Solar Recommends ๐ฌ๐ฟ๐ง [October 2023]
🕑 Added 2023-10-31 21:25:35 +0000 UTCHello, my lovely celestials! ๐ How are you doing? Happy Halloween to those of you who celebrate, and happy Tuesday (or Wednesday) to those of you who don't! ๐ป๐
This month has been crazy and full of big moments for our community: from our "Solar System" Discord server launch to my 10 VAs Mega Collab being finally premiered, to me awkwardly hosting two movie nights for you all while filming a Halloween special (which I plan to upload veryyy soon ๐)
In the midst of it all I almost forgot to share my monthly recommendations with you! It seems like you enjoy them, so I decided to keep this thing going.
Here's another installment of my personal recommendations collection that can be of some help and maybe inspire you a little, or simply make you smile ๐โจ Pick whichever one you prefer and enjoy!
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โจ๐ญ Quote:
"Comparison is the thief of joy"
This quote is often attributed to Theodore Roosevelt, although turns out there's no factual evidence linking that saying to him. I feel like this one is pretty self-explanatory. It's also kind of tied to that "grass is always greener" one as well, in terms of overall philosophy and meaning. It's so easy to fall into that comparison trap. I'm mostly thinking of it from my content creator viewpoint, of course, and partly because this is how you're conditioned by these platforms: not only you risk comparing yourself to others, but also to yourself... your own previous failures, as well as your past success. Personally, I tend to be very critical of myself, too critical at times. It takes real effort sometimes to stop yourself from spiraling and feeling miserable. And of course, comparison to others is inevitable as well, we're social creatures, after all. But while it's tempting to use someone else's success as your inspiration and motivation to get better (be it in pure spite or from a "healthy" and friendly rivalry standpoint), just please remember to not compare your insides to other people's outsides in the meantime. We may never know the full story of someone's success, so we should try to do everything we can to avoid comparing our downs to their ups basically. For our own mental well-being. Your path is your own, you pace is your own and your destiny is your own and nobody else's ๐ซ๐ค
โจ๐ง Music:
Here's what I was listening to this month (I swear to you, I love upbeat songs, it's a pure coincidence there're not many here):
70s ๐ถ Frank Sinatra - Killing Me Softly With Her Song
80s ๐ถ Queen - Who Wants to Live Forever
90s ๐ถ Fugees - Killing Me Softly With His Song
00s ๐ถ Shakira ft. Alejandro Sanz - La Tortura
10s ๐ถ Sum 41 - With Me
20s ๐ถ Madison Beer - Stained Glass
โจ๐ Movie:
"Wakefield" (2016)
"Howard, a successful lawyer, is unhappy with his marriage of 15 years. Assuming that his family will be happy when he is not around, he leaves the house and spies on them from his garage's attic."
Intrigued? Well, you should be! This is a really weird movie with an open finale, so watch it at your own risk haha. I think it can be considered an auteur film, so expect minimum of action and maximum of internal monologue. For all my "Breaking Bad" fans here, Bryan Cranston is the leading man ๐
โจ๐ฌ TV series:
"Hijack" (2023) - miniseries, 7 episodes
"When Dubai-London flight is hijacked during its seven-hour journey, corporate negotiator Sam Nelson tries to use his professional skills to get out of this situation alive."
Let me start with saying that I'm not a huge fan of such stories personally, so I started watching this one being a little skeptical. However... the writing, the acting, the music, everything in this miniseries was simply *chef's kiss*, working in a perfect unison to bring that overall tension on screen. Also, fun fact: I tend to make my own predictions when watching movies/series, and most of the time the stories end up being way too simple and on the surface for me, so the plot twists aren't really twisting, so to say haha. Imagine my surprise when I, "the great predictor and eye-roller", found myself on the edge of my seat watching this series, wondering what's going to happen next! The series intro song is simply captivating, as well as Idris Elba's acting.
โจ๐ Podcast:
The Love Expert: Why Women Are Addicted To Toxic Men,"Have A Boring Relationship Instead!"
Alright, guess it's time to admit that I'm obsessed with "The Diary Of A CEO" podcasts, and that my future podcast recommendations most likely would be from that channel. They just released a new one with a thumbnail that says "How caffeine is killing you!"... oh, how great! *proceeds to sip on her 3rd cup of coffee today*
This episode that I mentioned above, however, has been my personal reality check in audio form. We often tend to romanticize relationships and love in general, mostly due to our media exposure from the early days. This podcast is a genuine conversation about how to identify your attachment style, when to stop looking for perfection and what exactly f*ckboys have to do with pigeons ๐
Please don't skip it just because this love expert is a woman! Logan Ury is speaking from a scientific and even universal perspective, rather than just a female one. And even the host Steven ended up opening about his own relationship in such a sincere and vulnerable way that I certainly didn't expect to witness on such a big platform. Great conversation with lots of useful (and practical!) insights ๐
โจ๐ ASMR:
"Vito ASMR" is probably one of the most cinematic ASMR channels on YT. This one is my personal favorite since there's only one thing that I like more than the smell of books... it's the sound of old pages been touched and turned and scribbled on. Tbh I don't get tingles most of the time, but this one in particular destroys my tingle immunity almost instantly. Interestingly enough, irl book pages flipping and turning never gets me feeling this way. And what about you?
โจโ๏ธ Habit:
Establish a sleep schedule and routine that fits YOUR personal needs and lifestyle ๐ค
Can't say I'm anywhere near mastering this habit myself, but this is just a realisation I came to not so long ago. For example, I'm slowly realising that I might be that person who probably needs more than 8 hours of sleep to function properly, and I've always been internally shaming myself for "sleeping too much", blaming it on being lazy instead. Or I can't function properly in the early hours, and my inspiration and bursts of productivity always hit me right before it's time to go sleep. Sometimes I'll be getting up during the night to write down the idea that I know for a fact won't be there tomorrow anymore. Of course, these might be bad habits that got developed as a result of my personal routine more than anything else, but this is my current lifestyle and it's not changing any time soon. I'm not saying that we all need to take the backseat and let the life sort itself out and drive us on autopilot, but sometimes it's just the way things are. And you need to work with what you got and make the most of it all while trying to stay as healthy as you can in the process... instead of beating yourself up and comparing yourself to people who are simply wired differently or exist within different circumstances in life. See? It's all connected ๐
โจ๐คช Fun:
@CarloandSarah
Carlo is from Italy and Sarah is from the USA. They started as a long-distance relationship and are currently living as a married couple. Language barrier, cultural differences, but lots of chemistry and humor. Guess I know their secret now.
I'm not a fan of any type of family or couple's channels on YT tbh since these are either straight up weird or end up making me feel lonely and hopeless haha. But this one was recommended to me when I accidentally swiped to the shorts tab again, so I took it as my sign (Italy has always been my "dream country", from their culture to food). I love how genuine and open Carlo is, although it does seem like they're heavily playing into the cultural stereotype for that comedic effect. But I mean, it works so I can't complain here haha.
And if you don't want to go down the rabbit hole and end up spending hours binging their shorts, you can just check out these three that I think are the most hilarious:
When Carlo accidentally says he takes Sarah as his "waffle life" during their wedding ceremony
Carlo is unintentionally giving a quick demonstration of what girls really like ๐
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Obviously, these are just things that I like, and if for some reason you donโt like them too... thatโs absolutely okay. We're all different and it's beautiful ๐ If you feel like checking any of those out and talking to me about it, I'd love that, really. But you don't even have to discuss those with me or anyone else at all. Even the fact that you can find something here that might interest you is more than enough for me to make it worth sharing ๐ซ
If you feel like recommending something you've recently found/watched/listened to, please feel free to do that in the comments below. I'd love to check it out if you do!
Love,
Solar โจ๐ซ
Comments
C480o0s3
As for my own personal recommendations.. hmm It's not quite a quote, more of a Dad Joke that's been living in my head rent free for a while: "Relax and be a good Proton. Stay positive" For a movie; Evolution (2001). Made roughly by the team that brought us Ghostbusters, this one is more of sci-fi alien base rather than ghosts, with some really fun science and shenanigans. It also has one of the strangest methods of defeating a hostile alien force I've seen for a while. The talents of David Duchovny, Orlando Jones, Julianne Moore, and Sean William Scott are a massive plus too, with David and Orlando having some really fun banter. For some uplifting background music, I cannot recommend enough the theme of Jack Atlas. It's from the Yugioh 5Ds anime and the Japanese original version decided to give their series rival character a theme worthy of a night club dance floor. I swear it's hard not to feel pumped or energized listening to it. I'll share a link with you if you like either in dms and/or in the music channel in the discord.
C480o0s3
Well time for an old fashioned Breakdown answer: Whether Rossevelt can take credit for this one you're all too correct on it's ties to other similar quotes like your example of the "Grass is always Greener". The comparison trap is an all too easy slippery slope people can fall down, and likely more so these days given how connected we are to people online these days, finding more people to measure against without knowing anything but their surface level info. I to this day loathe how platforms almost try to force you to continuously compare yourself to others when all it does is create division, and constant stress on the creators to compete against one another, and viewers in trying to make sure they give as much attention to as many that they follow as possible I do believe you enjoy upbeat music but there isn't anything wrong in balancing that out with the spread you're sharing, especially when Frank Sinatra is among the picks. I'll have to put these on the "to listen" list so I can get a feel for these ones ๐ You're right about Wakefield, it's quite the intriguing premise indeed. Though the open end has me rather nervous given my recent track history in open ended finales, then again Bryan Cranston and Jennifer Garner are quite the draw Might be a bit tricky to check out for me without Apple+ but I'm glad it managed to defy all expectations and have you hooked and on the edge of your seat. All that with an Idris Elba cherry on top, truly sounds like Chef's Kiss material based the spoiler free summary๐ Can't say I've really followed much of DoaCEO but the podcast certainly has rung some bells, but I'm certainly curious to hear this episode, to hear this universal and scientific viewpoint, my attachment style, and certainly if nothing else to find out the correlation between F@$%boys and Pigeons (A comparison I never thought I'd ever hear yet here we are) While I think the sound of pencil scribbling on paper might be a little too much, I LOVE the sound of the paper after it's been written in, there's a crispness to it you never quite get from pages with printed words. That being said it rarely stimulates me as much almost as a result of most written material I have being mostly printed pages. Been working on that Habit for years now, and still struggle to stay consistent, mostly with the ever present balance of being a night owl and being present for irl commitments in the day. More so these days with even more international contacts and friends who I really want to make time for. I'll keep at it and hopefully we can back each other up in trying to find that style and schedule that works for each of us. I thought I recognized that name, Carlo is such a sweetheart I swear and seeing the chemistry between those two is such a treat. He might indeed lean into the stereotype for comedy but for now he seems happy to do so. So long as he is I'm happy to keep sharing in that comedy with them ๐ Well that was longer than I planned, but oh so worth it.
Emiliano Cuellar
(โ *โ ยดโ ฯโ ๏ฝโ *โ )
CharalamBOSS
Ohh Diary of a CEO is great! I'll definitely check out thr rest of your recommendations. Especially the sleep schedule, I'm usually good but today's an anomaly since its almost 4am for me -_- my creative mind is fully awake and wrote out a potential script. ๐
Lachlan Parker
Sorry about that. My mind tends to lean towards โhelp everybody understandโ instead of โexplain things just enough to get them thinkingโ. It does backfire sometimes.
S
I feel like this can be said about pretty much any quote, since most of them only make sense when it comes to bigger things and broader situations in life, rather than our everyday โmundaneโ existence. And any quote can get dismantled if we start applying it to every possible situation. And yes, you worded your thoughts in a beautiful way, although you kind of left us no chance of coming to this realisation ourselves haha ๐ซ๐
Lachlan Parker
That quote from President Teddy not very accurate when looking for broadly. I understand the meaning, and it does make sense at first in most settings, but comparisons are not only made from envy, jealousy, or greed. Most comparisons are instead done simply from curiosity and intrigue. Someone may momentarily say โDamn. I really wish I had thatโฆโ, but they stop thinking about it pretty quickly because it doesnโt matter to most people beyond the whims of a fleeting moment. (Did you like how I phrased that last part? I know Iโm proud of it. ๐)