Okay, I wasn’t going to do this reading challenge, but hearing other people talk about things is the biggest catalyst in making me want to do those things. So here I am. Doing the Popsugar 2015 Reading Challenge. I’ll be updating this list all year long as I tackle the challenges, so check back if you want to see how I am doing.

Challenges Completed: (46/50)

A book with more than 500 pages: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
A classic romance (Persuasion)
A book that became a movie: Angus, Thongs and Full Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison
A book published this year: The Shadow Cabinet by Maureen Johnson
A book with a number in the title: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
A book written by someone under 30: The Last Girlfriend on Earth: And Other Love Stories by Simon Rich
A book with nonhuman characters: The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black
A funny book: Sex Criminals Vol. 2 by Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky 
A book by a female author: The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart
A mystery or thriller: The Madness Underneath by Maureen Johnson
A book with a one word title: Hazed by Mark Sable
A book with short stories: The Utterly Uninteresting and Unadventurous Tales of Fred, the Vampire Accountant by Drew Hayes
A book set in a different country: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
A non-fiction book: The Opposite of Loneliness 
A popular author’s first book: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
A book from an author you love that you haven’t read yet: Attachments by Rainbow Rowell
A book a friend recommended: Cinder by Marissa Meyer
A Pulitzer Prize winning novel: All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
A book based on a true story: Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman
A book at the bottom of your TBR list: An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir
A book your mom loves: Old North Dakota German Cookbook
A book that scares you: The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson
A book more than a 100 years old: Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter
A book based entirely on its cover: In Real Life by Corey Doctorow and Jen Wang
A book you were supposed to read in school and didn’t: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
A memoir: Bossypants by Tina Fey
A book with antonyms in the title: Glory O’brien’s History of the Future by AS King
A book you can finish in a day: The Woods: Vol 1 by James Tynion IV
A book set somewhere you’ve always wanted to go: Magical Girl Apocalypse
A book published the year you were born (Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency)
A book with bad reviews: Doll Bones by Holly Black
A Trilogy (Magic 2.0)
A book from your childhood: Wait Till Helen Comes by Mary Downing Hahn
A book with a love triangle: The Shadow Cabinet by Maureen Johnson
A book set in the future: Cress by Marissa Meyer
A book set in high school: Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick
A book with a color in the title: Scarlet by Marissa Meyer
A book that made you cry: The Winner’s Crime by Marie Rutkoski
A book with magic: Spell or High Water by Scott Meyer
A graphic novel: A Wrinkle in Time the Graphic Novel by Madeleine L’Engle/Hope Larson
A book by an author you’ve never read before: This One Summer by Mariko and Jillian Tamaki
A book you own but never read: The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
A book that takes place in your hometown: Off To Be The Wizard by Scott Meyer
A book that was originally written in another language: Magical Girl Apocalypse
A book set during Christmas: PS. I Still Love You by Jenny Han
A book by an author who has your same initials: The Kite Runner Graphic Novel by Khaled Hosseini
A play (from joe!)
A banned book: On The Bright Side I’m Now the Girlfriend of a Sex God by Louise Rennison
A book based on or turned into a tv show: The 100 by Kass Morgan
A book you started but never finished: Magonia by Maria Dahvana Headley

I wanted a place to document which books I read this year, in what order, and what I rated them. Because I like when things are organized into lists, and because apparently Goodreads alone isn’t enough. So here it is! My 2015 Reading List:

January:
1. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart (4.5)
2. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (4.5)
3. Hazed by Mark Sable (1.5)
4. All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr (4)

February:
5. Angus, Thongs and Full Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison (4)
6. Cinder by Melissa Meyer (3.5)
7. On the Bright Side, I’m Now the Girlfriend of a Sex God by Louise Rennison (4.5)
8. A Wrinkle in Time: The Graphic Novel by Hope Larson (4)
9. Scarlet by Marissa Meyer (2)
10. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (5)
11. In Real Life by Corey Doctorow and Jen Wang (4.5)
12. Off To Be The Wizard by Scott Meyer (5)
13. The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black (4)

March:
14. The Winner’s Crime by Marie Rutkoski (5)
15. Wait Til Helen Comes by Mary Downing Hahn (3.5)
16. Spell or High Water by Scott Meyer (4.5)
17. The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson (4)
18. This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki (4)
19. Cress by Marissa Meyer (2.5)
20. The Woods: Vol 1 by James Tynion IV (4)
21. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (4)

April:
22. Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick (5)
23. The Madness Underneath by Maureen Johnson (3.5)
24. Saga Vol. 2 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples (5)
25. The Shadow Cabinet by Maureen Johnson (4.5)
26. Since You’ve Been Gone by Morgan Matson (3.5)
27. Saga Vol. 3 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples (5)
28. Sex Criminals Vol. 2 by Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky (5)
29. Doll Bones by Holly Black (3.5)
30. Bossypants by Tina Fey (5)

May:
31. Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter (5)
32. Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen (3.5)
33. The Heir by Kiera Cass (3)
34. Talon by Julie Kagawa (1)
35. Attachments by Rainbow Rowell (4.5)
36. The 100 by Kass Morgan (3)
37. The Utterly Uninteresting and Unadventurous Tales of Fred, the Vampire Accountant by Drew Hayes (3)
38. The Woods: Vol 2 by James Tynion IV (4)
39. An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir (3.5)

June:
40. I’ll Give You The Sun by Jandy Nelson (5)
41. The Martian by Andy Weir (5)
42. An Unwelcome Quest by Scott Meyer (3)
43. Magonia by Maria Dahvana Headley (3)

July:
44. Lumberjanes by Noelle Stevenson (5)
45. The Girl With All The Gifts by M.R. Carey (4)
46. Knocked Out By My Nunga-Nungas by Louise Rennison (3.5)
47. Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen (5)
48. Dancing in My Nuddy-Pants by Louise Rennison (4)
49. Armada by Ernest Cline (3)

August:
50. I Am Princess X by Cherie Priest (4)
51. Fortunately, The Milk by Neil Gaiman (4.5)
52. The Last Girlfriend on Earth: And Other Love Stories by Simon Rich (4.5)
53. To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han (3)
54. Survive The Night by Danielle Vega (1)
55. Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman (5)
56. If This Isn’t Nice, What Is? by Kurt Vonnegut (4)
57. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (4)
58. P.S. I Still Love You by Jenny Han (2.5)
59. Amber House by Kelly Moore, Larkin Reed and Tucker Reed (3.0)

September:
60. Vivian Apple at the End of the World by Katie Coyle (3.0)
61. The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness (5.0)
62. Not a Drop to Drink by Mindy McGinnis (4.5)

October:
63. In a Handful of Dust by Mindy McGinnis (3.5)
64. Revival Vol. 1 by Tim Seeley, Mike Norton and Mark Englert (4.5)
65. Carry On by Rainbow Rowell (4.5)

November:
66. The Haunting of Gillespie House by Darcy Coates (3.0)
67. Under Different Stars by Amy A. Bartol (2.5)
68.
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70.
71.
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74.
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*feel free to bookmark this page and check back over the course of the year to see what I’m reading.

Hello, lovely blog readers!

As you can see by the title of this blog post… I’ve got some rather big news to share. Life alteringly big news, in fact — and something I’ve kept quiet for the last two months.

I got a job at Microsoft.

This is pretty intense news, so here is a picture of some kittens at a birthday party.

To be honest it feels a little cliched, having grown up in Seattle. If you were raised here, you know what I’m talking about. If your parents didn’t work at Microsoft they worked at Boeing. While I’d mulled over the idea of getting some sort of day job over the last year or so, I always imagined some hip new media company. Not… Microsoft. Not the most obvious place to work in the Northwest.

But here I am. And to be honest, it is a pretty hip job. I was hired as a Community Manager, which means my responsibilities include a whole spectrum of various types of community engagement for a laundry list of games owned by Microsoft Studios.

But Kristina!? you’re probably asking. Why did you take this job? I thought you were a professional YouTuber! I thought you made oodles of money talking to your camera!

First of all, I am flattered if you think that. Alas, while I enjoyed my freelance time immensely, it was really starting to weigh on me. If anyone ever tells you that turning your hobby into your job is the ~American Dream~, then you should just tell them to talk to the hand. Because (let me drop a wisdom bomb on you for a second here) if there’s one thing I have learned in my twenty-seven years of life, it’s this: we have hobbies for a very specific reason. We have hobbies because we are creative animals, and we enjoy making things, doing things, being part of things. Sometimes we even enjoy making things just for the sake of creation, but when you add financial pressure to that, you can literally feel your enjoyment start to deflate.

I didn’t want to hide sponsorships in my videos anymore. I didn’t want to make videos for other companies’ channels anymore. I didn’t want to wake up every day knowing I had to film videos, or had to write blog posts, or I might not pay rent. And I also didn’t appreciate the ever-present self awareness of “what am I actually doing with my life” looming overhead.

I am acutely aware, however, of how special a thing I’ve created online. And how lucky I am that so many of you care enough about what I’m doing to have stuck around this long. For a long time, considering getting a different job felt like giving up. Throwing in the towel. It felt like I was admitting I hadn’t “made it”.

But then I start re-evaluating my goals. Made what, exactly? I starting thinking about what I was actually doing, and what I wanted to be doing. I love making videos. I love blogging. I love my Patrons, and my book club, and I love the amazing community of intelligent, caring people who engage with the things that I do.

Why would any of that need to change, just because I wanted to get a day job?

It was at that moment that I realized it wouldn’t change. I could still make videos. I could still read books. I could still blog, and tweet, and interact with people online exactly like I always have. This moment of clarity changed everything and I began applying for jobs. The Microsoft opportunity came at exactly the right time and while I’ve been extremely stressed out as I struggle to adjust to a vastly different lifestyle… not much has actually changed, at least online.

In fact, that only thing that’s been really tough has been not telling you guys about what I’m doing, which is precisely why I am writing this blog post. So… I work at Microsoft now, 40 hours a week. This probably explains why I might have seemed a little distant lately. It was tough to figure out what to talk about without spilling the beans, but I wanted to give myself time to adjust on my own before I told the whole Internet.

Oh, it’s also been tough to keep up with my email. I did not realize how much email I got until I wasn’t able to check it regularly. How cow. But that’s another issue entirely.

So just to sort of let you know what to expect from me now, my online presence mostly won’t change. You can still count on 2 new videos a week. The Restricted Section book club is still going strong. I’ve got three cosplays planned for Emerald City Comic Con. And this blog will always be here.

I’m just going to have a bit less free time, and I might complain about traffic a lot more, since my commute is right in the heart of rush hour and includes a toll bridge. But audiobooks are a new obsession of mine, so there’s always a silver lining.

Whew. I don’t know why I am so nervous to be announcing this. I guess it makes sense, because it’s the biggest change that’s happened in my life in a long time. It’s been sort of a tough adjustment, and I miss having all the time in the world to create things for you guys.

But I think this is going to be a very good thing for me.