This month felt really long for me, I don’t know about y’all. The fourth of July was less than a month from today. HOW? I was fortunate enough to be able to spend the holiday and the preceding day with my friends and family and played corn hole for the first time. (My team lost, but I was super close to just landing the bean bag in the hole for the most part.) Additionally, this month threw an E3 tornado at my town (which is uncommon for the area) 4 miles from my house which was terrifying. I got the phone alarm blaring and grabbed my cats, wrestled them into their carriers, and ran downstairs to hide out with my lovely elderly neighbors and their dog. That event made me realize how much I needed to get renter's insurance again. Oops.
When it comes to my July goals, I got a lot further on my All Eyes on Me animatic and I'm almost done it! I've come so far on this I'm truly proud of how it's turning out. I also managed to finish my seven sins pole dancing illustration series inspired by Montero! This is the first art series I've actually set out an intention to complete in a while and it feels great knowing my hard work pays off. I also managed to complete the first draft of my publishing thesis proposal. It was a really productive month!
Media of the Month
I READ:
Wonder Woman by George Perez
My Favorite Thing is Monsters by Emil Ferris
The New Teen Titans: The Judas Contract by Marv Wolfman and George Perez
They Called Us Enemy by George Takei
The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui
Submerged by Vita Ayala
I WATCHED:
Ghost Adventures
My Hero Academia
Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders
I LISTENED:
Last Podcast on the Left
EAT SPIT! by Slush Puppy and Royal & the Serpent
Indestructible by Disturbed
Dance Macabre by Ghost
Spiders by Slipknot
I PLAYED:
Asshole / President
(A card game; I was always in the presidential cabinet, VP for all but 1 round where I was secretary. Very fun strategy game.)
What Do You Meme? Tiktok Edition
Conspiracy Theory board game
Goals for August
I will be finishing my publishing thesis proposal and reading two books that I plan to use as case studies in my thesis on Trans YA novels. Currently, those two books are Luna by Julie Anne Peters and Cemetary Boys by Aiden Thomas, the latter I have been desperately wanting to read for months now as I've had this book on top of my TBR and this will be a fantastic reason to read it already since I can rationalize it as schoolwork! I'll also be working on some website stuff for my college's literary magazine and likely rebuilding it from the ground up, so I'm excited about that project. I also have to write about 20 pages of the first issue of a comic I'm writing for my Graphic Novel Literature class. Very exciting! Lots to be done!
Featured Creator/Business of the Month
For those who don’t know, I have curly hair. Depending on the day, humidity, and length, it could be relaxed curly q’s or just poofy waves with the occasional stray curl. I used to have a haircare routine that would involve almost daily use of a certain product from a certain brand that was exposed for causing hair loss. While I didn’t experience that extent of it, I did notice I had some increased hair loss when I’d be using that product. It also felt slimy and like it just sat on top of my hair so when it’d rain it’d be a sludgy mess. So I stopped using that for years while I bleached and murdered my poor hair time and time again, until I stopped, trying to let my hair grow strong again.
I saw my old colleague from my undergraduate studies talking about how they were using a curl-defining cream with great results and HAD to ask what products she was using. Her hair looked fantastic and I longed for having fabulous curls again, so I bought the Rizos Curls’ Curl Defining Cream for myself! This product not only smells so good, it also has cruelty-free all-natural ingredients that are good for your hair. My hair absorbs the cream without that greasy/slimy feeling and is left with a wonderful sheen smelling great thanks to the aloe vera, coconut oil, and shea butter! It also grows larger in volume instead of laying flat to my head. (For a full list of ingredients, you can visit their website here.) You can see the before and after pictures below and see the difference between my hair with the curl defining cream and without down below here:
If you couldn’t tell from the name, Rizos Curls is Latina-owned and created by Julissa Prado. When I saw the name of the business, I thought it was adorable considering rizos means curls in Spanish. Adding curls after the fact is a great way to let English speakers know what the company is about: maintaining your beautiful curly hair in its variety of textures! Rizos Curls also sells other hair products like brushes, combs, massage brushes, and collapsible diffusers for your blow dryer. I have this product as well and it is durable and especially helpful so I’m not toasting my scalp on the occasions when I have to blow dry my hair in the winter or else it won’t dry at all from the natural temperature of my apartment.
You can shop Rizos Curls at their website https://rizoscurls.com and see more of what they offer through their various social media accounts: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, Youtube.
Stay safe out there in this ever-changing world!
(Especially with the delta variant going around. I know I'm probably going to be wearing my mask out and about now knowing more about it. I'll admit when I was in large areas indoors I wasn't wearing it after I got vaccinated.)