Tag Archives: twitter

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 →

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

Dec 3 2013

Guess Who’s Back, Back Again (I’m Terrible But I Intend to Be Better)

‘Alo there, friends!

I know. I’m a terrible person who hasn’t written on this blog for months — after making a solemn oath to be better. Sigh. Well, at least I’m writing today! That should count for something, right?
Things have been really busy — both in real life and in my head, but that’s still no excuse for being inconsistent. So what if my bed seems like the best thing in the world to dive into after a day at the office?! I should still make time to write! Especially if it’s what I want to do. But for the record, there is an upside to being busy (and unabashedly wrapped up in my comforter) and I shall tell you all about it.


So remember last time when I talked about how Twitter got me a chance to video chat with Silas Weir Mitchell of Grimm (SQUEALS – highlight of my life) and score some sweet goods from Da Vinci’s Demons? Yeah, so I’ve basically become a bit more vocal on Twitter. OK, A LOT more vocal on Twitter. In part because started watching a lot more TV (which can be attributed to my new job), mostly because there a lot of good shows out this year. ANYWAY, I say all of that to say that I’ve been live tweeting and my tweets are actually being heard… well, read. I got me a few more shining moments that I can’t help but be proud of, even if they’re pretty small.

First, I got a shout out from the digital mag, Vibe Vixen, for one of my tweets during the Scandal Season 3 premiere.

11-21-2013 9-55-33 AM

Yup, that happened. But that wasn’t all.

Next up, my tweets with fellow Sleepy Hollow fans about Ichabod Crane’s fashion sense landed on the web edition of the South African magazine You.

11-21-2013 10-37-51 AMYeah, the highlighted portion right? That’s me. If you can’t make out what I said, then I suggest you go read the article.  It’s a pretty fun read and well, I’m mentioned in it.

And of course with the return of Grimm, my fangirl live tweeting returned. That being said, I did land a couple re-tweets from the Grimm Twitter handle (score!) and a couple of my tweets have been featured in the awesome gif-infused Grimm recaps at the blog, Random Musings from the Kristen Head.

11-21-2013 10-30-54 AM11-21-2013 10-34-27 AMI mean, I got mentioned two weeks in a row! I don’t know how all the other people who were being mentioned felt, but I know that I literally felt like this:

Of course, there are other perks to having my tweets being read, including gaining more followers. While my follower count hasn’t necessarily spiked to extremes, I’ve come to meet a few new people… which leads me to what I mentioned earlier.

So in addition to being vocal on Twitter for the purposes of TV, I’m also on Twitter more thanks to finding the mothership in the website, Black Girl Nerds. 

Yes. You read that correctly. There I learned that the word “blerd” (aka black nerd) was actually a thing (like seriously, why didn’t people tell me about that when I was growing up?!) and that it was OK to be one.

*side note*:  I have to admit, after the last podcast about ‘blerds’ I don’t know if I’m a full-blooded “blerd” or just skating on the surface, but I digress.

Anywho, it opened up my eyes to a gamut of nerdom I didn’t know exist and the scores of people who share the same intense feelings I have towards numerous things that I will omit for now because… well, I want to. Essentially, what I’m saying is that I’ve found a vast group of like-minded people and it’s AWESOME. Quite honestly, they make my day go by with random Twitter conversations on everything from Hall & Oates to cartoon theme songs. Happy sigh.

It’s AMAZING!

Before, when I live tweeted a show, I thought I was alone. Now, I can have full-on conversations with other individuals who are going through the motion with me and when they like what I say, they re-tweet, and it’s amplified in the Twittersphere. Lovely!

Not only am I building some sort of an awareness of myself online, but I’ve found a group of (should I dare say it?) friends. Tear.

*cue Michael Jackson’s “You Are Not Alone”*

Yikes, I forgot how pasty he was in that video… but you get the point.

Yes, so now that I’ve got you guys all up to speed and what not, expect some more posts — some poetic, some about music you’re afraid to listen to, and some other stuff that you’re probably going to be like “WTF is she talking about?!”

Oh, and if I don’t write something new, feel free to like hit me up on Twitter and get in my face about it because sometimes I really do need a swift kick.

Con Amor

May 29 2013

Da Vinci’s Demons Arrive at My Doorstep

After having a wonderful time chatting it up with Silas Weir Mitchell of Grimm last week (check the screenshot of me doing my thing), my week got infinitely better as I was approached by the beautiful social media team at Starz’s new original series Da Vinci’s Demons to receive some gear.

For those of you completely unaware of what the show is about, it’s basically a re-imagining of the world renowned artist, sculptor, scientist and all-around genius that is Leonardo Da Vinci. At first, I wasn’t too sure about it (mainly because  DD airs the same time as Grimm did —  Friday nights at 9 PM — before Grimm moved to Tuesdays), but after watching the first three episodes back-to-back-to-back, I got into it. I even started following the Da Vinci’s Demons Twitter account and would engage with other watchers/followers and say the random odd thing.

As usual, I didn’t expect anyone to really give two craps about what I thought, until this happened:

5-29-2013 5-04-22 PM

Yeah. They followed me. That ACTUALLY happened.

That’s only ever happened once before, and that was with Starz’s Camelot (which I’m still mourning by the way). Any how, it  looks like DD liked the fact that I engaged with them because they’d re-tweet or favorite my tweets.

5-29-2013 5-08-52 PM5-29-2013 5-09-28 PMNext thing I know, either a day or two after my live chat with Silas, DD DMs me, thanks me for my support and asks for my address to send some gear. Naturally, I was like:

So I send them my information, and for a while, I thought that they probably forgot about me until my brother-in-law hands me a parcel that he mistook for a package for my sister. Like a giddy schoolgirl, I opened it up and looked at my swag:

I got a t-shirt with the words “Arrogant Visionary Bastard” written across the front and the DD logo in the back with the Vitruvian Man in the upper corner, along with two tweed satchels to hold stuff in (like they do on the show) and a cardboard container housing some really cool wooden pencils, cleverly constructed cardboard pens, and a wooden sharpener.

a77072a4c80611e2b8f122000a1f9345_7

They also sent me a letter (albeit generic, but still a nice one) saying:

“Hi Alj,

Thanks for following and engaging with us on Twitter! We hope you’re enjoying Da Vinci’s Demons and plan to tune-in every Friday at 9pm EST on Starz.

Here is some great gear we think you’ll enjoy. Keep following the conversation on @DaVincis_Starz and please @mention us and include the hastag #DaVincisDemons. We look forward to your tweets about the show!

Your friends at Da Vinci’s Demons”

So I look at it and go:

“Is all of this is for me, just for being a good fan?”

Well then, let the fangirling continue!! 

Of course, I made sure to let my new friends at Da Vinci’s Demons know how thankful I was for the gift and they were just too kind to respond back!

5-29-2013 5-37-23 PM

Before, I thought fangirling was just a lost cause — especially since I’ve been a fan to countless shows without any kind of recognition what-so-ever. But at the same time, tons of other people are fans too, so why should they acknowledge me?  Now, I have renewed hope in my fanatical endeavors. And who knows maybe this little token might show up on my doorstep the next time:

I know, I know,  it won’t happen. But hopefully that little meat puppet that is Tom Riley will respond to one of my tweets. Then I’ll finally know that he knows I exist, and I can run around screaming

As always guys, click on the links because they are active and don’t forget to check out Da Vinci’s Demons on Fridays at 9 PM.

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

Nov 2 2012

Word of The Day – Chanteuse

chan·teuse

  [shan-toos; French shahn-tœz]  Show IPA

noun, plural chan·teuses  [-too-siz; French -tœz]  Show IPA .

a female singer, especially one who sings in nightclubs andcabarets.
Thank you Andrew Zimmern. Following him on twitter, I get to see pictures of good food, weird food, I get to see him cuss people out and then use fine words such as “chanteuse.”