Spotlight Review - Nadia Khristean

As a male Mormon millennial, one of my personal crusades is to discover and laud clean and inspirational forms of modern entertainment. As it is, I often write reviews spotlighting these sources of entertainment, including the times I wrote about The Cultural Hall and Zen Pencils.

I've actually written briefly about Nadia Khristean before, back when I was writing all about Easter. Nadia is an up-and-coming YouTuber who produces inspiring and original music and accompanying videos. Her art focuses on addressing topics such as bullying, poor self-image, and abuse.

And her stuff is quality. If you go to her YouTube account and browse around, you'll find industry-standard film and music editing. Her lyrics are thought-provoking and engaging. I could easily see her becoming a big name in the Christian music industry if she isn't already.

I would write more, but spend the time you would have on a longer post watching some of her stuff. If you like my posts of introspection and gratitude, you'll like this.

Here are links to two of my favorites from her. Check her out and subscribe if you're into that sort of thing!

Check out Nadia's ...

YouTube!

Website!

Facebook!

Spotlight Review: Zen Pencils

Alma 39:1 - "And now ... have ye not observed the steadiness of thy brother, his faithfulness, and his diligence in keeping the commandments of God? Behold, has he not set a good example for thee?"

Sometimes, I find a source of entertainment that does nothing but inspire me. When that happens, I want to share it with the world.

Today, I'm going to be talking about zenpencils.com.

For those of you that follow me on Facebook, I actually shared the comic featuring Bill Watterson (the 11th entry on the list below) a few weeks ago. The actual artist (Gavin Aung Than) had done such a good job emulating Watterson's style, I believed the legendary Calvin and Hobbes cartoonist actually had come out of his retirement. It didn't take me long to poke around and realize I was wrong, but I wasn't really disappointed.

You see, I've read the entire archive several times now. Most comics incorporate an inspirational quote from a famous individual as a backdrop to the bright, colorful, and inviting artwork. Gavin Aung Than's expressive style not only gives the quotes greater impact, but his work helps the words stay in my head even longer.

Though I've read many of these quotes before, I have often forgotten them mere moments later because of their brevity or placement within a greater context. Than's decision to juxtapose these quotes with his art has often brought tears to my eye, even after several rereads.

I wanted to share with you my favorite entries in the Zen Pencils canon. After much debate and deliberation, I finally whittled my exhaustive list down to fifteen (in no particular order). Again, these are comics that stuck out to me personally, so I invite you to search through the archive and find some gems for yourself. Let me know in the comments which were your favorite.*

My Top Fifteen Zen Pencils Entries

11. George S. Patten: A Man Must Know His Destiny

18. Lao Tzu: Watering Your Dreams

27. Kurt Vonnegut: Take a Moment

40. Calvin Coolidge: Never Give Up

86. Randy Pausch: The Brick Walls

90. Ira Glass: Advice for Beginners

98. Alan Watts: What if Money was no Object?

102. Timothy Leary: You Aren't Like Them

119. John Green: Make Gifts for People

123. Erica Goldson: Graduation Speech

128. Bill Watterson: A Cartoonist's Advice

150. Jim Henson: A Puppeteer's Advice

161. Shonda Rhimes: A Screenwriter's Advice

178. Atena Farghandi: The Right to Draw

180. James Rhodes: Is That Not Worth Exploring?

*Just as a warning, a very select few of Zen Pencils entries do contain curse words. If cursing offends you, know that such entries are marked as (Explicit) in the archive. None of my recommended entries contain any foul language.

Spotlight Review: The Cultural Hall

Alma 39:1 - "And now ... have ye not observed the steadiness of thy brother, his faithfulness, and his diligence in keeping the commandments of God? Behold, has he not set a good example for thee?"

I don't exactly know why I have readers. Sure, obviously some of you are my family, and some of you are my friends, and you read the blog out of a moral obligation to support me in my endeavors. For that, I feel nothing but gratitude. Thanks, guys!

For others of you, I imagine you read Change and Cherish Blog to have a source of clean, consistent, uplifting entertainment. After all, I update every day. I write messages about shining your light, expressing gratitude for the little things, being open-minded in the face of differing opinions, and squeezing the joy out of every moment. I think those kind of things are pretty awesome.

The thing is, I'm not the only online entertainer who produces clean, uplifting content on a regular basis.

This past weekend, I involved myself in five live-tweeting sessions encompassing the events of the LDS General Conference (You can see the summaries here: Part 1 and Part 2). My twitter account received an unprecedented amount of attention, which meant some of my tweets got a couple of likes and maybe one or two retweets every so often. Either way, I was excited!

Following the sessions, I got tweeted at by @TheCulturalHall.

Wait, what?

So I looked at the article.

And there my tweet sat. #17. I'll let you check the article out at this link:

The 20 Best #LDSConf Tweets of October 2015

I'll admit, I was entirely ignorant of the existence of The Cultural Hall. So I gave them a look-see, and I loved what I found.

I didn't have too much of a chance to study their site, but what I found convinced me I'd found a fresh source of entertainment. I listened to their latest podcast (Articles of News/Week of September 28th), I read a couple of their blog posts, and I thought it was all awesome.

These guys are definitely the big deal, so I doubt they'll really care or notice if I send some of my traffic their way, but I recommend you check them out! If you don't want to listen to an hour long podcast (which I nonetheless recommend), read some of their posts. Click the link to their 20 Best Tweets above, or click here to check out their article about the BYU Store. It's pretty hilarious.

So, seriously. Check them out. You won't regret it, I promise.