puppets, Cavetown, Jungle, and Jamiroquai are my favourite artists. However, I am really in love with all of Alex Turner's music in particular right now.

Music video that is the epitome of my soul:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6dtXL_P2b8

Absolutely no comment necessary.

Favourite screenwriters, directors, cinematographers, and actors:

Considering I want to be a screenwriter and director, I think this is a valid category. My absolute favourite directors are Edgar Wright (Baby Driver, Shaun of the Dead), and Sofia Coppola (Lost In Translation). After that, some directors I really love are Steven Spielberg (well, this one is pretty obvious), Nora Ephron (When Harry Met Sally, You've Got Mail), George Lucas (STAR WARS, Indiana Jones), Ridley Scott (Alliienn, Blade Runner, The Martian), Denis Villeneueve (Blade Runner 2049, Arrival), and Chad Stahelski (John Wick 1, 2, 3 & hopefully there will be a no. 4 🤞). George Miller almost makes it onto the list because I love Mad Max: Fury Road to death, but I need to see some of his other movies before he makes the list. JJ Abrams is also a close contender for his wonderful work with Star Wars, Star Trek, and Super 8 (there are many more, but those are my favourite).

Nora Ephron, Edgar Wright (+ Simon Pegg on a few of Edgar Wright's films), and Sofia Coppola also double as my favourite screenwriters and John Carney (Begin Again, Sing Street) makes this list too.

My favourite cinematographers are Roger Deakins (Blade Runner 2049), Greig Fraser (Rogue One), John Seale (Mad Max: Fury Road), and Lance Acord (Lost In Translation).

I have quite a few favourite actors: Sandra Bullock, Keira Knightley, Saoirsa Ronan, Benedict Cumberbatch, David Tennant, Jenna Coleman, John Cusack, Hugh Grant, Meg Ryan, Nicholas Hoult, Kate Beckinsale, Michael Sheen, Keanu Reeves, Simon Pegg, Lake Bell, Bill Murray, Bill Nighy, Emma Stone, Scarlett Johansson, Kirsten Dunst, Tom Hanks, Jerry Seinfeld, aaand Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Yikes, that's a lot. I've probably even missed a couple!

Apple or Windows: I know this is the nerdiest category ever but it really is necessary. You can tell a lot about a person from their choice in computer. And I'm sorry to nearly every tech nerd in the galaxy, because I choose Apple. Well, I love the way Apple looks. Minimalism is my style and I cannot stand Windows computers and their inconvenient keyboard shortcuts. However, I do some pretty hardcore stuff on my laptop and my Macbook can't take it. So, in terms of actual hardware, I agree, Windows is better. BUT I SHALL LIVE WITH CONSTANT GLITCHING.

Pet Peeves/Annoyances: Book fonts. Please, please. For all our sakes, please use Times New Roman or a similar font in books. I don't care if we're kids and look like we might enjoy a font like Lucida Console or Chicago. We put books back on the shelf because of these fonts. I'm talking to you, young adult science fiction book with the square font. Even sans serif fonts to begin with are irritating.

On that topic, favourite font: My favourite serif font is Iowan Old Style (it used to be Baskerville but I found something new and exciting in Iowan Old Style. Sorry, Baskerville). My favourite sans serif font is Avenir Light or Avenir Black.

*update: Sigh, I'm either boring or pure because my new favourite serif font is just Times. I like Times New Roman too but I prefer the lines further apart.

*further update: I've changed my mind. Times New Roman is definitely the best. Very satisfying.

Favourite App: Spark, Spotify, Shazam, and Apple Notes. My life would be incomplete without them.

*update: I found out Spark has the right to read my emails! I deleted it. It was like tearing out the heart and soul of my productivity. 😭

Favourite Youtube Channels: DanAndPhilGAMES/AmazingPhil/DanielHowell, Bangtan TV/Run BTS, TwoSetViolin, Cavetown, CinemaSins and Veritasium.

Favourite Browser: Safari all the way. Whoever convinced me Chrome is best and influenced me into using it for the first 5 years of my laptop life had better hope I never remember who they are. It's so clunky! It's great for flash player (update: it has been phased out!) but everything else about it just irritates me. Try Safari for me just for one day, and you'll realise what you've been missing out on.

Favourite Search Engine: Google. The better question is what's your least favourite search engine. I'm thinking of that pesky search engine that sometimes ends up to be the default search engine on public computers and you can't turn it off. It looks hideous and it is terribly inconvenient. I hope you all know I'm talking about Bing. I think its current tagline is, "Bye bye boring, hello beautiful" Install our extension! It's never going to happen. I actually recently used DuckDuckGo. It's pretty minimalist and it's a privacy-based search engine. Of course, you don't know if it actually is doing what it says it's doing, but it's got to be more private than Google.

So, now you know a little more about me. In a sentence, I'm a nerd who loves music and design.

Credit to Aleksandr Dmitrenko for the perfect featured image.