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I've encountered a lot of new authors last year but these two stood out the most for me. I've said it before: Hafsah Faizal with her We Hunt the Flame reminded me how much I enjoyed and loved YA Fantasy which prompted me to read more this year. And Karen M. McManus got me interested in reading more Thriller/Mystery books thanks to her Two Can Keep a Secret and One of Us is Lying (I've read the One of Us is Next and a review is on its way here).

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Hollywood who???? HANDS DOWN TWO OF THE BEST MOVIES I'VE WATCHED. EVER. Foreign films really hit different and I'm happy a lot of people actually loved these two. And here's a quote from Bong Joon-ho's Golden Globes speech: "Once you overcome the 1-inch-tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films." -- if that ain't right. There's so many good outside-of-Hollywood movies out there and I might just make a post for that someday.

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I hardly play games on my phone but there's just something about Homescapes that got me hooked. It's one of those games like Candy Crush BUT what made this fun and addicting for me is that I get to design this dude's housemansion. I found this enjoyable to pass time. As for Unfold, I just discovered this when I was looking for apps for my IG/Messenger stories. I don't really put effort into designing my stories but I wanted to put my pics in a collage (rather than posting 1 story = 1 pic) and make it look minimal and TA-DA. Here's the app for it (though I'm still trying to find other apps for this).

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So these aren't 2019 releases (Malibu Nights was in 2018 while As She Pleases was 2017) but I just paid undivided attention to these albums and ugh.. LOVED IT. LANY's one of my favorite indie bands and I just discovered Madison Beer because of this album and I immediately love her voice.

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I was hesitant to start HSMTMTS (AN ABSOLUTE MOUTHFUL OF A TITLE) because HSM was really dear to me but I kept seeing it in my YouTube homepage all because I watched ONE TRAILER of it. And also this GIF (I'm soft....) And while I did watch the pilot episode of the show last year, I didn't continue the series UNTIL my friend played some of the songs from the show when we were hanging out and I though "okay that sounds good" so this year, I'll be watching it. It seems worthy giving it a second chance. As for Hotel del Luna, same with HSMTMTS, I only watched the pilot ep because I got so busy and K-dramas run around 40 or so minutes per episode so... *cries* But I'm determined to watch this one too because 1) I love IU (the main character) and 2) THE PLOT SOUNDS REALLY GOOD.

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11. I enjoy reading more when I read because I want to not because I have to. I've said this in a Top Ten Tuesday post last year and this really did help me enjoy reading books. The "I have to" refers to me needing to read a certain book because everyone's talking about it or hyping it up and I don't wanna be left behind.
12. I blog when I can. And I feel happy and free about it. I used to see blogging before as something I have to do everyday (or almost everyday) and it did nothing but put so much pressure on me. Last year, I managed to balance blogging and other activities. If I'm busy, I find it okay not to post. I don't want to push myself into being present here all the time when in real life I have so much workload to.

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Phew. AND THAT'S IT.
The last two were a bit repetitive from this post but then again, these were important realizations I had since I got back to blogging properly since June 2019.

*** Can I also note that I'm very slow in replying to comments as of now since it's back to school for me for the second semester and I'm still settling in back here my off-campus apartment. I'll try to reply to everyone this weekend.