#five fandom friday

Sunday is Father’s Day which means it’s time to talk about my favorite Dads in pop culture!

5. Joe West, The Flash- Jesse L. Martin

Joe West is the dad you never want to disappoint. Do you want to see that face sad? I’ll answer for you, no you don’t. 

Joe has raised three children, all on his own, while also leading the community as a police detective. He’s the number one cheerleader for his superhero kids and also their fiercest protector. He’s the kind of dad who will help you solve all of your problems, but also he’s not afraid to let you know when you are wrong. 

Jesse L. Martin is consistently the best part of The Flash, especially when he is given big emotional scenes. Or when they let him sing.

4. Ned Stark, Game of Thrones- Sean Bean

We are only given nine episodes of Ned Stark, but his lasting impact on Game of Thrones has carried through the show’s six seasons. Sean Bean makes Ned *the* guy you want to root for. He’s honorable, he’s brave, he’s strong, and most important, he cares deeply for his family. He’s just a guy trying to do his best and keep his kids alive. Despite all his faults, at the end of the day you really can’t blame him for that. 

The Stark children are who they are because of how they were raised and because of their father’s love. #TheNorthRemembers

3. Commander William Adama- Edward James Olmos

William Adama is not just the commander of the Battlestar Galactica and the father of Lee (Jamie Bamber), he’s the leader of the remaining members of the human race. It’s a huge task which means he is constantly tasked with making the tough decisions. He’s a fair leader who really cares about his people and doing right by them,

But the reason Adama is on this list is not because he is the best space dad (which he is), it’s because of his relationship with Viper pilot and all around badass Kara Thrace (Katee Sackhoff). Kara is the daughter Adama never had. He believes in her and trusts her like no one else (even his own son at times). The two are very similar: good leaders, with strong opinions, but stubborn and unwilling to admit when they are wrong. They make quite a pair.

2. Coach Eric Taylor, Friday Night Lights- Kyle Chandler

Eric Taylor is basically my dad. Both are (often underappreciated) coaches with daughters who do not have the same passion for the sport as they do. Both are mentors to their players on and off the field. And both are dragged into the politics of the game against their will. I honestly couldn’t believe the similarities when I first watched Friday Night Lights.

Coach Taylor is just a Good Guy. He tries hard. He is there for his wife and children when it matters the most. All he wants is to win a few football games and for his players to have good futures. He and Tami (Connie Britton) make a great team and are all around couple and parenting #goals and the reason the Taylors are one of my favorite TV families. 

1. George Banks, Father of the Bride- Steve Martin 

My dad has made me promise not to leave my wedding without saying goodbye because of Father of the Bride. I love this movie, it’s one of my favorites because of the absurdity and Steve Martin, but I also for the relationship between George and Annie (Kimberly Williams). It is such a wonderful depiction of a father and daughter and one I hold close to my heart because of how many times I’ve seen it with my dad. 

George would move heaven and earth to give his daughter her dream wedding (or for one last game of basketball). He’s goofy, he tries too hard, he makes a lot of mistakes. He’s not a perfect father, but he’s one of the dads who feel so real to me because of how present he is and how much he cares.

I have followed The Nerdy Girlie for awhile now (thanks to Lauren) and obsessively read her blog and now with Clever Girls in full swing I think it’s time to join in on the fun! Every Friday, the Nerdy Girlie and a bunch of other bloggers participate in 5 Fandom Friday where everyone writes about the same topic. This week is “My To Be Read Pile” and it could not be more perfect.

I am constantly adding new books to the list of the ones I want to read. Sometimes I buy books with every intention of reading them and then put them on the shelf only to pick up another one. These are the books currently at teh top of my “to be read pile”.

1. Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan 

I know this is Lauren’s favorite book and it’s been on my list for awhile now. I bought it on Amazon on a whim and I plan on reading it this year for sure! I need a magical book in my life and the best part is, I really have no idea what it’s about! Which is my favorite way to go into a new story.

2. The Zookeeper’s Wife by Diane Ackerman

I love nothing more than reading a book before the film comes out. I have been eager to read this book based on a true story of a Polish woman and her husband who hide Jews in their zoo during World War II. The film version (directed by Niki Caro and starring Jessica Chastain), is coming out in March so I plan on reading it mid-February to see how closely it stays to the source material.

3. The Trespasser by Tana French

Tana French is one of my favorite writers currently working today. Her Dublin Murder Squad series follows the detectives from the fiction Dublin Murder Squad on their cases. Each book is loosely connected to the next, with characters you come to love and twists that will blow your mind. The Trespasser is her newest book and I can’t wait to see what it has in store.

4. When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon

Someone I follow on Twitter did a giveaway contest for this book and even though I didn’t win, I have not been able to stop thinking about it. When Dimple Met Rishi is a YA novel about two Indian-American teenagers attending the same summer program who have been set up in an arranged marriage by their parents. It sounds adorable and potentially really funny. I really want to make a point to read more books by diverse authors this year so I will definitely be checking it out when it’s released in May.

5.  Wonder Women: 25 Innovators, Inventors, and Trailblazers Who Changed History by Sam Maggs

Ever since watching Hidden Figures (which is phenomenal btw), I have been wondering how many other women from history I don’t know about. 

Wonder Women seems like the perfect book to read to learn more about history that has been erased or forgotten (or never told at all). There has never been a better time to read a book about women changing the world. (Plus it’s written by one of my favorite geek girls, Sam Maggs!)

What’s on your to read shelf?

There is no denying that there is a metric ton of entertainment options in the world today.  Between movies, Netflix, our current favorite YouTube, the internet in general, and even the “antiquated” TV we are often feeling overwhelmed with choices.  I personally am thrilled by our recent endeavor into gaming as it allows us to unplug for some good old-fashioned fun with friends and family.  Sure, we have the internet to thank for our obsession over these table top games (thanks Wil Wheaton!)… and we frequently Instagram and/or tweet about the games we are playing on any given day/night… but it allows for some time to be together, engaging one another, and enjoying everyone’s company.  We’ve compiled a collective list of our top 5 favorite games.

  King of Tokyo

In this competitive game up to six players assume the role of a monster vying to take over Tokyo.  The goal of the game is to either be the first to 20 victory points or the last monster standing.  With each turn you roll six dice up to three times so either attack, heal, get “energy”, or score victory points.  Interestingly, this game can take anywhere from like 10 minutes to upwards of half an hour depending on how many times Tokyo is invaded.

via thisboardgamelife.com

  Lords of Waterdeep

This is a worker placement style game where you claim and complete quests to determine who is the best Lord of Waterdeep. The game lasts for 8 rounds, however the number of times each player can play in a round is determined by how many players there are total.  When we first started playing this game we played it I think about 5 times in a 36 hour period.  Obviously we think it’s tons of fun and anyone who has played it with us always wants to play again.

via GameTavern.be

Qwirkle

It’s like colorful dominoes… or Scrabble with shapes. I don’t know. It’s fun.  The object is to score as many points as you can until there are no more tiles to be played.  You score points by laying out either matching colors or matching shapes.  It’s pretty.  Michelle and I once tied a game of Qwirkle… and I highly doubt that will ever happen again… ever.

via Amazon.com

  SmallWorld

If you ever wanted to pillage and plunder… this is the game for you.  Each player assumes a race at the beginning of their first turn.  The race and special power that’s paired with the race will determine how many little dudes you get to take over the WORLD! *Insert Evil Laugh* Ahem… anyways.  It’s fun, ever-changing due to the special power/race match-ups, and I challenge anyone to play it and not start singing “it’s a small world.”

just a Tuesday night game night!

    Android: Netrunner The Card Game

This is a relatively new one for us.  Kevin has been bugging me to play this for a while now, but I have been intimidated by it because it’s a dueling card game.  Finally a few weeks ago we sat down and figured out how to play.  According to Kevin, what’s unique about this dueling card game is that each side is completely different from one  another.  One player plays “the Corporation” and another plays “the Runner” trying to hack into the corporation.  It was a little confusing, but we’re getting there and it’s actually a lot of fun.  Perfect for a two-player game night… which my week nights frequently turn into.

  via manaleak.com

  Those are currently five of our favorite games to play.  Let us know what your favorite games are this Five Fandom Friday!

5 Less Common Fandoms

Five Fandom Friday 5 Less Common Fandoms   5. Simon and Martina- Youtube Channel I absolutely adore Simon and Martina. They’re an Canadian couple living in Japan (in earlier videos, they were living in South Korean). It’s truly an fantastic travel/food show. If you ever binge watched the travel or food channel or have any interest in going to Korean or Japan, then I highly suggest you watch their…

Five Fandom Friday – Less Common Fandoms

THIS IS A SEGMENT CALLED 5 FANDOM FRIDAY.  EACH FRIDAY THERE WILL BE A TOP 5 LIST OF SOMETHING FANDOM RELATED.  TO LEARN MORE, VISIT THIS LINK. This weeks topic is Five Lesser Followed Fandoms Edgar Allan Poe Reading Edgar Allan Poe is what originally got me interested in writing. I remember being 13 years old, just entering middle school, and reading Annabelle Lee for the first time. When I read…

Galentine’s Day is tomorrow! If you are not familiar with Galentine’s Day that tells me two things: 1. You haven’t watched Parks and Rec (don’t worry I’ve only seen a few episodes myself) and 2. You unsure of how The Google works. Either way, it’s tomorrow and to celebrate, this Five Fandom Friday is dedicated to my favorite womances.

  Jennifer Lawrence & Amy Schumer

A photo posted by @amyschumer on Dec 10, 2015 at 10:23am PST

Is it just me or does it feel like this womance just came out of left field? I didn’t even know they were friends and then they started popping up EVERYWHERE together. I do know that the world is better for having this womance in it, and I am just super jealous that I don’t get to be a part of it.

  Abbi & Ilana

A photo posted by abbi & ilana (@broadcity) on Feb 10, 2016 at 12:38pm PST

I am more than a little ashamed to tell you that I am still only on season 1 of Broad City. Look, I keep up with a lot of television, it’s hard. Don’t even ask me what episode of How to Get Away with Murder I’m on (NO SPOILERS). Anyway, I am really far behind with Broad City, but I’ve watched enough to know that Abbi and Ilana are a womance that will outlast the apocalypse. When you find that special friend that schools you on the art of Nature’s Pocket, you know that you have found your womance soulmate. Never. Let. Her. Go.

  The Golden Girls

A photo posted by Golden Girls Fan Club (@goldengirlsfanclub) on Jan 17, 2016 at 5:03pm PST

These ladies are just straight up life goals for me!

  Eddy & Patsy

A photo posted by Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie (@abfabmovie) on Nov 20, 2015 at 7:22am PST

Ab Fab is the gift that keeps on giving. I grew up watching this show and now they are on the brink of a movie! It’s almost too much! Eddy and Patsy are a womance that I not only love but also inspire to have. If you can find someone who will put up with your craziness and then equally match said craziness with their own craziness then you have found true love.

Hermione & Ginny

A photo posted by ⚯͛ нarry poттer ⚯͛ (@theheir.ofgryffindor) on Jun 23, 2013 at 5:19pm PDT

Stay with me for a minute. If anyone reading this has only seem the movies, you are probably thinking I’m crazy. The movies don’t really show much of Hermione and Ginny, and to that point the books don’t either. However, a strong friendship between Ginny and Hermione is hinted at several times. For instance it is Hermione that knows how Ginny became such an amazing flyer, they roomed together when staying at the Burrow and 12 Grimmauld Place, and Ginny reveals to Harry that Hermione helped her realize that she needed to be herself around him. While it is not overtly shown, this is one womance that I am certain is everlasting and powerfully strong.

  What lovely ladies make up your favorite womances? Let me know in the comments!

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If you remember back in October when I posted about my family’s Halloween Traditions then you will know that all of our traditions are really specific and kind of out of the ordinary. Well, that isn’t exclusive to Halloween. Pretty much all of my family traditions are pretty  specific and weird, and Christmas might have the most random of them all…maybe…actually, probably not. How about I just go ahead and tell you about my favorite Holiday traditions.

Michelle’s Favorite Holiday Traditions

Potato Soup & Homemade Pizzas

For the longest time it was our family tradition to have potato soup on Christmas Eve. Why potato soup? No one knows, but it is what we did until about three years ago. I have two adorable nieces (that, you know, I’ve never mentioned before) and a few years ago we thought it would be fun to start a Christmas Eve tradition that they could be apart of which translated into Homemade Pizza. My brothers and dad swear our Christmas Eve pizza is the best pizza they have ever had.

  Watching Meet Me in St. Louis on Christmas Eve

This is mostly just specific to me, but every Christmas Eve while we stuff stockings I force my mother to watch Meet Me in St. Louis. Every year. She loves the movie, but I think I’ve worn her out by insisting that it isn’t Christmas until we’ve watched this movie. I also have several other movies that I try to force her to watch on Christmas Eve and you can see more of them here, but Meet Me in St. Louis is a MUST!

  Midnight Mass at 6pm

First of all, we don’t actually go to mass as we are not Catholic and we haven’t gone to the Episcopal church in forever. Technically though I was raised have Episcopal and half Methodist or as I like to call a Methopalian, and for a long time we went to midnight mass at the Episcopal church in town. However, as we’ve all gotten older (and by we I mean my parents because I’m usually still awake every night until midnight or 1 am) we started to go to church earlier in the evening, and the last couple of years we’ve gone to the earliest Christmas Eve service that typically starts at 6pm. Thankfully, it gets dark that early in December so the candlelight part of the candlelight service is still wonderful and beautiful!

  Crayola Hallmark Christmas Ornaments

I probably don’t need to say this, but my mom and I are really into Christmas. Yeah, I know that’s probably super obvious by now, but I feel that in order to explain this tradition you just fully need to understand how much we love Christmas. This tradition started long before I was aware of it, as in when I was an infant. Every year we buy several new ornaments for our tree (usually an ornament that has to do with either something we did or a movie we saw during that year), but one constant is the Hallmark Crayola Ornaments. For every year that I’ve been alive (28 years) we have a Hallmark Crayola Ornament. Yeah, we could have a whole Crayola-themed Christmas tree, we don’t, but we definitely could.

  Friendsmas

Friendsmas is a new tradition for me. For the last two years some friends from work and I gather at someone’s house and drink spiked Hot Chocolate, eat pizza (apparently pizza is really a Christmas thing in my life), and watch “Christmas Movies”. I put Christmas Movies in quotations because this year we watched Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and we are still unsure whether or not that counts as a Christmas Movie. Anyway, I am a firm believer that instead of doing gifts for your group of friends it is better and more meaningful to set aside a night, get together, and just spend time with each other.

What are your Holiday Traditions? Let me know in the comments…we can talk about how weird our families are!

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I think congratulations might be in order. We made it 3 whole days into our 25 Days of Christmas before we missed a day.  So get ready, this Five Fandom Friday is doubling as Day 4 of our 25 Days of Christmas and is being posted on the 5th, because that’s not confusing…at all. But anyway, today I’m going to share with you five of my holiday essentials.

Peppermint Hot Chocolate

There was a rather dark time in my life when I was nose deep into a hot chocolate addiction. Those days have since passed, but I do still enjoy the occasional hot chocolate and my favorite kind of hot chocolate is peppermint hot chocolate. Being the #basic that I am, my favorite peppermint hot chocolate is, of course, from Starbucks. However, I will pretty much drink any brand of hot chocolate.

  Christmas Claymation

There is nothing that makes if feel like Christmas more than all of the Christmas specials and holiday movies that I watch every year. My absolute favorite of these specials are all of the classic Claymation Christmas Specials. I’ve written before about my favorites of the Claymation Christmas specials, but really all of them are Holiday Essentials.

  Ugly Christmas Sweaters

I have written about my love of Ugly Christmas Sweaters on numerous occasions so it is probably no surprise that they are on my list of holiday essentials. Really, though, who doesn’t love an Ugly Christmas Sweater? Even the scroogiest of scrooges can’t deny the ridiculous joy and laughter that an Ugly Christmas Sweater can bring! You can check out more of my Christmas Sweater love here and here.

  Christmas Socks

I hate having cold feet and I love Christmas so Christmas socks are a gift that I am always happy to receive. Confession: I wear Christmas socks year round. Since I’m the only person that really ever sees them or knows what pattern my socks are I figure I should just wear the socks I love most!

  Wine

As far as holiday essentials go, I feel that this is the most self explanatory!

  What are you Holiday Essentials? Let me know in the comments!

  Share This Awkwardness With The World!

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