Category: youtube

Merry Christmas 2019

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Merry Christmas everyone! Today I am having a quiet Christmas all by myself but I am enjoying the time of contemplation and rest. Today I finish my holiday movie watching … Continue reading Merry Christmas 2019

The Experience of Being Hated (‘Shazam’, ‘Dumbo’ and More) — Rachel’s Reviews

Hey guys! As many of you know who follow my channel or other social media, I’ve had quite the last week! It’s ironic because at the beginning of March I wrote a piece on my other blog chronicling my life experience becoming a film critic. It had always been a dream of mine and it […]

via The Experience of Being Hated (‘Shazam’, ‘Dumbo’ and More) — Rachel’s Reviews

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Modern Friendshipping

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So April has almost come and gone and it has been a jammed packed month. The Hallmarkies podcast has been doing great and we currently have a whole bunch of interviews and podcasts stored up ready to be played over the next month or so (or if one of us gets sick). Doing all this prep work, while still producing 2 shows a week (regular episode and tv recap) has been a bit overwhelming but very satisfying. I have also been keeping up my personal channel and had some great interviews/discussions and reviews on there.

As I was looking over the month it occurred to me amongst all the busyness very little of it was with in-person human contact. There are things I did alone like go see Hamilton so at least I was out of the house but with actual people it is pretty sparse:

I saw Ready Player One with Amber and then again with my book club friends (I missed book club this month because I didn’t have time to read it).

I saw Isle of Dogs with my friend Phaedra and that was a delight (both movie and time with friend).

I had Easter with my parents, grandma and brother.

I went to see Camelot with my parents and two of my friends were in it.

I attended study group for church (and church)

And that’s it! The rest including my job were all online. But oddly I do not feel malnourished or socially bereft. In fact, quite the reverse. In just the last week I will have done 5 podcasts including an interview with friends from Israel and Australia. I think it is pretty cool! I also posted to my movie blog and to rotoscopers.com and contributed to other social media posts.

I don’t know. What do you think? What is the right balance of in-person interactions with online? I know mine will never be close to equal but I at least try and make an effort to get outside and see friends in-person. It’s tough but I do the best I can.

A Sick Winter

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Hey you guys!  How are things going? I just wanted to give you a little update. I wish I could say things have been rosy and perfect but unfortunately I’ve been pretty sick recently. In fact, this entire winter I have had a cold in one form or another.  This is a problem for a person that does 5+ podcasts a week (this week I have 7!). Fortunately I have not lost my voice all together but it has been challenging. I was really bummed because this last weekend I was scheduled to go to the Tumbleweeds Film Festival but I was too sick. I managed to push through Sundance but since I had a cough this time I didn’t feel right about it. I think it is super rude to go to the movies if you know you will be hacking throughout it. Plus, I felt miserable so what’s the point?

It really has been a tough winter for me. I think part of it is the inversion has been very bad and that puts my sinuses at risk for infection and viruses.  The worst thing is when you are coughing so hard that your chest starts to hurt and it feels like you can’t breath. I am also very mucusy and going through a box of tissues a day. My nose is raw and chafed from blowing it so much. Fortunately, my job has been super understanding and kind with helping me get better, which I am beyond grateful for. Even so, I wish I could take a weeks off to 100% get better and finally lick this infection.

I am just glad I don’t have kids because that would be so stressful while being sick. Plus, I’m glad there is Jamba Juice just a hop away. Caribbean Passion is my fav with immunity whenever I get sick. I also watched Happy Feet which is my traditional sick day movie (it’s dancing penguins. How can you be uncheered by that?)

Even while sick we have been plugging away at the Hallmarkies podcast and I’m very proud of our efforts. It’s entertaining, fun and people seem to really like it. Please check it out even if you don’t like Hallmark movies! (We are very charming. You don’t want to miss it)

Sunday Sit Down with the Lawn Gnome

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Hey guys! I had a really cool experience on Sunday. My friend Steve (aka The Lawn Gnome) has started a new series on his youtube channel called Sunday Sit Downs and he gave me the honor of being his first guest!

It was so much fun being on Steve’s show and we chatted like old friends, which is what we are. If he and his wife ever came out to Utah I hope he would look me up and vice versa. You really do get to make friends and support each other through this crazy thing called youtube. I liked our discussion about the histories of our channels and what we’ve learned along the way. It made me feel very nostalgic because we have been friends since the very beginning.

Please give it a listen and let me know what you think! And subscribe to Steve’s channel. He has great content on everything from Disney to Batman.

Winners 3/26/2017

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Each week I try to celebrate things I believe are winners. This is an effort to be positive and focus on the many good things out there to enjoy!

This week’s winners are:

  1. Utah Bands- For this week’s Friday 5 over on my youtube channel the topic was bands from you hometown so I picked 5 bands/groups from Utah! This proved to be really fun
  2. Murder on the Orient Express- I finished reading the classic mystery novel by Agatha Christie this week and I thoroughly enjoyed it. She does such a good job building characters and giving clues. I really like Poirot almost as much as Sherlock Holmes. Reading the book made me excited for the upcoming movie directed by Kenneth Branaugh.
  3. Power Rangers and Smurfs: Lost Village come through- I am always a fan of underdogs and this week I got 2 surprisingly decent films. I enjoyed both The Power Rangers Movie and Smurfs: the Lost Village. Neither is perfect but I was entertained by both.  Check out my blog and youtube channel for reviews of both. What are your winners? What books, music, movies or anything else have you been enjoying?