Sylvita’s media consumption report / reviews?

Hey, so I’m really bad at titles, okay!

But anyway, here’s another blog post. I haven’t done much this week, as I mentioned last week, I’ve been kinda down with work. On the plus side, I have to add, despite some of the hard stuff, I do work with some really wonderful people. My frustration was starting to show and some of the folks I work with came to my side to ask me what they could do to help. One older volunteer even said “we’re family” and that just hit me right in the feels!

So yes, work has been tough, it continues to be, but I work with some great people and I guess I just need to get out of my own head, I need to not internalize so much and try to not take on everything myself. There are other lessons to be learned too I suppose and it is easier to say what I need to do than actually do it, but it’s a step.

So I didn’t really want to blog today, I felt like I didn’t have much to share, but then I want to keep up the one post per week momentum going.  I like talking to you all about the media I consume, ( i love books, movies, games, TV) so here are 3 things I’ve been getting into this week:

1) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (the nickelodeon series)

My niece has spent the past two weekends at the house and one of the shows we use to get her to sit down and relax for 30 minutes straight is TMNT (also My Little Ponies: Friendship is Magic). I grew up with the original TMNT so of course I was skeptical of the newer stuff… you know “kids these days! They can’t even have their own stuff, they’re recycling OUR stuff… arughrah!” But watching this series (and My Little Ponies too!) I realized, oh man, this series is (dare I say) even better than what I grew up with!  It really is.  The animation is slicker, the characters are more fully developed and the storylines get pretty epic. I thought, wow, this is pretty crazy, usually rehashes of old stuff tends to just produce mediocre content that bastardizes beloved franchises until it gets worse and worse. Like Star Wars. Though, if you know about the Star Wars Xmas special, that happened alot sooner for that franchise.

WTF is that Chewbacca has on?

But I thought about it and I remembered a while back as I was scouring artist work resource websites looking for a job, I remember seeing postings about Nickelodeon looking for animators to work on this new TMNT series. These people working on this show are my age! They grew up with the characters, they care about this silly little story about fighting mutant turtles with a rat dad! And so obviously, they created a show that, in my opinion, really lives up to it’s beginnings and even surpasses the original cartoon.  I’ve only seen a handful of episodes, but I genuinely enjoy watching it with the niece in a way that I just can’t with things like Mickey’s Clubhouse.

2) Classic NES games

So I went on a bit of a shopping spree in the 3ds E-shop the other day ($15 isn’t much of a “spree”, but it got me 3 games so it felt like it) and got 3 very classic NES titles: Metroid, Super Mario 3, and The Legend of Zelda.

I’ve played all three so far, spending more time with Zelda, because that game always sucks in your time somehow. It’s those dungeons, so addicting.  Anyway, one thing I noticed playing these (Mario 3 being the only one I had actually played as a kid) is that these games are SUPER HARD. But not in a “this is so hard it’s discouraging and I quit way” but in a “challenging, you can do it!” sort of way. I like it. These games don’t hold your hand… at all.. they don’t even offer any real hints whatsoever (except for maybe Zelda with the old men in the caves but those are few and far in between.)

Metroid for one, took me forever to get through one area because I couldn’t figure out how to turn into a ball, then after dying, I for some reason thought… maybe I should go left at the beginning? And sure enough, there was the item i needed to turn into a ball. My impulse to go right all the time got the better of me from the very beginning!

Then with Mario 3… it’s like he’s on skates, and you only start with 5 lives (which go pretty quickly) and every time you run out of lives, you have to start from the beginning! Geez! This one is an exercise in patience.

And Zelda, that game has no mercy with the amount of monsters constantly being thrown at you and no hint as to where things like a hidden passage might be.  I’ve gotten through 2 dungeons, but I think it’s just my knowledge of the Zelda formula that’s helped me get this far.

Maybe as I’ve gotten older, I appreciate feeling challenged and having to problem solve. Sure, there are games I enjoy for the simple decompression factor, like beating the crap out of people in Smash Bros., but I like stuff that makes you stop and think outside the box.

3) Youtube videos

Ah yes, Youtube, the land of crazy cat videos and cute babies that just sucks your time away. But really, if you dig a little deeper, you can find some really great channels and content that entertains, engages, and sometimes educates you! (Not to knock the crazy, silly videos, we all need a little bit of that in our lives)

Lately, I’ve been adding to my subscription list and I’ve found some great channels, from John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight channel that posts videos each week from the political satire show, to Nerdy Nummies, a cute food decorating show where a girl named Rosanna Pansino shows you how to create sweets inspired by geeky pop culture favorites, to The Fung Bros, a comedy channel where two guys talk about and deconstruct Asian American culture,  or PBS Idea Channel which poses a thought provoking question using movies, television and what-have-you as a way to explain it, and one of my newer favorites Black Nerd Comedy, where Andre Meadows gives rants and raves about all things nerdy and retro (I like the nerd stuff, as you can tell).  There are plenty of others, I just have been particularly enjoying these more recently and perhaps I’ll talk about some others in the future.

So there’s the 3 things I’ve been enjoying this week, what about you?

-S

Sylvlog #4: Venting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Steam spouts through ears)

So I took the day off because I felt like crap today.  I just needed to vent and talk about other things. Let me know what you think, how have you been? Have you been having to put up with crap too? Lemme know, it’s good to talk these things out 🙂

Sylvia’s Veg*n Food Reviews: Countdown to Thanksgiving

Hi folks, it’s been a while since I talked about food and with the start of fall (it still feels like summer here in LA) I am so looking forward to more crisp weather (the mornings and evenings have at least been cooler), overcast skies, and of course the holidays!

I know, I know, Halloween is coming up and everyone is getting their Sexy Olaf the snowman costumes ready, and yes, I love Halloween, but I really don’t look forward to it as much as I do Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving is awesome, it involves lots of food, sitting around the table with family members, lots of food, anticipating what you’re going to get people for Christmas (or Hannukah, or Human Light, or Kwanza, what have you)… oh yeah and LOTS OF FOOD.

It’s no surprise I love Thanksgiving really, you guys know I like to eat and even though I’m a vegetarian and “Turkey Day” is pretty much how most people refer to the holiday… I’m here to say, Thanksgiving is just as enjoyable without the turkey.

Yup, every Thanksgiving, since 2009, I have passed on the turkey and every year, I find myself just as satisfied as I was in my omnivore days.  So today, I wanna talk to you guys about what I’m looking forward to having this Thanksgiving (t-minus 46 days). The great thing about my list is, you don’t have to be veg*n to enjoy, everyone can enjoy these things (in fact, that’s how it is with all veg*n food, duh… unless you have specific allergies) and maybe you have some go-to thanksgiving foods that are non-meat and would like to share, so let me know!

7. The cup of coffee after the meal (or second, or third meal)

In my aunt’s house, which is where we normally have our get togethers, it’s pretty routine to have a cup of coffee after we eat and have digested our food a bit. It’s really pretty much the only time I’ll have coffee at night.  Yes, you can have coffee any time of the day, month or year, but maybe it is the fact that I rarely have coffee late in the day and maybe it’s because it’s just nice to sit and have a coffee with my mom and my Tias… it’s just nice, and it’s just something I do find myself looking forward to, even amongst all the potatoes and pies and all that.

I usually have my coffee black, and black coffee is best with a piece of pie or a super sugary sweet, but if you really want to sweeten things, fellow vegans (or just plain non-dairy folks) should really try Soy creamer. Trader Joes has a pretty good soy creamer and Silk soy creamer is pretty tasty as well.  A little bit goes a long way… I will mention, I’ve tried Coconut milk creamers and it just tasted like plain coconut milk, so if you go that direction, try the flavored ones like vanilla, it’s much better.

6. Biscuits

I don’t care how you eat your biscuits… with butter, from the can, from scratch, with cranberry sauce, or by cutting them in half making a little thanksgiving sandwich (that’s me personally)… biscuits are the best and it really doesn’t need much further explanation than that.

5. Apple Pie

Pumpkin pie is good, yeah, but I am all about the apple pie.  My little sis even makes me a vegan crust sometimes when she makes me a pie (btw, my sister makes the best pies ever). Apple pie is so good, so savory and sweet, and cinnamon-y..mmmmm.  Apple pie is good in it’s natural vegetarian state (with butter and veg shortening), but if you like to keep Earth Balance around, there are lots of recipes online… unfortunately, not so many awesome little sisters willing to do the baking for you!

4. Green Bean Casserole

Speaking of sisters, my older sis, Pati (yeah the other one who writes on this blog) makes a BAGBC…. that’s BAD ASS GREEN BEAN CASSEROLE. I don’t know why, but Pati, being an omnivore and all… just makes the BEST veg*n foods… better than me and that’s like, my specialty.  Anyways, every year Pati makes the BAGBC but last year she had a baby so I had to take over and it was just GBC.  I made it totally from scratch (as Pati has done in the past) and since I took over, I made it completely vegan. I found a cream of mushroom recipe online… which turned out to be great but unfortunately, I lost the link…. the only thing that went wrong is my fried onlons burned a little on top. It was still good though and the best thing about making deceptively vegan foods is watching people eat it, be like “hmmp, disus goof” with their mouth full and all and then you say… “yeah.. I know… and… it’s VEGAN!”  diabolical laughter follows.

3. Sweet Potatoes

Just, sweet potatoes in general… that’s always a plus whether it’s in it’s french fry, puree, baked, or candied form, but on Thanksgiving I like ’em mashed. I usually just eat the mashed sweet potatoes alone, but combining them in with some classic mashed ‘tatoes, now that’s magical.

2. Gravy

My favorite: mushroom gravy. I make a mushroom gravy based on a recipe my mom uses. It includes wine (i’m a terrible cook cuz I can’t even remember what type of wine without looking for the recipe) it’s not too thick, it’s actually pretty thin, but it’s really good on top of my tofurky… speaking of which…

1. Tofurky

Yup, tofurky, that is my number one.  So some people might go, “lame, why do veg*ns even eat faux meat… that means you like meat! YOU’RE A PHONY”

Whoa whoa, put down the pitchforks, I will be the first to say, meat tastes good. But I don’t want to partake in eating it. Now, if I can get similar flavors and textures from a source that doesn’t conflict with my beliefs… and note, I said “similar” I don’t want to have something exact because if it’s too close, then I get a little paranoid about what I’m eating. I really enjoy faux meat products… another argument I get is that faux meat is not exactly heatlhy, to which I say, yeah I know, I don’t refrain from meat because I want to stay in shape, though that is a nice side effect.  I know eating too much processed food is bad, but I don’t eat it all the time, and hey, when thanksgiving rolls around, I want me some Tofurky.

And for those who doubt the wonder that is Tofurky, I’m a big fan of Turtle Island, the company that makes the products. Their foods are always well made and taste wonderful. High quality faux meat folks.  If people didn’t get so offended by faux meats, they would discover tofurky is really good in it’s own right.  It’s not turkey, of course it isn’t!  But if you stop trying to think that this is somehow supposed to magically be something it isn’t, you would find that it’s this really good, savory protein that tastes great with gravy and potatoes. My little sis and my uncle both eat turkey at thanksgiving, but they also grab a slice of my tofurky each year because they like it for what it is. So this year, if you have a veg*n friend that brings a tofurky, get your jokes in, fine… but then have a taste… you might like it, you might not… but chances are, you will like it!

So that’s my list of Thanksgiving foods, what are you looking forward to?