Things I Like Right Now {Podcasts and CGP Grey}

Recently, I did a blog post about some blogs I read, and I thought maybe it would be fun to do a similar post, but instead of blogs, it would just be other random stuff I'm into. If you guys like this, maybe I'll try to do these regularly, maybe every month or two.

My big obsession recently has been podcasts. I've been listening to Welcome to Nightvale for almost a year now, and it introduced me to the wide world of podcasts. Radiolab, and This American Life are classics that are favorites of mine, and of course I had to jump on the bandwagon with Serial as well.

Nightvale is definitely my favorite fictional podcast, but of the talk show/educational variety, there is also little competition. Hello Internet is by far my favorite. It's a podcast of the "Two Dudes Talking" style, and if you don't like that, or if you don't like the two dudes (CGP Grey and Brady Haran), you wouldn't like it. It's nerdy, it's educational, it's funny, it's weird, and best of all, there are currently 31 episodes of nearly two hours each, meaning you won't run out too quickly. 

Finding this picture was a dangerous endeavor: I had to do a Google image search for CGP Grey. Grey is anonymous on the web, you never see what he looks like in any of his videos, and while pictures of him aren't that hard to find, I don't want to see them. I just don't.

CGP Grey has long been one of my favorite YouTubers, and since listening to his podcast, he has become one of my very favorite internet people (somewhere up there with Hank Green and Wil Wheaton). I am nowhere near as anal or organized as he is, but is is kind of what I aspire to be. Since listening to him, I've started using a lot of his suggested apps and here are a few that I've come to really like.

1. Overcast. This is a free podcast app that I started using at his suggestion (and the suggestion of a friend of mine who is probably a bigger Hello Internet fan than I am). I haven't been using it very long, but so far I like it. It's a thousand times better than the one that comes on iOS (not that that's very hard), and it's well organized.

2. Anki. This is a flashcard app that I absolutely love. It allows you to create cards and decks, and has many options to personalize how you use it. It's not the prettiest app, but it is very functional. It shuffles your cards for you, and shows them to you at intervals that are optimal for memorization. It can be a bit confusing at first, partly because of it's rather bare bones structure, but if you put some time into getting it how you want it, it's amazing. The desktop app is free to use. You can purchase a mobile app for the hefty sum of $24.99, but I haven't tried that personally (mainly because of the cost), so I can't vouch to it's quality. 

Another random thing not related to podcasts that I love is the webcomic XKCD. I've been a fan of  XKCD for a long time, and I can't believe I've never mentioned it on the blog before. It's funny, it's geeky, it's current, and it's sometimes a little inappropriate, and I highly recommend checking it out. 

Weird is Good {Book List}

(This post contains affiliate links.)

Starting today, I'm going to be highlighting some of my favorite books, both those I read as a kid, and those I currently read and love. I'm going to be dividing them into categories, and we're going to start today with the category I don't have a name for. If you've read all the books on this list, you can probably figure out what I'm talking about.

I call these "weird books" for lack of a better term. They all have a fantasy aspect, and also a real life slant. They are probably my favorite books ever. They combine fantastic writing with unique characters and crazy worlds and plots. They are each unique in themselves, and that is really the main thing that ties them together.

1. The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. This is probably my very favorite kids book of all time.



 2. The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart. While I loved the whole series, I'm thinking more about the first book here, and not the whole thing.



3. The Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket.



5. The Keys to the Kingdom series by Garth Nix



7. His Dark Materials trilogy by Phillip Pullman





These are some of my all time favorite books. As I look back on the list, I realize they are all kids books. There are some books by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett that probably belong on this list too (Good Omens, anyone?), since I really do love both of them, but I'm leaving them off for now.

So, looking at this list, what do you think the unifying themes are? What is it about these books that make me group them together? I'm honestly not completely sure myself, though I do see some themes of magic, fantasy, and dark themes. What do you think? Have you read these books? Do you like them?

Over the next month or two, I'm going to do a bunch more of these lists on different topics. Let me know if you have any I should cover. Some I'm planning on are:

History and Historical Fiction (this will be a long one!)
Classics
Sci-fi and Fantasy
Realistic Fiction

Favorite YouTubers

So, it is nine thirty at night, and I just realized I did not have a post up today. Since I said I would try to post every day this month, I thought I would try to come up with something really quickly. Since lists are easy, I thought I would do a list of some of my favorite youtubers. I am subscribed to an embarrassingly large number of them, but these are the ones I watch regularly. My subscription box is usually full of unwatched videos, but there are always a few that I will always watch, no matter what. I used to watch a lot more, but I have less time for it now.

1. Vlogbrothers. This was the first YouTube channel I ever subscribed to, over a year ago, and I am pretty sure that I have watched every video they have released since then.

2. Wheezy Waiter. I love Wheezy Waiter, though he posts videos more often, and there are definitely some that I've missed, particularly recently. I am finally at the point now that I think that I actually get all the inside jokes, which is fun.

3. Pemberly Digital. This is where the Emma Approved videos go up. I am really loving it so far.

4. Charlieissocoollike. He isn't at all hard to keep up with, since he posts a video about once every three months or so.

There really aren't any others that I always watch.

There are, however, a lot more that I really like, but just don't have time to watch too often, though I try when I have the chance. Maybe I'll do another post with some other channels I like another day when I have more time.

I'll be back tomorrow, though I have no idea what with.

My Favorite Things: Blogs

This post is kicking off a series I'm calling "My Favorite Things." Since I already talk a lot about books and stuff on here, this is going to be a chance for me to talk more about some of my favorite things I don't usually discuss. Today, it's blogs, and over the next few weeks I have plans for posts on computer games, YouTube channels, and basically all the other fun stuff I do that takes up too much of my time. :)

Today, I'm going to highlight a few blogs I like to read. Honestly, I have way too many blogs that I check on regularly, and many more then that in my RSS feeder. Because of that, I was pretty worried when Google Reader was retired, but I've since been using Feedly, which works okay, though I don't love it.

I'm going to separate these blogs into categories, since I tend to read blogs for a few reasons: homeschooling blogs, blogs of people I know, and reading or writing blogs. Some of the blogs of homeschool families I follow have very different values and beliefs then my family, which is one reason I find them so interesting to follow. Also, many of the blogs of people I know are actually homeschooling families.

Blogs of People I Know

A Baker's Dozen and Apollo XIV

A Time for Every Purpose

Boots Before Corset

The Smog Blog

Book and Writing Blogs/Websites

The Office of Letters and Light

History of the (Whole) World

Read More! (this one almost fit in the people I know category, but I decided to leave it here.)

Pretentious Title

Forever Young Adult

Go Teen Writers!
 
Homeschool Blogs

Life In a Shoe

Large Families on Purpose


As I said before, I read MANY blogs, but these are some of the highlights. What blogs do you read?