RuPaul's Drag Race Season 10 Pre-Season Predictions

Somehow, a year has already passed since the last time RuPaul's Drag Race graced us with a fresh bunch of queens, so I'm back here again to give my pre-season thoughts on this new cast for Season 10! Last season, I predicted the boot order and listed the queens in the order I thought they would be eliminated, but I'm shaking things up this time around. For this list, I'm going to be listing them in alphabetical order, discussing my general thoughts and opinions on each. For each queen, I'm going to list whether I think they're an early boot, middle of the pack, or going deep. In some instances, I'll modify these slightly (aka an "early-middle boot" but I'll explain my reasoning each time). At the end, I'll conclude by listing both my favorite and my winner pick. Because I think they're going to slightly differ. I'll also do a quick lil list predicting the boot order bc why not? and I'll also rank them from least favorite to favorite. IDK, I guess I just want to have more things to be wrong about.

Also, a general note: if there are spoilers out about the season, I'm unaware of them. I glanced around reddit for about 5 seconds before deciding that I wanted to go into the season without being spoiled. So if the entire season has been spoiled a la All Stars 2, I have no idea. I'm going based off the Facebook live, the meet the queens videos, and any other random videos I've watched while putting this together.

Without any further ado, ON TO THE QUEENS!

Aquaria

Two past Drag Race queens immediately came to mind as I began watching more of Aquaria's meet the queens content, as I'm sure they did for you-- Violet and Aja. For me, Aquaria is the personality of Violet mashed up with the fashion sense and Insta following of Aja (on her first season). Personally, I'd be begging for the exact opposite-- a queen with Violet's fashion sense and Aja's personality. But that's just me, and now I'm off track. Anyway, Aquaria has a large following on social media, and I find her to be one of the two queens who is the most prevalent in the promos (probably due to said following). However, unlike that second queen (we'll get there), I don't think Aquaria will live up to the hype. I think we're looking at an Aja S9 trajectory at best. Upon just seeing her looks, I was impressed, but when I watched the videos, I was super underwhelmed. Aquaria just seemed very unimpressive, and to me came off as a look queen that will last for a while... but not too long. 

Prediction: Early-middle boot 

Asia O'Hara

Whatever Drag Race employee made Asia wear that wig needs to be reprimanded immediately, because I know she did not choose that for herself. Anyway, Asia was the exact opposite of Aquaria for me. On first glance, I was not impressed. That hair is horrible, and the bodysuit didn't do much for me. But then, I watched her videos and I changed my tune real quickly. Asia has really impressed me. I'm not usually a huge pageant girl fan, but Asia seems to be able to do it all. She makes pretty much all of her outfits, which gives her major props in my book. She also came off as very well-spoken and she definitely is one of the more mature queens who knows who she is. Typically, when queens describe themselves as chameleons, I roll my eyes. But I believe Asia when she says it. I'm all-in on Asia, and I'm really excited to see what this pageant girl can bring to the show.

Prediction: Going Deep

Blair St. Clair

I went back and forth several times on Blair. At first, I wasn't a fan. The 50s/60s housewife aesthetic isn't my thing. But then, when listening to her, I found her endearing and was excited about a Broadway ingenue. But, once again, I did a 180 and have found myself a bit skeptical as to her ability to do well on the show. I like her. In the videos I saw, especially her confessionals, she was adorable. But I just don't think that she has the chops to make it far. I could easily see her skating by the first couple challenges being safe and/or because she can perform, and then promptly getting axed in the 4th or 5th week. A bit of me hopes that she ends up proving me wrong, but I would be surprised if she made it past episode 5.

Prediction: Early-middle boot

Dusty Ray Bottoms

I'm throwing any potential sense of objectivity to the wind with this prediction. I have no freakin' clue how well I think Dusty will do, but I want her to make it all the way to the finale and win because a punk girl who's also very Broadway?!?! SIGN ME UP. I've fallen head over heels for Dusty and I cannot wait to see her on this season. Ever since S8, my pre-season favorite has won, so... watch out for my girl Dusty (I probably just Jinkxed myself. Yikes).I love her makeup and those splotches on her face, and I love her witchy aesthetic, and she seems like a lot of fun and just... ugh I love her. She's speaking right to my soul with punk, witchy, and Broadway. Gimme gimme gimme. She also said that she sews, so she definitely gets points there. Also, this look in the picture was made by Mondo Guerra, AKA one of my favorite people to ever be on Project Runway (the two of them seem to be friends, bc he's shouted her out more than once on his Insta). Also, Sasha said she was a big fan. I'm 100% sold on Dusty. I was listening to a cast assessment on my favorite Drag Race podcast (RHAP) and they didn't seem to like her, but I juuuuust don't get it. I love her. I'm all in.

Prediction: Going Deep

Eureka O'Hara

If you saw last year's predictions (you definitely didn't, but that's alright), I predicted a 5th place finish from Eureka. While she went out much earlier than that due to her injury, I think that she was on a trajectory to absolutely kill a large chunk of the season, and I think she definitely could've made it all the way to 5th. And I feel kinda the same way about her this season! I quickly fell in love with Eureka last season, and I'm so excited to see her on the new season. My one hope is that she doesn't do hair loaves all season long. Hopefully, she switches things up and tries different things. She's said that she thinks she's found herself and her true drag aesthetic in the year between seasons filming, so I'm hoping that means that she has improved beyond where she was in season 9. Either way, I think we'll be seeing quite a bit of Eureka this season. 

Prediction:  Going Deep

Kalorie Karbdashian-Williams

Do you want to know what my biggest drag name pet peeve is? Naming yourself after a celebrity or brand (I'm looking at you, Mariah Balenciaga). Honestly, the second I heard Kalorie's name, I knew that this was not my queen. Look, I don't want to sit here and bash her, but I really found myself getting sleepy while watching her videos. I didn't think she was very interesting or compelling, and I found myself getting pretty bored. To her credit, I love that she embraces everything that "a big girl shouldn't be," and she does know how to sew. I feel like the entire fandom is pretty underwhelmed by her so far and thinks she'll be out early, but it's always possible that she'll be solid enough to make it to the middle of the pack. Because at the end of the day, a boring personality doesn't always show through when walking on a runway or performing. That said, I definitely think that there's no way she wins, and more likely than not, she's not going to be around too long.

Prediction: Early boot. (First boot potential)

Kameron Michaels

Kameron is one who's really interesting to me. I immediately loved her vibe. In all of her videos and interviews, she came off as very chill and easygoing, and that's always something I enjoy. She has a really unique perspective that I've never seen on the show before-- she's super buff. Like... that's kinda her thing-- she has muscles and she embraces it. From what she said, it sounds like people criticize her for it, but I'm intrigued to see how the other S10 queens react. One of the words she threw out about her aesthetic was grunge, and that immediately piqued my interest, because I'm a big fan of grunge. All that said, I have a sinking suspicion that she's not going to kill it. I see her going out somewhere in the middle, probably right after those early-middle boots. IDK why I get that vibe, but that's just where I think I see her falling. Maybe it's because she comes off largely as a "look" queen above anything else, even if it is a different take on it that we haven't seen before on the show. I would be thrilled if she got further, because I really like her personality and aesthetic, but I'm not confident about that possibility.

Prediction: Middle of the pack

Mayhem Miller

This is one of those moments where my bias kicks in and I have to try really hard not to let it overpower everything else. From what I've seen of Mayhem, gurl is just not my type of queen. Everything I've seen so far from her screams old-school dancing pageant queen who lip syncs the house down. It's a casting type that I personally get sick of. I'm very strongly biased toward quirky, weird, artsy, and comedy queens, and pageant queens tend to bore me. Also, I know this is a comparison that has already been said many times and criticized many times, but the girl looks like Kennedy from certain angles. I'm not saying she's a Kennedy reboot, but it's hard to not see that immediate connection. Anyway, back on track, Mayhem does seem like a lot of fun. Her personality seems very upbeat and positive, and I do find myself enjoying what I've seen of her personality. Mayhem seems to be very well known by the other queens, and it seems like a lot of people are impressed by her, so despite my own biases, I can see her doing pretty well. I'm hesitant to say that she's going deep, but I could certainly see her still being around when the group is narrowed down to 7.

Prediction: Late-middle of the pack (6th/7th place)

Miz Cracker

I was extremely hesitant about Miz Cracker. Miz Cracker is the second queen I feel has been the most prominent in the promos. And when a queen is super prominent, I immediately get worried about how well they'll do. Plus, she knows a ton of NYC queens and is the drag daughter of one Bob the Drag Queen. I feel like she's coming in with all these accolades already, and that almost feels like a setup for a quick and surprising elimination. But, as I mentioned earlier, I think that of the two most prominent queens, Aquaria is the one who's more likely to get that story arc. Despite the fact that I went into Cracker's meet the queens videos knowing about her accolades and being worried that would somehow lead to an ironic twist of fate where she's out early, I found myself being charmed by her. Miz Cracker. is. smart. She's knowledgeable. Several queens mentioned being old school and new school, but Cracker made very specific references that I really appreciated. Also, in her interview with Sasha, she referenced the Feminine Mystique. I mean. Knowing all of her connections, I had high expectations of her, and I think that pre-season, she's meeting it. Like I said, I was very hesitant to love her, but I just really couldn't help but appreciate her. I can't wait to see what she brings. 

Prediction: Going deep

Monet X Change

This is another queen where I've essentially thrown objectivity to the wind. I love Monet X Change. I love her personality, she's well-spoken, she's really funny, and not only is she friends with Bob the Drag Queen, but could also pass as his twin out of drag. Just throw a pair of Harry Potter glasses onto Bob and you might not be able to tell the difference. They have the same New York accent, seemingly similar senses of humor, and they're both bald. Bob comparisons aside, though, I just found myself really loving Monet. Apart from being funny, she doesn't really fall into typical "types" that I immediately gravitate toward, but I found myself gravitating toward her nonetheless. I'm not totally sure of the general fandom opinion on her, but the people on the RHAP Drag Race podcast really liked her, so that makes me feel like I'm not alone there. Hopefully, my lack of objectivity with Monet doesn't come back to bite me, but in general, I feel really optimistic about her potential on this season. (Also she's an operatically trained vocalist and I AM GAGGING. SOLD. I LOVE HER)

Prediction: Going deep

Monique Heart

If you've been reading this post thinking "wow, she seems to think everyone is going to do well," prepare yourself. Because this post is about to go real downhill. Real fast. Starting here, with Monique Heart. I did not get good vibes from her at all. Not in the "she's going to be the villain" way, but in the "I think she's going to annoy me" way and the "I don't think she's going to last very long" way. I just reeeeeally don't have high hopes for Monique. Maybe she'll prove me wrong, but she screams early boot to me. I just really can't see a scenario where we've made it to the midpoint of the season and Monique is still around. She seems messy and she seems loud, so hopefully we get some laughs along the way, but I honestly wouldn't be surprised if she was a first boot. Also, maybe I'm reading into the edit a bit too much, but when I watched the first 15 minutes of the first episode, her entrance received that "shade" music that often accompanies someone doing something poorly and foreshadows their demise. The last person that happened to was Jaymes Mansfield, and we all know how that ended.

Prediction: Early boot (first boot potential)

Vanessa Mateo

And here we have another instance in which I'm unable to be objective, but like... in the opposite way. Vanessa grated on my last nerve in everything I saw her in. This is another "type" of queen who just isn't my thing, but while I'm able to recognize that Mayhem has some strong potential, I can't see the same in Vanessa. Vanessa, to me, falls squarely in line with queens like Gia Gunn & Kimora Black before her. She gives great looks, gets shaded for asking dumb questions, and is promptly eliminated in the first few episodes. And, for good measure, she probably lands in the bottom 2 on the first challenge, wins the lip sync, and then gets eliminated episode 2. We've seen so many queens follow that same trajectory at the beginning of the season, and I think that's where Vanessa is going to fall this season. I really can't see a situation for her where she gets any further than episode 5, and that's being generous. 

Prediction: Early boot

The Vixen

I want so badly to believe in The Vixen, but I just don't. First of all, based on the pictures alone when they were first released, The Vixen was the one I kept forgetting existed. To me, she didn't stand out in the promo shots whatsoever. Then, when the video content started being released, I continued to be underwhelmed. I liked the look that she wore when talking to Sasha, but that was the extent of the impression she left. But then, I watched her upon her entrance in the beginning of the season premiere. She talked about protesting and making a statement with her drag and how artsy her drag is, and I wanted so badly to love her. And I might find myself really loving watching her. But after everything else I've seen, I don't have confidence that she'll make much of an impact on the season. Also, the show threw the shade music at her when she entered the workroom. Not a good sign. I've got her making it to about episode 5, but that might be me being a bit too optimistic.

Prediction: Early-middle boot

Yuhua Hamasaki

I feel like a broken record, but Yuhua was another queen that I wanted really badly to fall in love with, but I've gone back and forth on her so many times. Her interview with Sasha was so. freaking. awkward. She was completely tone-deaf. AKA, she didn't realize that her sense of humor was NOT coming off well. She kept trying to be funny, but it fell flat. There are a couple queens in this cast where I worry that they could say something that would potentially be off-putting and offensive, and Yuhua is right at the top of that list (the other queen is Cracker, BTW). She doesn't seem to have a great filter, and while that isn't necessarily something that impedes you from winning Drag Race, it is something that can turn RuPaul against you if you try to be funny and offend her instead. Some people said she seems like Gia Gunn mixed with Bianca Del Rio, and while the Gia comparison is lost on me apart from them both being Asian (please tell me that's not the reason for the comparison??), I can definitely see the Bianca comparison. Hopefully, Yuhua doesn't offend anyone, and hopefully she's actually funny, because she seems to be friendly with the other New York queens in the premiere, and I want to like her and want her to do well. Keeping my fingers crossed with this one, thus concluding the cast list!

Prediction: Middle of the pack

Winner Picks & Rankings

Winner Prediction: Asia O'Hara

(AKA the person I think has the best shot at winning)

Asia just seems to be incredibly well-rounded and good at everything. I'm not sure if I can peg one thing that I think she's going to be best at, but never underestimate the power of being versatile and being able to be decently good at everything, even if you aren't amazing in one certain field. Our S9 winner, Sasha Velour, didn't necessarily have one type of challenge that seemed tailor-made for her, but she was able to do well at all of them, even if she didn't win a ton of challenges. That said, I can see Asia absolutely killing this season, and I can't wait to see it happen. 

Predicted boot order

(AKA the order I think they'll get eliminated in)

(I moved this around about an hour after initially posting, so if you remember seeing something different, that's why. I started feeling less and less confident in Kalorie, so I moved her down to the bottom)

14. Kalorie Karbdashian-Williams

13. Monique Heart

12. Vanessa Mateo

11. Blair St. Clair

10. The Vixen

9. Aquaria

8. Kameron Michaels

7. Yuhua Hamasaki

6. Mayhem Miller

5. Eureka O'Hara

4. Miz Cracker

3. Dusty Ray Bottoms

2. Monet X Change

1. Asia O'Hara

Personal Winner: Dusty Ray Bottoms

(AKA the queen I would most like to see win)

To be fair, my heart is currently being torn in 4 directions right now, because while my thoughts are a little scattered on the cast overall, my top 4 are veeeeery definitive and are the same across my predicted boot order and my favorite queens. So there are 3 other queens begging me to pick them here, but Dusty's pulling at me just slightly harder. She hits so many of the bullet points of things I immediately gravitate toward in a queen, and that has just immediately completely endeared her to me. Plus, at this point, given how down my podcast was on her, I want to see her prove them wrong. I just hope she goes out there and kills it, because I have high hopes for her.

Favorite Ranking

(AKA least fave to most fave. Or, I guess, my ideal boot order.)

14. Kalorie Karbdashian-Williams

13. Monique Heart

12. Vanessa Mateo

11. Aquaria

10. Mayhem Miller

9. Blair St. Clair

8. The Vixen

7. Kameron Michaels

6. Yuhua Hamasaki

5. Eureka O'Hara

4.  Asia O'Hara

3. Miz Cracker

2. Monet X Change

1. Dusty Ray Bottoms

So, that's it for my Pre-Season Drag Race Season 10 Predictions! For some reason, I'm feeling overly-confident with my predictions, so feel free to laugh at me if Dusty or Asia get eliminated tonight on the season premiere. I'm super, super excited to see these queens in action & I can't believe we've already made it to another new season of Drag Race!! Hopefully these predictions pan out well, but if not, oh well-- I'm excited either way. 

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On Growing Up and Moving On (in the most petty way possible)

The following is largely a stream-of-consciousness discussion/ramble of an overly-introspective, arbitrarily-analytical human. If you're looking for a definitive point, there's not much to be had here, so read at your own risk. You've been warned.

Also, I wrote pretty much all of this back in October, so some of the details are a little wonky. I want to leave the "essay" untouched, so I'll just add in a little editing note when a detail needs to be updated.

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The other day, I found myself going about my usual life (I really don't even know what I was doing at the time), and out of the blue, I had a revelation so surprising that I ended up sitting in complete shock, contemplating the thought that had just crossed my mind. It probably shouldn't have been as ground-breaking and life-changing of a revelation as it was, and you'll probably laugh at me when you hear what it was, but it honestly gave me pause and really changed my perspective on a lot of things. Ready to hear it?

"I don't think McFly is my favorite band anymore... and they haven't been for a while."

I know. I know. Trust me, I know. It's the most inconsequential, petty thought-- not even a definitive statement-- and yet... I legitimately felt dizzy when I came to that realization. 

I feel like a bit of backstory is necessary here, before continuing. I've touted McFly as my favorite band since my sophomore year of high school (8 years ago). That's the entirety of my adult existence, and a pretty significant portion of my teenage years as well. And I'm not one of those people who casually has a favorite band. McFly was my baby. I was that person who was annoying about their favorite band, to the point that my high school boyfriend refused to listen to them, even in my car, which was a very contentious point to 16-year-old Kristen. Even when I got to college, I was known as the McFly girl. All the people I hung out with in the common room knew how much I loved McFly, and there was even a guy who flat out hated me because of how obsessed I was with the band. (In hindsight, I'm sure I was annoyingly vocal about McFly but I still can't understand the overt hatred)

Furthermore, I've also long-touted Tom Fletcher as my #1 celebrity crush. He checks all the boxes of things I love. He's smart. He's a total geek- super into things like Harry Potter, Star Wars, etc. He's a total sweetheart with a healthy dose of sarcasm. Plus, he's a fantastic musician. He's got a beautiful voice, he's a great songwriter, and he plays a couple handfuls of instruments. When he proposed to his now-wife, I was devastated. When his wedding speech went viral, I gave everyone I knew a big "I told you so" as they said how adorable it was. I don't even like kids and I found myself extremely excited for him both times he and Giovanna had a kid.

So, I say all of this to say that this was not just a band to me. In many ways, it's been a huge part of my identity for the past 7 years. My go-to username on websites is literally KristenMcFly (I learned early on that the username was never already taken, and it's just so short and simple that I ran with it). Their faces are all over my bedroom wall at my parents' house, and are staring at me right now from the wall next to my bed in my own apartment. They've left a huge stamp on my life.

Back to the realization, which like I said, was pretty mind-blowing to me. It wasn't even an "oh that can't be true" type thing. I had the thought and immediately realized that I'd practically been lying to myself for quite a while, trying to convince myself that they're still my favorite band. It's been so long since my metaphorical "favorite band" baton has been passed that I didn't recognize the signs staring me in the face.

And the signs have been there. For a long time. I don't quite know how long, and I can't peg for you exactly when things started to change, but I'd say that it's been at least 2 years since I could legitimately consider McFly my favorite band. And what exactly are these telltale signs? I think the first was that I started considering 2 bands my "favorite band." For the longest time, All Time Low was a solid #2. And then, eventually, I started referring to All Time Low as "my favorite band" and considering the pair a tie. Looking back, even then I knew that I listened to, obsessed over, and fangirled over All Time Low much more than I did McFly. I just didn't want to admit it to myself.

Another sign that should've been blatantly obvious? I don't keep up with any of the members. At all. I follow them on social media, but anymore I find myself just scrolling past their posts. Including Tom. He has an entire YouTube channel, which I'm probably still subscribed to, and I don't think I've watched a single one of his videos since like... 2014. Even though he still technically checks all the boxes and is a total sweetheart... I'm not even sure I'd call him one of my celebrity crushes anymore at all. He's certainly still a person/musician I thoroughly respect, but he definitely doesn't tug at my heartstrings in the same way anymore.

And the most obvious sign? I legitimately can't remember the last time I listened to one of their songs. For a while, I've been fully aware that I really haven't been listening to them much. If you're not up-to-date, I've really gotten into KPop over the past 5ish months (note: now ~8/9 months), so pretty much all of my other music has been put on the back burner. But that's a conversation for another day. Either way, even before then, I usually didn't find myself really listening to McFly on a regular basis. I kept telling myself that I just wasn't in the mood for it, that I still loved it, and that if I were to turn it on again I'd still totally jam. And those are all probably true. But how long do I have to be "not in the mood" for a band before it's not considered a short-term thought anymore?

To be perfectly honest, I don't think McFly themselves have really done themselves any favors in this department either. Their last new full-CD release as McFly was in November 2010. AKA 7 years ago, not long after they became my favorite band. They released a Greatest Hits CD in 2012 and a CD as McBusted (McFly + Busted) in late 2014 (a very different sound from solo McFly), but no new studio album as McFly. They've been teasing McFly's 6th album for at least 3 or 4 years at this point, and I've pretty much given up that it'll happen. Most recently, they said they would be recording in January 2017. It's October now and I still haven't heard anything about it. Granted, I don't monitor their social media that closely, but I do still follow them so I would've seen something. But all that said, it doesn't change the fact that I'm still not listening to their older material either. Even when they released the McBusted CD, I didn't listen to that nearly as aggressively as I have with their other music. I'm not sure whether that can be chalked up to it being "McBusted" vs "McFly" but either way, the devotion still wasn't there.

So, I've reached the point where I feel like I have to admit that McFly isn't my favorite band anymore, and like I said, they haven't really been my favorite band for quite a while. But how exactly does this relate to growing up and moving on, as the title mentions? Allow me to enlighten you.

I tend to think of myself as pretty self aware, as I'm sure most of us do. I acknowledge the fact that I've changed a lot since high school, and I think I know myself pretty well as a person. I'm able to look back on the person I was in High School and (while I obviously can't recognize every single change) see so many ways in which I've changed-- I'm basically a totally different person than the 17 year old girl who walked across a stage and got handed her High School diploma. And yet, in the years since then, I've continued to stubbornly hold on to so many of the things I loved back then... just because? Essentially, I easily admit to my changes as a human, but I have difficulty recognizing and accepting my changes in taste, which just seems entirely backward. But here we are.

I'm this way with almost everything I love, though. I take a while to accept that a new show/movie I've watched is worthy of being an all-time favorite, and the same goes for everything else, from YouTubers I watch, to things I like to wear, and even to foods I eat. Seriously, as a kid I ordered chicken tenders at every American restaurant my family went to, and it took a solid 3 years of ordering burgers at every American restaurant I went to before I realized that burgers were my new favorite food. Seriously, I recognize changes in even my literal taste slowly.

I once read a psychological study (might've been pseudo-psychology. I can't remember if it was a legit study or just some silly article online) that said that for most people, the musical taste they develop in their teens will last for the rest of their life. So, I always assumed that my shift in musical taste from the music my parents liked to pop punk/alternative music at age 13 to be the definitive shift in my musical taste that would probably last my entire life. It sounds weirdly definitive, but it's always made some kind of twisted sense to me. So, yet another thing re-enforcing my difficulty accepting my change in taste.

So, once again, we're back to the thought that somehow it's easy (at least, for me) to accept that I've grown up in the past 5 years. I've matured and changed as a human. And yet I take forever to admit to myself that the things I love change right alongside me. I think a large part of it is simply that it's easy to pretend that changes in taste are temporary. I've been telling myself for a really long time that I'm just simply not in the mood for McFly right now, thus convincing myself that they're still #1 despite the fact that I can't even remember the last time I sat down and listened to one of their songs all the way through.

I think another important factor is that I tend to define myself by the things that I love more than by who I am as a person. This might seem weird to some, but I think it makes a lot of sense. Think about the people you follow on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, etc. Chances are, your personalities don't necessarily line up. But maybe you follow them because you have the same aesthetic, like the same books, or like the same music. Naturally, we group together with people with similar interests, so... it only makes sense to largely define yourself by what you like. It's like high school-- the goth kids aren't necessarily considered "weird" by popular kids because of their personalities, but because of the way they look an the music they're into.

Because of this, I could change significantly personality-wise and it'd have an incredibly small effect on my life in general, and yet some change in the things I like/dislike is enough to make huge waves.

Back to the topic of growing up and moving on, just as I've grown up and moved on from the person I was 7 years ago, I think it's finally time to admit to my change in likes and dislikes that has come alongside it. McFly... is not my favorite band. I'm honestly not even sure if I have a favorite band right now, given that I've recently gotten into KPop and have been listening to that almost exclusively instead of the music I listened to before getting into KPop. I'll keep All Time Low in that slot for the time being, but we'll see what happens (I now have a definitive favorite band. Scroll through my posts and it'll become obvious pretty quickly. *hint: it's definitely NOT Day6. Nope. Definitely not. Not at all.*). I still, of course, do still consider myself a McFly fan. Like I said, if I were to turn on their music right now, I would still really enjoy it. I just don't love them like I used to.

And for some sort of flimsy point to this rambly post? I guess my point is that if you truly want to know who you are as a person, you have to assess both your personality itself, as well as the things you truly love and care about. The personality is of course important to understanding who you are, but if you're like me and define yourself largely by the things you love, it's just as important to actually understand what those things are. But then again, I'm also just trying to make up some arbitrary point so that this post has some semblance of a purpose to it instead of just a stream-of-consciousness thought-dump of stuff that's been on my mind.



So, that's about all I had for this post. Like I said several times, I'm not really sure there's actually a point here, but it's something I've been thinking about quite a bit lately. Typically when I do one of these more thoughtful posts, I tend to try to at least have some sort of cohesive point, but I was fairly certain that wouldn't be happening with this one lol. Let me know if you'd like to see more of these rambly posts in the future. I can't guarantee that they'll happen, since it's kinda dictated by whatever random stuff pops up in my head, but I might end up sharing these thoughts more often. Who knows?

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Goals/Resolutions for 2018

This is probably going to be pretty rambly, so... prepare yourselves? IDK. Work with me here. Anyway, I tend to make beginning of the year bookish resolutions, but this year I decided to make goals across the board. I plan to make a video sharing these as well, but I wanted to do a blog post explaining first, since I can't film for about another week.

So, a bit of explanation here: One major struggle that I've had this year is that I've accumulated a huge pile of hobbies and interests and things I want to do, and it's gotten big enough that I'm finding it difficult to split my focus on a regular basis. I'm finding myself working on one or two at a time, letting the others fall by the wayside, and I hate doing that. So, I wanted to make some year-long goals that I can work toward. Instead of making tons and tons, I've decided to make a single goal for each hobby. Something to reach for that is attainable, but still a little challenging. That way, I'm not pushing myself too hard in any one hobby.

Without any further ado, let's jump into the list.

READING

I figured this was the best one to start with, given that it's the hobby where I give myself yearly goals every year. Usually, I give myself a challenge to read 50 books and to read 7 books with 500+ pages. And I'm not giving myself either of those this year, even though they're in the back of my mind because I do legitimately want to accomplish those this year. Instead, I've given myself a single goal to work toward year-long.

GET MY TBR DOWN TO 30% OF MY LIBRARY

My 2016 goal was to get my TBR down from 45ish% to 35%, and I accomplished that. My goal for 2017 was to get it from 35% to 30%. And now, at the beginning of 2018, it's sitting at.... 39%. Yeah, I kinda screwed that up. BUT I believe in myself, and given that it's my singular reading goal for 2018, I think I've got this. 

I'm also doing a challenge based off of booksandlala's closet unhaul series, where I watch old hauls and have to read the books from them that are still on my TBR shelf. Technically, that's not a "goal" for the year, because either I read the books or I don't-- either way, books are probably getting unhauled. BUT, it does help me to accomplish this goal. So, win win. The first video in that series is embedded below!

YOUTUBE

One major change in 2017 is that I've started a second YouTube channel! My obsession with KPop that developed throughout the year led to the creation of a KPop-centric YouTube channel and many, many KPop videos. One of which got 100K+ views. Which is mind-blowing. My goal for the year is a pretty simple one..

MAKE 100 VIDEOS

Yes, that's 2 videos a week. Approximately.  Which sounds like a lot, and it is. But I love making videos, and that's only 1 video a week for each channel, and I've been doing 2 per channel for the past couple weeks with very little difficulty. This challenge allows me to split it up however I want, so if I'm at a point where I'm working on a particularly time-intensive KPop video, I could easily make up for that by having 2 bookish video in a week, which isn't difficult at all. Really, all this challenge forces me to do is to be consistent with each of the channels, since I'll probably get burnt out if I make 100 bookish videos or 100 KPop videos. 

WRITING

At the beginning of 2017, I was sitting on a freshly-written 96K word first draft of Flirting With Fame, my NaNo project. I worked on character development and outlining sporadically throughout the year, and then in October, I started a new fanfic project, which I worked on during NaNo. And then, right at the end of the year, I finished character development and outlining and prepared to start a second draft of Flirting With Fame. So... two projects. Both of which I like. Only one goal makes sense...

FINISH A FULL DRAFT OF EITHER FLIRTING WITH FAME OR MY FANFIC

Across the board, I really just want to finish A draft this year, regardless of the project, but I've decided that I want to restrict it to these two projects because I really shouldn't jump into another one until I've finished a draft of each. In reality, I would like to finish a draft of both of these, since I really love both of them, but I'm not going to give myself that huge of a challenge for the year. So, one draft. Of one of them. I think I'm going to begin with Flirting With Fame, but IDK for sure. I've been working on it, but not consistently. So, we'll see where that goes. I might need to set up some sort of writing schedule for myself but IDK for sure. 

KOREAN

Another new thing that happened this year is that I started learning Korean. TL;DR: I've been wanting to learn a second language for a long time, and I was working on Spanish because I took Spanish in high school and college and was pretty good at it. But, when I started getting into KPop, I switched to Korean instead and have been learning Korean on and off since May. Given that it's a language, it's hard to have a definitive goal, but the one I've decided on is...

BE ABLE TO HOLD A BASIC CONVERSATION/ READ BASIC POSTS

I feel like I've simultaneously learned a lot and almost nothing at all with my Korean learning. It's incredibly frustrating. That said, I am able to understand some very basic phrases that I see popping up on posts, which I always love. But, I want to improve upon this. I'm less concerned about the conversing than with reading. Long-run, obviously I'd like to be fluent enough to be able to both speak and read the language, but obviously reading is going to be the easier one because conjugating is possibly the hardest thing about speaking a language. Anyway, my goal obviously isn't to be fluent by the end of the year, but I want to have a basic reading knowledge of the language by the end of the year. Maybe not to understand all of the conjugations or to be able to speak fluently, but I want to be able to understand enough that I don't have to tap the translate button on all of the things my favorite idols post.

MAIN BLOG

It's hard for me to come up with a goal for my blog, since I mostly just post whatever I want on here, but I decided to give myself a pretty simple one...

DO A LARGE-SCALE RANKING

A couple years ago, I did a ranking of all of the designers who'd ever been on Project Runway. It was a huge series, and it took forever. And I loved doing it. And I want to do another one. I mentioned this several times throughout 2017, but have yet to do one, so I think I need to finally do it in 2018. I've been planning on ranking my favorite RuPaul's Drag Race queens for at least a year at this point, so I think that once we get season 10, I'm going to do that. But IDK. I gotta do some sort of a big ranking. 

SPECIALIS REVELIO

This is my Harry Potter analysis blog, linked at the top of this blog, where I analyze the series chapter by chapter. I started it in 2016 and have been severely, severely slacking on it, and I want to get back to working on it. I don't want it to be my priority throughout the year, but I do want to work on it. So, I'm giving myself a pretty simple goal...

FINISH ANALYZING SORCERER'S STONE

I honestly don't remember how many chapters I've analyzed and how many I have left, but I think that if I do one per month, I can finish by the end of the year. So this isn't a big challenge that I'm giving myself. I just want to work on this blog in some form or fashion and not totally neglect it.

And, I think for now... that's it. 6 hobbies. 6 goals. Hopefully all of them are achievable. There are other things I want to do throughout the year that I'm not making as specific goals (some TV shows/movies I want to watch, some other reading goals, etc), but these are the only firmly in-place goals. They seem pretty manageable, so here's to hoping that I can complete all 6 of them in 2018.

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