Mariah's Nerdy Notes

When I last wrote a blog post, I had received some fantastic news as well as some devastating news that I had alluded to. Unfortunately, what was once fantastic news turned into devastating news. Over the past few months, I have been through a very personal hell of loss starting January 12th with the loss of my grandfather. In February, we lost my youngest aunt on my mother's side, a mere ten years older than me. This was followed quickly by my grandmother's hospitalization and the death of my great aunt all before Saint Patrick's day. My very secret news was for me the most traumatic loss as I lost the life I was growing inside of me. I still can't really talk about it and to say that my mental health hasn't been on spot is perhaps the biggest understatement of the year. Which is why I haven't been producing content and why this content is going up on a Sunday instead of the regular Wednesday and Friday.  In books and movies, we try to characterize the slow,...

Hey everyone, Sorry for the lack of posts in January. My family was hit with a loss of my grandfather on the 12th followed by some other big news, which I'll announce soon. Overall, January was an okay month. It had its super lows, and its super highs. I was hoping for more progress on my geeky goals, but here we go. Gaming: I didn't get a lot of time to put into gaming, but so far. I have all of the Lorestones and have completed all the areas up to the Plains of Erathell. I've devoted about 30-ish hours to the game and I would like to finish it this month. I would also like to finish Jotun, an amazingly beautiful indie game that I started over the holidays. I also want to complete one, just one, Hearthstone Dungeon Run. Pray to the Hearthstone Gods for me for good card draws. Watching: I'm rewatching the X-Files and I started at Season 1. As I am writing this, I am watching Season 5 Episode 17, so I'm about halfway through the seasons! Podcasts: I r...

Hey guys, As most of you know I've been doing my CYOS 2018 Reading Challenge, and one of the first books on my to read list was: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum. Being an avid Julie Gardner fan, I was expecting a nice romp through the land of Oz as Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion. It was supposed to be a relaxing stroll down memory lane and taking a break. This book has some very very dark points, which reminded me of the Disneyfication of other stories. So this week, let's explore the truth behind 5 of my favorite Disney movies. 1) Snow White In the Grimm telling, Snow White's mother was sewing one day when she pricked her finger with a needle. As the blood fell onto the snow below the window, she prayed for a child with lips as red as blood, hair as black as crows, and skin as white as snow. The Queen dies soon after the child is born and the King takes a second wife. The Stepmother becomes the evil queen when her magic mirr...

So I've been playing a lot of Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning lately. It's an old game and I'm behind. I am a failure to gamers everywhere. I know. With this small confession aside, here is my list of the most annoying enemies so far. 1. Sprites Allow me to introduce the humble sprite. Kind of cute in a "I'm more likely to eviscerate you and eat your innards than say hi" kind of way. Just me? These annoying little buggers normally come in groups of at least three, and often include Storm, Fire, and Ice Champions. AKA they use magic to wreck your life while their regular buddies (see above), are using their claws and tail to cause an annoying amount of damage. As I've gone farther in the game, the groups get bigger or they randomly spawn...while I'm running away from an Ettin. Not cool. 2. Venom Spitters I hate. HATE. Spiders. I understand they are important to the ecosystem and they can live happily outside my house. Except for these ones and ...

Happy New Year!!!! Congratulations, my lovelies, you have survived 2017. Good job! I'm so glad you're still here today. May 2018 give you all the blessings you deserve. 2018 potentially holds a lot of big stuff for me, but we will have to see. I was blessed with an awesome holiday season and came out on the other side a few pounds heavier (probably) with new determination and new games/movies/books. :D If you've been following my YouTube channel, then my TBR for January is old news to you, but if you haven't been then what are you waiting for. ;) In January, my TBR is the first five books of the OZ series by L. Frank Baum. I got an awesome omnibus with the first five novels from Barnes and Noble last year for close to $8, and have yet to read it. These will be the first five books and a new level in my Choose Your Own Story challenge. (For more information, check out the blog posts or the video down below.) My sixth book this month will hopefully be How the Irish Sa...

Hey guys, I have made a little workbook for you guys to fill out if you are interested in doing the Choose Your Own Story. I've given each level a little quest and left room for you guys to write in your own rewards. The story follows a young adventurer who has to defeat the bosses in a dungeon leading to the dreaded Book Wyrm, and free the kingdom of Literaria. After a brief introduction, you get right down to business taking down bosses in the form of books. After every five books you go up a level. This workbook covers the first four "chambers," or groups of five books that you need to read to get your new title. This goes off of one of those old time RPG or Choose Your Own Adventure stories. For this adventure, you choose your own stories, meaning you choose what books you want to read and set your own time limit. There are seven titles to gain from NOOB to Dragon Lord (a unisex title in Literaria), and seven chambers you have to clear. Set your own goals and I ...

Hey guys and gals, So I've been bullet journaling off and on for a couple of years now, but really decided to recommit this year to just using a bullet journal instead of a bullet journal and a regular planner. A very dear friend of mine got me a beautiful datebook for Yule, which I'll be using mostly as an external future log instead of having one in my journal. I am going to be using the Scribbles that Matter Pro notebook. I got it off Amazon for $15 and I love the feel of the paper. Mine is white, with black and gray bookmarks, black pen loop, and black elastic band. At the beginning of the Scribbles that Matter notebook is the title page with a handy dandy spread to show what date the journal was started. I'm starting mine on the 31st of December as shown below. After the title page is a Key page, already split into two handy columns and the three index pages. In most bullet journals, people create their own, but Scribbles that Matter (and the Leuc...