Tag Archives: Grimm

Mar 13 2015

Twitter Shows Me Love And I’m Gonna Swim In It Until I’m Pruney — A Day In The Life

Hello friends,

I know I promised you guys a season 1 end review for the new pilots I’d wanted to check out in my previous posts, but considering that one show has one more week to go before its Season 1 finale, I figured I’d wait until then to give my full, honest review. Also, there was a show that I did want to watch, but didn’t (Extant) and I need the weekend to catch up.

So, what do I have in store for you today, then? Well, I figured I’d update you on my life… but with a slant. Instead of just writing about my day-to-day experiences, I thought I’d highlight some of my biggest achievements for the week — which were mainly on Twitter.

OK, so my first accomplishment was getting none other than Mara Brock Akil, a.k.a creator of Girlfriends, The Game, and Being Mary Jane to laugh at my tweet (which she re-tweeted to her followers) during Tuesday night’s episode of Being Mary Jane (Season 2, Episode 6: “Pulling The Trigger”).

Here’s my tweet:

  And here’s Mara’s response:

But that’s not all. After cracking Twitter up with my The Cosby Show crossover tweets for Empire (you know damn well Lee Daniels and the creators named Raven-Symoné’s character “Olivia” for a reason), I did a bit of live-tweeting for Scandal and then this happened…

Jeff PerryCyrus “The Devil Incarnate” Beene re-tweeted me. And when I tweeted about him re-tweeting my stuff, and he freaking favorited it.

Jeff Perry Part 2After that, Tom Verica aka the director/co-producer of Scandal as well as bad (dead) guy Sam Keating from How to Get Away With Murder favorited a tweet I sent in his direction. Tom VericaNow, why do I celebrate these small victories? Well, for a plethora of reasons, actually. The basic reason being that, I love Twitter, live-tweeting, and making people laugh. The other reason being that I love to connect with people (though I need to do a better job of it here on ATW) and when I see that the ones whose shows I watch aren’t too haughty to speak with the common folk such as myself, it puts a little smile on my face. Also, I like to imagine that other people in their circles get to see my tweets too and it’ll encourage them all to say “hey this girl is funny, let’s follow her.” A stretch? Yes, but dammit, let me live in my fantasy world!

        I’m wearing them down, baby! via Tumblr

That’s all that I’ve got for now, but expect me to do another one of these posts once Grimm returns on Friday, March 20. I’m still determined to get the cast to re-tweet, tweet at me, or favorite one of my tweets… especially since Grimm‘s official Twitter used my hashtag a couple months ago to promote an episode… #WesenLessons.

Until then, be good my darlings!
-Alja

Jan 2 2015

Alja the Writer’s 2014 Year in Review!

via: vimeo

‘Ello, friends!

It’s the second day into the New Year and I’m quite excited to see what 2015 has in store for me and my blog. And while I’m slowly lining up the next steps I’ll need to take in order to get closer to my goals (whatever they may be at the moment) and further myself in this world, I have to say that 2014 was filled with quite a few golden nuggets: Continue reading →

Apr 5 2014

What I’m Currently Diggin’ — And Why You Should Be Diggin’ It Too!

Here’s the deal:  I’ve been told that I watch way too much TV — and it’s partially true. I watch quite a few shows, but the only problem is that I tend to watch things that not a lot of my pals are into. And it’s pretty damn frustrating when I’m ready to go head first into my theories, likes, dislikes, etc., and I find there’s no one around to speak to. Le sigh. So, why is it that I’m the lone viewer in my crew? This can be one of two reasons: either I’m just very open-minded when it comes to TV (aka “weird”) or my friends/fam just don’t get why I’m into these shows.

Well ladies and gents, today is your LUCKY day! I’ve decided that I’m going to put you guys on to a series of shows that I’m diggin’ and that you could to like too. Now I figure that my list today may or may not strike a chord in some of you, so I intend to do this every week until I’ve found some kindred spirits. Oh, and it won’t just be TV shows either, but for right now, we’re gonna start things off a little light.

So, what shows am I going to talk about first? Let’s just see, shall we:

The Blacklist (Mon. 10 p.m. ET on NBC)


Synopsis: “Former government agent Raymond “Red” Reddington (James Spader) has eluded capture for decades. But he suddenly surrenders to the FBI with an offer to help catch a terrorist under the condition that he speaks only to Elizabeth “Liz” Keen (Megan Boone), a young FBI profiler who’s just barely out of Quantico. “

Status: Currently in Season 1

Why I’m Diggin’ It: First and foremost, the show’s star, James Spader, is the freaking man. I don’t care how much weight he’s gained, or how much hair he’s lost. There’s something about this guy’s caliber of acting that just makes you all tingly when you see it in action. When James talks, it just demands your attention and his role as the ever-conniving informant is quite possibly one of the best things I’ve seen on TV.

Bottom line: If you like shows with characters that are masters of manipulation, then you’ll enjoy this.

Next up… 

Grimm (Fri. 9 p.m. on NBC)


Synopsis: “A homicide detective discovers he is a descendant of hunters who fight supernatural forces.”

Status: Currently in Season 3

Why I’m Diggin’ It: I think my feelings on this show have been made quite clear by this point, but what I absolutely love about this show is that it’s got cop action, family drama, and a unique take on the characters of the Grimm’s fairy tales. It’s fantasy without being too over-the-top, while simultaneously not taking itself too serious. Every week there’s something new, while staying true to the core of the show and that to me makes for fun TV.

Bottom line: If you like shows that reshape the fairy tales you grew up loving, then you’ll enjoy this.

And finally…

Resurrection (Sun. 9 p.m. on ABC)


Synopsis: “The lives of the people of Arcadia, Missouri, are forever changed when their deceased loved ones return.”

Status: Currently in Season 1

Wouldn’t you want to know why your dead aunt popped up on YOUR doorstep?

 

Why I’m Diggin’ It: This new show kicks off with a little boy named Jacob waking up in China, and ends with us learning that he’s been dead for about 30 years. With every episode seemingly adding another dead loved one returning to their family (or possibly in hiding), this show is interesting to say the least. These walking dead — not like those Walking Dead — are all somehow connected, and the shady Sheriff Fred, his inquisitive daughter, Maggie, and federal agent Marty (Omar Epps) all want to piece the bizarre clues together. Meanwhile, we’re learning that more dead people are coming back and they might not be as friendly as the ones we’ve seen…

Bottom line: If you’re looking to take a chance on a show filled with mystery and head scratching, then you’ll enjoy this.

These are the shows I’ve got so far, but I’ll be back next week with yet another list, but in the meantime I hope you give these shows a shot! If you’ve got some suggestions, be sure to send them my way. Until then,

Are you already a fan? Let’s chat about it in the comments and connect on Twitter to live-tweet the next episode!

Mar 1 2014

It’s 2014 and I’m Back! (Gosh, I Really Stink at This)

And here I am again, breaking promises that I intended to keep.

As much as I’d like to blame everything under the sun for my absence, it really all boils down to being lazy and feeling uncomfortable — either I’m too lazy (yeah I admit it) or I’m just not in a comfortable space to write. Either way, it kinda bummed me out that I couldn’t get this post up within the first week of the year, let alone the first month of the year (I’ve been working on it since Jan. 1st!), so here I am trying to play catch up. The following includes updates on my  Twitter progression, K-Pop addiction, and overall outreach:

TWITTA: It goes without saying that I’m addicted to this thing called Twitter. Why? Well, probably because I get to express the full range of my personality using 140 characters at a time. It’s pretty easy to do considering that I’ve found a home with Black Girl Nerds and its followers who are like my kinfolk. #BlackSheepsUnite! With that being said, my Twitter usage has grown EXPONENTIALLY and at the moment I’m clocking about 12,700 + tweets from conversations and live tweeting a bunch of TV shows.

I’ve been told that I do it for the glory of being re-tweeted, but you know what?

IT’S TRUE!

Getting a re-tweet is like a form of social  validation — someone actually thinks your thoughts/remarks/ideas are worth sharing with other people. I mean, since I’ve been live tweeting Grimm, I’ve had my tweets featured in a recap blog (that you can read here) AND I’ve been RTd by several members of the cast including Claire Coffee (Adalind Schade), Bitsie Tulloch (Juliette) — not once, but twice — and Mr. Reggie Lee (Wu), as well as the Grimm official handle. This has led me to one of my Twitter goals of 2014: to get the whole Grimm cast to re-tweet me. I already spoke with Silas Weir Mitchell (Monroe), so I’m waiting on Bree Turner (Rosalee), Sasha Roiz (Captain Renard), Russell Hornsby (Hank), and David Giuntoli (Nick) to get their act together so I can round it out.

K-POP: Roll your eyes all you want at me and my K-Pop, but I don’t give a damn. I keep telling you people that Koreans will break into the US market with their infectious songs and savvy choreography, but you continue to ignore me… Either way, I’ve been embracing more K-Pop songs as time goes by, either by watching MNet America or trolling YouTube after listening to a song I already love. At the moment, my songs are as follows:

“Hush” By Miss A

“One Way Love” by Hyolyn


“Something” by Girl’s Day


And you can tell that I really like them because I actually BOUGHT some of them from iTunes. That’s LOVE.

Busy Business Lady: For quite some time, I’ve avoided talking about my jewelry making on here, for risk of sounding like someone who’s trying to palm off her little trinkets to you guys. I mean, ultimately I’d love it if you guys would go to my store, Pretty Poet Ink, and peruse, but I’m not going to (right now, that is). But considering it is something I’ve been working on, I guess it belongs in this update. I’ve actually gotten better with making, naming, tagging, and posting these pieces, but it’s a buttload of work, and there aren’t enough hours in the damn day. Sometimes just looking at my tools on my table becomes overwhelming. But, I managed to make a few new pieces — despite it all. I have to admit, I’ve gotten tons better than I was last year, but I’ve still got a ton of improvements to make.

Last, but not least, I’ve been investing in myself. Through Twitter and Facebook, I’ve been trying to meet new people, and get my voice out there, and it feels nice sometimes. Hopefully, I can do this reaching out this more often, and who knows? It can open some doors for me.

Any who, I can FEEL this post getting a lot longer than I intended. Hopefully I’ll be back to drop some of my other overall goals, Disney Head Scratchers (you thought I forgot, didn’t you? I totally didn’t!), and all other trivial, nonsensical, poetic, prosy endeavors that come to mind.

And hopefully, it’ll be more timely.

Con Amor,

-Alja

May 22 2013

Had a Grimm Night With Silas Weir Mitchell!

Hey there!

As I mentioned earlier, I’m going to try to “blog” as much as possible — even if it’s not book/writing related because there is more to moi than just my book-reading and novel writing. Any who, just wanted to say that last night was such a SPECTACULAR night for me and I couldn’t be any happier that the stars FINALLY aligned in my favor! I, along with a couple other fans, got to speak with Silas Weir Mitchell from my fave show, Grimm!

Actor Silas Weir Mitchell

Yes. I got to speak to Mr. Monroe on a live chat forum on Huffington Post Live. << Click the link to check the video and forgive my awkwardness — I had technical difficulties about a second before the show aired where I couldn’t see myself at all and thus I had a bad camera angle, stared into space and bit my lip a lot…>>

It all started when I was approached on Twitter (probably because of my fanatic live tweeting) to do the segment Monday night. I thought I missed my chance because when I responded I didn’t hear back from the producer, but then Tuesday afternoon I got a text asking if I was still interested. Of course my answer was:

If you’re a Grimm fan such as myself, you can understand the amount of happy that was flowing through my body.

So I and another fan, Courtney Wood of Grimm-fan.com, got all set up and after about eleven minutes of the show’s host getting Silas all warmed up, we were on screen asking him questions! Though before the chat they told us we could get like 3-4 , we were only given two a piece due to lack of time. Whomp.

I really wanted to ask Silas what kind of Wesen baby he thought Monroe and Rosalee would have (Blutbad, Fuchsbau, or a Fuchsbad-Blutbau hybrid) , but I got two questions out — one he said “was a good question” and another where he commended me for using proper Wesen terminology. Of course, I was like:

After showing my sisters (who are also Grimm fans) the segment and hearing my mom squeal at the sight of me on a live streaming show, I came down from cloud 9 a bit to do my live tweeting for Grimm’s season finale. *SIDE NOTE* It took me a long friggin’ time to be recognized by Grimm’s Twitter page up until maybe last month. Then they switched the show from Friday to Tuesday and I guess the Grimm Twitter handler on Tuesday hasn’t recognize my awesomeness yet, so I haven’t been retweeted since.

Any who, I was hoping to be picked up by the Grimm Twitter feed for the finale, but instead I got a favorite from actress Bitsie Tulloch aka Juliette.

Bitsie Tulloch Favorites My Grimm Finale Tweet

Now this isn’t the first time Bitsie favorited my tweet. This is actually like the fourth time. But it shows that girly likes what I say. And apparently, last night she really liked what I said because she tweeted this at me:

Bitsie Tulloch Tweets She Digs My Grimm Finale Hashtag

Yeah, that happened. And then sometime later actor Reggie Lee aka Sgt. Wu favorited my tweet about him.

Reggie Lee Favorites My Grimm Finale Tweet

It’s not the first time he’s done that, but you know it was like Grimm actor overload for me last night and I was loving

EVERY. SINGLE. MINUTE.

Oh yeah, *completely off topic* I helped a blind guy off the train yesterday. And I felt really good about doing it.  That’s it for now. Be sure to click the links because they are live and you can see me, tweet at me, and everyone else mentioned in this post.

Con amor,
-Alja

Jul 15 2012

absent and ashamed

Darling followers,

I would first like to apologize for my lack of posts. When I first started this blog, my intention was the write and post as frequently as possible, giving you an insight to my writing style (that you hopefully grow to enjoy). Unfortunately, I’ve been bombarded by bouts of confusion, blockage and (downright) laziness, that I haven’t been able to provide you with anything new.

But it hasn’t just been this blog – I haven’t been able to do anything new. My design projects are happening mostly in my head partly due to lack of energy, and my writing efforts on this novel I imagined I’d have finished by the end of the summer, aren’t going well either. I guess, you can say that I’ve once again stumbled on that dreadful thing called writer’s block. *ugh* Despite the fact that I’ve got the plot for the story all mapped out, and I know how I’d like to play out the ups and downs of the for my characters, the words, the damn words aren’t coming to me.

BUT, I have to say that something else has popped into my head (which is usually the case when I’m stuck on one story – hence all my unfinished stories). It was a dream actually, and it involved a retelling of Snow White.

In the dream, Edward Scissorhands made an appearance (lol), but with him taken out, it’s a very modern take on it. I guess that Grimm marathon with my sister and my anticipation for season 2 of Once Upon A Time has finally got to me. It has some aspects of Cinderella, but in my dream it was meshed together so well, that I don’t think you’ll really notice it. I’m pretty torn between writing it to be honest. I mean, how many re-telling of classics can people endure, right? But then I thought, this could be…the thing that showcases my talent?! AND I’ve been clinging on to this idea of a steam-punk retelling of beauty and the beast too…so I don’t know… *scratches head*

Sometimes I fear that I’ll have compiled nothing but scraps of paper with the beginnings to so many stories and have only a small fraction of them actually completed and like zip published…*sigh*

In other news, my sister has created an idea for a children’s book and has graciously granted me the task of writing it! HA! She called me yesterday to ask on the progress of it as well…so I need to get cracking on that.

Hmm…this is turning out to be one hazy summer. Yikes.

I promise to give you a progress report, hopefully better than this one.

Thanks for listening,

-Alja