Say what! A tag on a Tuesday! What kind of anarchy is this! Honestly, I just could not fathom writing another discussion post after the downward spiral that was June, and this was supposed to go up on a Wednesday, but then I wanted to do the mid-year freakout tag, and that felt better suited to the day this was scheduled for, and I just didn’t want to come up with a TTT list on my own, but today’s TARG topic is too hard for my brain to work out, so here we are! Zezee with Books has this amazing list of all the book tags they’ve ever done, and it was a true blog saver this week. This one goes way back, and it was originally created by ReadorRot on Youtube. Let’s get to it!

Name a cartoon that you love.

It’s gotta be Avatar: The Last Airbender. I mean, who doesn’t love that show? It’s easily one of my favorite shows period, not just of cartoons, and I think it’s eons better than a lot of live action shows out there.

Growing up, I was a huge fan of the usual 90s fare–Spongebob, Rocket Power, Ahh! Real Monsters, Hey Arnold, Rugrats–you know, the really weird stuff that we probably shouldn’t have watched, but no one had caught onto how truly bizarre they were. As I got older, I loved Invader Zim & Danny Phantom (lol as I got older like I haven’t rewatched it while in my 20s). But A:TLA is the one I still go back to now, and I’ll never not love it. I’m not a huge cartoon fan now, either, and I can’t think of anything recent that I’ve gotten into? I briefly dabbled in Bob’s Burgers, but didn’t finish it, and while I would put it on now, it would only be if I had legitimately nothing else to watch.

What is your favorite song right now?

I was going to say the new Lord Huron album because it’s amazing, but I listened to Gun Song by The Lumineers so many damn times last week, and it’s still stuck in my head!

This album is fire anyway, so I do listen to it a lot, but this has just been on repeat in my head. I do have to also mention Atreyu’s new album, though, because DAMN. Way to make a comeback.

What could you do for hours (that isn’t reading)?

Can I cheat and say croissants? The way I make croissants–aka the right way–is to do them for three days, and you can’t really leave the house because they need you every hour or so. But the actual time spent working on them probably isn’t hours, so I’m going to go with hiking. On any given day, if you asked me to go to the mountains, the answer would be yes. My brother & I are currently planning a trip to the Presidential Traverse that will take us two days, and we’ll snag Madison, Adams, Jefferson, Washington, Monroe, Eisenhower, and Pierce. The last two are 4000 footers, but the rest are 5000 footers (Washington is 6000), and it’s a goal that I’ve had for a long time now, so I’m really excited to finally be working toward it.

Most hikes take a solid portion of the day, though, and as you get into more elevation, you’re generally out all day, so this is definitely something I love to do that takes hours.

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What is something you love to do
that your followers would be surprised by?

It shouldn’t be rock climbing, but it is. Despite the fact that I talk about rock climbing online and in-person all the damn time, people are still shocked that I do it. Like, yes, girls can climb, too, and we’re damn good at it. I like top rope way more than I do bouldering, and I’m currently on a medical nope for bouldering anyway, which I’m not mad about. Top rope is just so much more satisfying! I haven’t climbed outside, which my brother claims I “need to do”, but it doesn’t super appeal to me, so I think I’m all set with climbing inside.

What is your favorite unnecessarily specific thing to learn about
(this can do with books, I guess)?

Greek & Portuguese history! My current book takes place in classical antiquity Macedon for much of the beginning until we swing over to almost modern Portugal, and it’s been a lot of fun trying to figure out what empires existed prior to Greece actually existing and what the Portuguese monarchy looked like before it dissolved. I’ve only recently started writing historical fiction, and I’d really like to not even call it that because my research isn’t that intensive, but I know a lot about each of Portugal’s kings during the Aviz dynasty, and that’s just not something I’ve heard of anything else getting hyped to learn about?

What is something unusual you know how to do?

Oh, I don’t know! I’m not one of those people that has a cool trick I can whip out at parties (not that I go to parties), and pretty much everyone in my life knows that I do yoga, so being flexible isn’t that unusual for me. Like, yeah, I can put the backs of my hands on the ground and stand on them, but everyone just kind of shrugs at me when I do that. Hm, unusual.

Yeah, you got me, I guess I’m normal? I can twist my body in some seriously strange positions because of yoga, so I guess it’s unusual that I can touch my head with my foot?

Name something you’ve made in the last year
(and show us, if you can).

ALL THE BREAD! I actually started making bread pre-pandemic because I was trying to find ways to incorporate Portuguese culture in my daily life more, and the only way to get my family on board with something is to feed them, so I made sweet bread. It turned out so well that I started making my own bread for my toast breakfast, and then I wanted to try everything.

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Above we’ve got, from left to right: garlic thyme knots that I just made for father’s day to go with our annual spaghetti & meatballs celebration dinner, just your standard crusty bread because I wanted to flex my muscles and show up Panera, that time I baked SEVEN pies for Thanksgiving (lemon meringue, pumpkin, four apples, and blueberry), a strawberry & peach galette last summer, the most difficult lemon meringue pie ever WORTH IT, empanadas!!!!!, Portuguese bolinhos de laranja for my birthday, my world famous three-day croissants, thyme/garlic/rosemary/salt/sage crackers WOW, a triple berry pie for Pi day, the toast that I eat every day with one million seeds of pumpkin/sunflower/hemp/flax/sesame/poppy/chia, and baked churro balls.

What is your most recent personal project?

My book! That’s so vague considering I’m constantly writing, but I’m still at the beginning of the one I’m working on right now, and it’s really exciting. I’ve had this character in my brain for six years now, and I kind of can’t believe I’m finally writing his story? It’s only recently that I’ve decided to tell all 2000 years of his story, too, so these last six months with him have been a lot of newness all at once.

Tell us something you think about often
(maybe while staring out of windows).

Honestly? Morgoth & Sauron. The amount of time that I daydream about their chaotic love affair is just ridiculous. At any given time, you can get me talking about LOTR with the barest suggestion, and if you happen to mention The Silmarillion? Done for. Watch out, I’m ready to go.

Give us something that’s your favorite, but make it oddly specific, not like your favorite food, but like your favorite food when you’ve been studying for hours and forgot to eat. Or, you know, something like that.

I love found footage films, but my favorite way to watch them is with headphones on, in the dark, and on my laptop. This is honestly also the scariest way to watch them, but it just sets you up for maximum success! You can hear every sound, even the tiny spooky ones, with headphones, there’s no distractions when it’s dark, and you’ve got full viewing on a laptop. My favorite found footage film, As Above, So Below, I watched with these conditions, and that’s probably part of the reason for why I loved it so much. When I later rewatched it on the TV with friends, it was still amazing, but I really missed that quiet, dark huddle I had going. I’ve never watched Paranormal Activity like that, but I really want to because I’m sure it would just be kickass.