We haven’t even hit Christmas yet, but I thought I would get a head start on some of the roundup posts I usually save for closer to New Year’s. My first thought when I saw this was that these aren’t even my favorite outfits! Like last year, this year’s current nine is outfit heavy. My first observation is that we’ve included two selfies from when I’ve tried on clothes at Aritzia. For years, I’ve read articles where selfies tend to do very well on Instagram or on dating profiles and I never could wrap my head around this. I prefer non-selfie photos of those I follow on Instagram way more than selfies, but what do you know – the data has spoken.
Another photo in this mix – smack dab in the center – wasn’t even taken in 2018. That’s simply a reminder to myself to make sure I’m posting with a relevant time period! And if I had to pick a favorite, well, I think y’all know. It’s obviously the one where my prop is a Taco Bell bag and my literal lunch for that day.
– Stars: Isabelle Huppert, Chloe Grace Moretz, and Maika Monroe – Synopsis: Frances (Chloë Grace Moretz) returns a handbag she finds on the subway to Greta (Isabelle Huppert), an eccentric French piano teacher. Having recently lost her mother, Frances quickly grows closer to widowed Greta. The two become fast friends — but Greta’s maternal charms begin to dissolve and grow increasingly disturbing as Frances discovers that nothing in Greta’s life is what it seems. – Comes out in March.
The Monterey Bay Aquarium had a huge mess up earlier this week and of course, it went viral. In an effort to be cool and get some laughs, the Aquarium completely missed the mark. While giving one of their otters, Abby, a little attention, they in turn made a few references that were considered “insensitive.” In their words, “several terms referenced originated from African American Vernacular English (AAVE) and specifically reference Black women’s bodies. Using them in a sea otter meme without that background makes insinuations we never intended. We need to do better.”
I remembered seeing this on Instagram earlier this week and stopping dead in my tracks. How many other instances have there been like this one where a company or an organization tries to make a funny tweet and instead gets dragged for it? The answer is plenty of times in the last year. It’s fascinating to me because we live in this current time period where a role that didn’t exist 10 years ago is now crucial to a brand’s reach. With that responsibility though comes a whole lot of risk. There’s this interesting balance that social media coordinators and managers have to find in being relevant, concise, and funny while going viral, but not offensive. Who could live with that kind of pressure?
Sure, there’s a certain degree to it that I have to think about for my blog, but we’re not big time enough for that yet. That’s why this type of career is so fascinating to me because there’s so much at stake. My guess is that this will likely blow over. That something like this will happen again to another company in the next few weeks and will continue to happen for years because no one knows how to get it right.
This is one of the posts that gives me a little bit of anxiety to write every year. I don’t check up on how my posts are doing throughout the year so when I get to this point, I’m nervous about what I find. Usually, it’s nothing too scary, but it is a bit of a surprise to see which posts rise to the top. Amongst the group this year, it seems like we were pretty fashion heavy! I don’t mind it, but it’s vastly different from last year where we talking about more challenging moments in my life and being more vulnerable.
What that says about 2018 is that we were a bit more stable and the data isn’t wrong. My biggest life moment this year was just changing jobs and while it was tough at first, it was the easiest transition out of all of my jobs that I’ve held. We even cushioned it with a bit of a break which was my ultimate blessing of 2018 honestly.
Writing this post already has me excited to share with you all my favorite albums from the year. I’m using Spotify’s Year in Review as my crutch, but also combing through my own playlists to make sure that I include my favorite 60 songs from the year. As some of you know, I make a new playlist for every season. For the last couple of years, I’ve kept all of these playlists, but don’t return to them very often. In an effort to make sure I’m adding the new and looking back on some of the old, I’ve decided that whichever season I’m in, that I’d revisit my playlists from that season from years prior. For example, while making Fall 2018, I went back and listened to all my fall playlists starting with Fall ’11/’12.
Sometimes I am completely confused at how a certain song made it onto my playlist back then. Even if it’s not something I would listen to now, I still leave it for funny moments like these. Will any of my favorites from 2018 match up with yours? As always, these are in no particular order. One thing you may notice this year though is that 2018 is the year for women. Many of the songs I listened to the most and put out albums that I had on repeat were by incredibly strong and fierce women.
Enjoy!
1. Jorja Smith – Fine Lines 2. Shawn Mendes – Where Were You In The Morning? 3. Zedd, Maren Morris, Grey – The Middle 4. Leon Bridges – Bet It Ain’t Worth the Hand 5. Miguel – Vote 6. Viigo – Beautiful 7. Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, Future – End Game 8. Connie Constance – Stars 9. King Princess – 1950 10. JOY – Smoke Too Much
11. Ariana Grande – thank u, next 12. Christina Aguilera – Unless It’s With You 13. Colouring – Time (Acoustic) 14. Kimbra – Past Love 15. DJ Snake, Ninola – Maradona Riddim 16. Daniel Caesar, H.E.R. – Best Part 17. Drake – Nice For What 18. Justine Skye, Vory – Know Myself 19. PARTYNEXTDOOR – Damage 20. Gavin Turek, Shiva – The Distance (Shiva Remix)
21. Teyana Taylor – Gonna Love Me 22. Drake – God’s Plan 23. Maggie Rogers – Give A Little 24. Dom Mcallister – Only One 25. The 1975 – Sincerity Is Scary 26. Whethan, Oh Wonder – Superlove 27. R.LUM.R – Frustrated – altered 28. Daniel Caesar – Freudian 29. Alina Baraz – I Don’t Even Know Why Though 30. Jordan Bratton – Pieces
31. Leven Kali, Syd – Do U Wrong 32. Hellogoodbye – Let It Burn 33. Charlotte Lawrence, Nina Nesbitt, Sasha Sloan – Psychopath 34. Peking Duk, AlunaGeorge – Fake Magic 35. Jay Wile – Numb – Remastered 36. Shallou – You and Me 37. Hayden James, Boy Matthews – Just Friends 38. SG Lewis, AlunaGeorge – Hurting 39. Bruno Major – Cold Blood 40. Omar Apollo – Unbothered
41. Hayley Kiyoko, Kehlani – What I Need 42. Nao, SiR – Make It Out Alive 43. Elohim, Whetan – Sleepy Eyes 44. H.E.R. – As I am 45. Lord Huron – When The Night Is Over 46. Charlie Puth, James Taylor – Change 47. The Knocks, Foster the People – Ride or Die 48. Tom Misch – Isn’t She Lovely 49. Kali Uchis – Your Teeth In My Neck 50. Halsey, Big Sean, Stefflon Don – Alone
51. Kacey Musgraves – High Horse 52. The Internet – Roll (Burbank Funk) 53. Chloe x Halle, Joey Bada$$ – Happy Without Me 54. RAYE, Mabel, Stefflon Don – Cigarette 55. John Splithoff, Madison Ryann Ward – Show Me 56. DeJ, Leon Bridges – Liberated 57. Small Hours – Shoe Box 58. RL Grime, Miguel, Julia Michaels – Light Me Up 59. Calvin Harris, Dua Lipa – One Kiss 60. Ella Mai – Trip
For months, all I heard about was the Disney Pixar short that all my friends said I had to see. I didn’t want to read anything about “Bao” for fear of spoilers and wanted to see it for myself. At the time, the only way I could was if I bought a ticket to go see “The Incredibles.” Dragging myself to a theater for one short seemed like too much work.
So I did what all normal people do in 2018. Wait for it to appear on the internet.
It’s a sweet story and I can see how it can resonate with many people and why it was a hit. Additionally, it’s another mark for diversity in film, which has been huge for the Asian community this year. These shorts have always been a favorite of mine. I hope that Disney will continue on this path to share more stories like this one.
There has been rumblings for awhile now that we’d get a sequel, but it feels much more official when it’s coming from Netflix. First off, we love Lana’s haircut. We love the relationship she has with Noah even though he’s still kind of a weirdo on Instagram. By the looks of it, it seems like they’ve recast John Ambrose. We can’t wait to see who they have chosen and how much of a role he’ll play in the sequel.
Any of you still watching this film once a week like me?