Resolutions

It's 2016 and the start of a new year. Maybe it's just me, but 2015 flew by so quickly that I only remember a few bits and pieces from the year. Unfortunately for me, in a lot of ways, it was an extremely rough year--one of the hardest I've ever had, which makes me want 2016 to be the best! How am I starting that off? Resolutions. But not just random ones, because I'll never keep up with those. I've picked myself out a few that I know I can and will keep up with this year--ones that will make me a better and happier person.

I thought it may be a good idea to list out my main goals of 2016 in hopes of helping you create a good year for yourself  as well!

1. Sleep less, but sleep better.

This may sound a bit weird but I love sleep. I'm going to take a shot in the dark and guess that you do too, am I right? The issue with that is, when I have nowhere to go, I'll sleep in until I can't sleep any more and then I'll hang out in bed with my iPad on Netflix or CrunchyRoll. My goal is to go to bed at a decent time or at least try to and not sleep in past 10 on any day. If I can get myself on a decent sleep schedule, I'll feel less tired throughout the day and the more awake I am, the less grumpy I am!

2. Take my failures and turn them into learning experiences.

Being negative isn't good for anyone and can easily make you depressed. When you're depressed, you lose faith in yourself and in life, which makes continuing to push yourself and grow even more difficult. The best thing you can do is take those negatives and make them positives. I plan to start doing that by taking any failures I have and seeing them for what they really are: a way to learn and grow. Some times, you need to take a situation and look at it from a different angle, and that's what I plan to try and do.

3. Be able to run 3 miles.

This is definitely something I can accomplish and it's an extension of last year's goal to be able to run a mile. I find that taking a goal you've already passed and pushing yourself harder is another way to stay motivated. You already did it once? Why shouldn't you be able to do it multiple times and even better? My goal is to be able to run 3 miles by the end of the year and if I could push myself to run one mile in less than 6 months, I think I can get to 3 this year!

4. Keep pushing myself to go out and do things alone

Being alone is probably the hardest thing for a person to experience. It's hard to find things to do constantly and, at least for me, getting out and going places alone is a form of torture. I suffer from anxiety, which is something a lot of people experience, and mine stems from being alone. Last year, I went from not being able to go hardly anywhere by myself to being able to go to certain grocery stores, different shops and can officially run more important errands by myself. My goal of 2016 is to go even farther. I have my first vacation where I'll be traveling alone in just a month and I'm hoping that will open a lot of doors for me to continue going out there. Freaking out any time you're alone outside of your house or work makes life almost impossible some days, and, when your anxiety controls you, you become a not-so-great version of yourself. You always want to try and be the best version, so I plan to take more steps this year to continue to be a better Hannah.

5. Exercise and eat healthy

I know everyone has this goal and it's pretty much a staple in everyone's resolutions, but it's one that I do try and go for every year. To be honest, I may not exercise as much as I used to, but I do love to run and I enjoy dancing. I plan to try and do both of those more this year, which shouldn't be too hard. I recently graduated from college and have a few extra hours a week I'm going to dedicate to cleaning my life up (literally--I have a lot of things I need to organize) and working out. As far as eating goes, I generally eat more on the healthy side. I eat a lot of salad, chicken and tend to rarely go overboard on junk food. Don't get me wrong--I absolutely love chips. I'm especially fond of the brand they carry at Aldi's and could eat them all day, but I typically sort of feel when I should stop downing the entire bag and I do. As usual, I plan to try and cook more now that I have a bit more free time, as well as continue eating as I do with mostly chicken and rice. If you're looking to start a new diet, I highly recommend (and have been recommended myself by health nuts) chicken and rice. It's delicious, easy to make and quite good for you.

Let's make 2016 a good year together and cheer each other on with our goals for the year. The best way to continue with resolutions is by having lots of support. I'll be here to support you through yours--let's do this thing! :)

Superheroes Take 2016

2016 is the year of the superhero movies! Well, not technically, but I can't recall a year prior to 2016 where so many were coming out in theatres.

Deadpool

Set to release first on the 12th of February (just in time for Valentine's Day?), I'd say Deadpool is the most anticipated superhero movie of the year. His character is one anyone can appreciate--he is a hero that is constantly breaking the 4th wall in the comics, loves to talk, and is a total goofball. Of course, who would be better to play him than Ryan Reynolds, who is one of the goofiest guys in Hollywood right now.

Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice

Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't recall the previous Superman movie doing too well, so I'm looking forward to a new adaptation of the character. Personally, I enjoyed Man of Steel and I look forward to Henry Cavill getting another movie with the character. He definitely embodied Superman for me. We also have the first (maybe only because, with these, who knows) Batman movie with Ben Affleck as Batman! This movie is sort of full of firsts, though, because we also have Fast and Furious's Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, Ray Fisher as Cyborg (so excited for that!), Jason Mamoa as Aquaman (who's ready for his movie in 2018?) and last, but certainly not least, a new Flash, played by Ezra Miller. I'm quite anxious to see all these new characters on screen (or new actors as old characters) but a little nervous to see this Flash. I've grown rather attached to Grant Gustin in the CW's Flash. He nails the character for me, so this will be interesting! This movie is set to release a month after Deadpool on March 25, 2016.

Captain America: Civil War

Holy crap there are no words in the English language to express how excited I am for this one. I have loved every movie this Captain America has been in and I'm expecting to love this one just as much as Winter Soldier, if not even more. I think Chris Evans's portrayal of Captain America is absolutely on point for what these movies are calling for and his look is everything I could want in a Cap. I'm not going to lie, I wasn't this character's biggest fan before his first movie, but now I adore him. Prep yourselves for an epic storyline--one of my favorites in the comic universe! This releases May 6!

X-men: Apocalypse

This releases May 27th, so prep your wallets for May between this and Civil War! Okay, now, perhaps I'm more excited about this one than Civil War, simply because I grew up reading X-men comics my entire life so, by default, I have extremely high expectations for this one. This movie takes place after the previous, First Class sort of. It takes place after the events that occur in the 80's in First Class. Due to that, we will get some fabulous Jennifer Lawrence action, as well as some more of Michael Fassbender as Magneto and James McAvoy as my beloved Charles Xavier. I felt they did an excellent job casting those two as the mid-twenties versions of Magneto and Xavier, so I am quite pumped to see this story line play out.

Suicide Squad

I'm honestly going to completely bypass Suicide Squad because every preview I have seen thus far has continually disappointed me in casting, style, etc. I may not have read a lot of Suicide Squad comics, but I don't plan to see that one and I recommend you save your movie money to finish out the year because the two final movies for 2016 are going to be mind blowing, I'm fairly certain.

Gambit

It took everything in me to not title this in all capital letters because this is my favorite X-men character and one of my absolute favorites in comics altogether. I honestly have no idea why, but I don't remember loving anyone more than him ever for some reason.

This is set to release on October 7th and stars the always fabulous Channing Tatum as Gambit, the explosive card throwing mutant. That said, they've had some issues with the director so chances are it won't be coming out this year. I am still holding onto hope that I'll see my favorite X-men properly portrayed soon! There's really no back story to give--this will essentially be a movie about the character and is supposed to closely follow him in the comics. Yay for a canon movie!

Tatum is so fabulous.

Doctor Strange

As hard as it was for me to not write Gambit out in all capital letters, this is even more difficult. If you aren't living under a rock with current movie and tv releases, you'll know that Benedict Cumberbatch has blown up and we will be seeing an awful lot of him for quite a while. I mean, he's reported that the reason Sherlock (BBC TV show) has been so behind is because both he and his co-star Martin Freeman are too busy to film together with the other shows and movies they're filming.

Doctor Strange has been awaiting his film debut for a while, I feel, and this movie is bound to be epic with Cumberbatch portraying him. He looks just freaking like him in costume. Any ways, Doctor Strange is, well, basically magical just like Cumberbatch (sorry, I really love that guy). Quite similarly to his role as Sherlock, Strange is another narcissist and, after losing his hands in an accident ruining his career as a neurosurgeon, he ends up getting granted these magical powers. He's essentially going to be the gateway into the magical universe of Marvel.

Seriously guys, see this. If you can see no other superhero films this year, go and see this one. I promise you won't be disappointed. I will make no apologies for you finding yourself to be in Cumberbatch's fan club. Sorry not sorry! You can view the first preview trailer here and the movie is set to release on November 4th.

2016--the year of the superheroes, and I am not complaining one bit! Bring it on, 2016!

Staying Fit for the Holidays

Christmas, New Year's, Hanukkah--they're great. We eat delicious food, watch a lot of Netflix and, most of us, are probably playing all the video games as we can. Here's the hitch--when you sit around for that long eating, you're bound to lose energy. How can one get energy back? Well, you could drink a Red Bull or bury yourself in Christmas MnM's. But, let's be real, crashing after is less than fun.

So here I've got a short list of easy ways to get your heart pumping--or at least your butt off the couch. These suggestions are circuit training, so they're a list of different activities you do at one time. Before you start any of it, though, make sure you stretch! I don't care how in shape you are or how little time you may have--it's far better to stretch before a work out for a few minutes than to pull a muscle and be miserable on New Year's because of it. (I don't apologize for the cheesy holiday names I gave these.)

Grow Your Heart 3 Sizes

25 jumping jacks
7 push-ups
15 crunches
8 squats
25 jumping jacks
1 minute wall sit (I know, these are a struggle but they're really awesome for your muscles!)
7 push-ups
15 crunches
8 squats
20 knee highs

Rinse and repeat 3 times!

Melt Away the Snow

80 jumping jacks
20 calf raises
20 knee highs
20 squats
20 crunches
20 sit ups
30 reverse crunches
15 second plank

Repeat two or more times!

Baby It's Cooling Down Outside

10 jumping jacks
10 push-ups
10 squats
10 crunches
10 knee highs

Repeat 9 more times, reducing the number of each action by one each time

Melt Away the Snow is definitely a more difficult one--I honestly prefer the last one the most. It gets my heart pumping but then cools down as it goes. :) One important aspect to remember is to make sure you cool down after--stretch again, drink plenty of water and let your body calm itself down before continuing on. If you don't, you may regret it and experience a good amount of pain after.

Easy Comfort Food

We've covered easy gifts, now let's cover food because, let's be real, who doesn't love junk food?! I know I'm a real big fan.

These are all easy, cheap and require little effort. :) Let's do this!

1. Marshmallow Popcorn Bars

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 bags of popcorn (microwaveable)
• 4 cups mini marshmallows
• Non-stick spray (Pam works perfectly, and I'm sure you have some somewhere!)
• 1/4 cup butter
• 3/4 cup MnM's or some candy coated chocolates similar to those

This recipe is essentially like making rice crispy treats. Pop your popcorn bags, then dump it all in a bowl but pull out all the unpopped kernels. Then take a baking dish and spray your non-stick Pam or whatever in the pan lightly--just to coat it because you're about to have super sticky marsmallow all over. haha

Now, put your marshmallows and butter into a bowl and microwave for 2 minutes. Once they're done, you've got to move fast. Carefully stir the popcorn in with the marshmallow mixture and then add in the MnM's once it's all coated nicely.

Put it in your pan, toss it (not literally) in the fridge and you're done! Once it's cooled down, you can leave it out on a counter or whatever and enjoy. I really love popcorn so I think I'd probably eat the entire pan myself, which you can certainly do!

BONUS: You can also melt some chocolate slowly in a microwave (10 second increments or it will probably burn) and drizzle it over top or mix in pretzels with your popcorn and MnMs.

2. Handmade Jolly Rancher Pops

INGREDIENTS:

• Jolly Rancher candies
• Lollipop sticks

First, you need to preheat your oven to 200 degrees F. Once that's done, using a non-stick pan, stack up a few Jolly Ranches (2-3) and put them in the oven for 7-8 minutes. Basically, until they melt. Once they've melted, quickly add in your lollipop sticks and let them cool. After they've cooled, you can simply pry them off! Bam. The best part is that you can choose whatever flavors you like.

3. Pizza Ring

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 Tubes of Crescent Rolls
• 1/2 cup Tomato Sauce
• 1 cup Mozzarella (shredded is better than slices, in my opinion)
• 1 tablespoon Garlic Powder (totally optional but highly recommended)
• 1 tablespoon Italian Seasoning
• Pepperoni slices

This is a more complicated recipe, but if you're skilled in using an oven and have used crescent rolls before, I can't possibly recommend this more.

First off, preheat your oven to 425 degrees F and open up your crescent rolls. You want to take those out but not as triangles--use the rectangles, as you can see pictured below and place them on a pizza stone or a baking sheet (make sure you spray the sheet with Pam or something so it doesn't stick!). Once you've done that, spoon out the tomato sauce only in the first 3rd of the circle, layer on cheese and add in the pepperoni! The photo has pepperoni only on the right half, but you can do pepperoni on both sides. :)

Once that step is done, fold in the outsides to the inside and bake for 15-18 minutes. Once they're baked, sprinkle the garlic powder and Italian seasoning on top. They'll puff up pretty big and pull apart easily. Super yummy.

Quick and Cheap Holiday Gifts

With the holidays coming in quickly, it's time to buckle down and get our gifts together to give to those we love. That said, it's also the time of year to be short on cash and for those without an income, gift giving becomes even more difficult.

Thankfully for us living in this society, there's Pinterest. Bless Pinterest users for posting gift ideas that cost nothing or hardly anything at all. I have to say, up until a few months ago, I didn't really use it, but I think it's got some of the best ideas for gift giving especially!

1. Sugar Scrub
I feel like sugar scrubs and bath bombs are really popular this year. With the store Lush expanding all over the US, these items are becoming everyone who likes a good bath's favorites.

T sugar scrub is seriously the easiest product to make ever.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/2 cup oatmeal
• 1/4 cup baby oil
• 1 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup honey

I've found that you can replace the oil with a bit of extra honey. Simply throw all of that into a bowl, mix and bam, sugar scrub complete.

2. Bath Bomb

These are one of my favorites to make and they can cost a little bit of money, but that little bit can go a long way. Not only that, but you can customize these to look any way you want.

INGREDIENTS (makes 2.5 8oz bath bombs):

• 8 oz of baking soda
• 4 oz of citric acis
• 4 oz of corn starch
• 4 oz of finely grained Epsom salts
• 3/4 teaspoons of water
• 2 teaspoons of essential oil
• Round, plastic, snap together dome molds

These ingredients may look a bit intimidating, but they're really simple to make. Mix the dry ingredients in one bowl, the wet ingredients in another, combine and fill your molds! You'll need to leave them in the molds for a few minutes before carefully removing and setting on a towel or some wax (non-stick) paper.

My favorite part of making these is the customization. If you have a friend that loves all things pink and glittery like me, you can drop some pink food coloring in the mixture and then put some edible glitter in the bottom of the mold before adding it all in. You can also add in scents if you have those or want to go above and beyond or even sprinkles. Definitely my type of craft.

3. Coloring Book
Now, this sounds really silly, I know, but this is another gift that is really popular right now. Adult coloring books. The designs are more intricate and complicated but I know a lot of people that enjoy these and you can certainly print out your own.

I spent less than 30 seconds typing "free adult coloring book download" and found tons of websites right away that have free to print pages. This page was the first to come up and it looks pretty good to me.

So simply print out some pages, make yourself a cover, and then you can either staple it or punch holes on the side and tie it together with string or ribbon. Easy mode activate.

4. Cookie Butter
This is for those that love to eat or have a huge sweet tooth. It's also for those that have a blender or food processor.

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups cookie crumbs
• 1/2 stick butter
• 1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
• 1/4 cup evaporated milk

First, you need to take some cookies--any kind will work, and crush them up. If you have a cookie with a filling like an Oreo, make sure you remove the filling. I find a food processor works best for this but you can use a blender or simply put them in a bag and take a hammer to them (I'm not joking--that's how I make a graham cracker crust for cheese cake). Once you have your 2 cups of crumbs, you'll want to melt your butter on a stove top and slowly pour in the two types of milk until they're all combined. Then, using a bit at a time, mix your liquid ingredients in with your crumbs.

Put that in a jar or container of some kind and bam! Cookie butter. You can put it on pretzels, crackers, bread--whatever. It's delicious. :)

Have any other ideas for easy gifts? Comment them or tag us in them on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram! :)

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 Review

Before I go any further, if you have not yet read the Mockingjay, I recommend you stop reading as this post will most definitely contain spoilers. :)

First, I'd like to put a mention out there simply for this film's movie posters alone. I was quite excited and impressed by the following one in particular. The whole idea behind these books is that Katniss Everdeen, played by Jennifer Lawrence, is that everyone wants to fight--fight the Capitol, fight the rebels, fight against the hunger games...everyone's fighting--except Katniss. All she ever wants is peace and to live her life for herself. Yet she is continually wrapped up into the plans of those around her. This poster is brilliant because, just looking at Lawrence, you can see that in her face. I just love that more than words can even say.

Now let's move onto the movie!

This is going to be a bit of a long post simply because there's so much to cover in this book to movie.

As we all know, the previous film ended with Peeta in the hospital, as well as Katniss after he tried to strangle her. While trapped at the Capitol, he was given tracker jacker venom making his mind extremely confused, to say the least. Katniss finally gets out of her room to see President Coin rallying her district against the Capitol.

So now we get into the action--literally immediately. It was so funny because I went to see the film with my boyfriend and found out afterwards that he had to use the restroom from the very get go, but couldn't bear to leave because the action was so nonstop intense.

I'm going to try and skip anything I don't feel is worth mentioning because there was so much that was excellent.

Let's jump ahead to Katniss's hiding on a medical supply plane to make it to the battlefield where the rebels plan to take the Nut, which is the hub of the Capitol's military supplies. We get to one of my favorite minor characters Commandor Paylor, portrayed by Patina Miller. Words can't describe how much I enjoyed her portrayal of the future new leader of Panem. I'm not sure exactly what it was about her portrayal--and it could have even been her look. She has this air of kindness, mixed in with kindness and intellect. It's quite hard to explain but, even in her first scene, which was rather brief, she won my heart instantly.

The rebels take the Nut and Katniss is shot, just like in the book, and ends up back in the hospital with bruised ribs.

We get to Finnick and Annie's wedding, which isn't shown to be used as a propo as I remember in the book. I was honestly a little worried this would get cut out, because it is such a quick little moment, but it was there and it was lovely! Katniss has a great moment dancing around with her sister Prim and it's one of the few happier moments. Of course, Katniss's head is still spinning out of control and I honestly got a little nauseous near the end of that scene while the camera spun around and around. If you're prone to motion sickness, feel free to turn away. I promise you nothing will be missed!

We also get the treat of seeing Johanna quite a number of times but not nearly as much as I remember in the book. As in the book, Johanna steals some of Katniss's pain killers and has some "oh so lovely" words to say to her while Katniss is down with the broken ribs. We don't get to see either of them train again, nor do we get to see them become friends. However, Johanna does still inspire Katniss to want to assassinate Snow herself. In the book, I remember Johanna being told she couldn't go to battle, so she asks Katniss to murder Snow for her. I have to say, I really found myself liking Johanna in the book, but she was given way less screen time in the movie preventing that for those only watching the movies.

Now, let's get to war. As in the books, Katniss is put on a team with Gale, the camera crew (Cressida, Pollux and Castor), Finnick, Boggs and some people I could care less about (sorry to those actors playing those characters!). Pollux is one of my favorite characters in the book, so I was probably most excited for this movie to see more of him, especially because Elden Henson (the actor playing that role) was perfect for my interpretation. After they experience their first pod (which was a giant explosion), the crew rests and they are given Peeta on their team to be in some propos. This is where the action picks up and really never stops.

The next pod is a bunch of machine guns (I think, I'm not too familiar with guns), followed immediately by another pod that takes off Boggs's legs. Despite the fact that we got less Boggs in the movie than the book, I sobbed as he transferred security of the Holo to Katniss before dying. Of course, we are given enough of Boggs to have him reveal to Katniss what he thinks Coin's real plan is, helping Katniss to see the truth in all of this: Coin wants Snow dead so she can take over Panem. That said, Coin needs Katniss dead so she can insure her win in the future election for president. Let's be real, we all know Katniss can't stand Coin so she most certainly wouldn't support her candidacy for president.

Boggs is dead, they lose a few more members to Peacekeepers and the black oil sludge flood of doom and Katniss has to quickly convince her team that their real mission as a team is to get Katniss to Snow for the assassination. Let's be real, neither Snow or Coin are great so, at this point, killing either is an excellent idea. With the help of Cressida, they convince the rest of their team and move forward towards Snow's mansion. Then we get my favorite characters moment: Pollux leads them through the sewers and underground tunnels to avoid all above ground pods. He is just such an adorable character, and I love him. I promise I won't gush about this character any more.

Of course, we see the Mutts. Now, I went ahead and looked this up because I don't recall them looking like this in previous movies and I was right. We saw these guys before, but apparently different versions, according to what I looked up. I was pretty sure I only remembered there being one type of Mutt in the books, but I suppose either the movie took liberties or I just don't remember them like that. In this book, we get Lizard Mutts, aka really gross looking water zombies, as I like to call them. They honestly remind me a bit of the Marvel character Venom. haha With that, I was rather disappointed that they went with this look rather than that of the original Mutts, the combination of werewolves that had the faces of fallen tributes from the Games. But now I can't remember if there was another kind of Mutt or not.

No we're down to 5. Pollux, Cressida, Peeta, Gale and Katniss and to a moment of extreme happiness on my part, as well as disappointment. We finally get to see Tigris. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't extremely excited to see this character come to life. She is super minor and is only briefly shown, but they completely nailed it. Tigris, like in the book, gives the team a place to rest safely, but it's only for one night in the movie. This is where I was slightly disappointed: the crew uses Snow's offering of shelter to all Capitol residents to make their way forward but, in the movie, it's only Gale and Katniss. I understand that most movies try to push the guy that doesn't get the girl as much as possible (hello Twilight's Jacob Black) but I found myself a little irritated that they cut out the other 3 going as well. That was a turning point in the book for me because everyone was in 100%. It almost seemed like the other three were kind of like, "Yeah, um, we (Cressida and Pollux) don't want to risk our lives any more and Peeta isn't mentally stable (even though he was at that point), so good luck, guys!" Not a fan. :D

Unfortunately, we don't get to see the pods continuing to go off splitting the road in half or the purple laser of death killing more residents of the Capitol. Instead, we cut right to Gale getting caught and captured by Peacekeepers as Katniss makes a break for the mansion gates. As in the book, Katniss sees Prim one last time before the parachute bombs take out she and many other residents of the Capitol.

Once again, the movie stays true to the book up until after Coin's death. Rather than Katniss being acquitted, thanks to testimonies by Gale and another favorite character of mine, Beetee, she is told her she will be pardoned by the new president, Paylor, once things die down. This was a hard moment to bear, because she was then read a letter from Plutarch by Haymitch, as the Philip Seymour Hoffman (Plutarch) died before they could film this scene. I absolutely adored him, so this was a difficult pill to swallow, especially because I'm certain Lawrence and Woody Harrelson struggled getting that scene done. It was originally a scene meant to have Plutarch explaining all of this to Katniss himself.

Katniss is, as in the books, sent back to her district to live and is later joined by Peeta to live happily ever after... with Prim's beloved cat. Yep, don't worry, the cat is safe and living back in her district. I have absolutely no idea how she got there, but it was a great moment that certainly lightened the seriousness up.

All in all, I felt this book was the closest to the books than any of the other movies, and I was extremely happy with it. There were some disappointing moment but the majority of the movie was amazing. I highly recommend you read the books as well as see the movies but, in the case of this one, reading the books won't give you too much more than what is included in the movie.

Now go and support this movie and see it! :) Then tell me how you liked it!

KPop

After speaking to a number of you guys at events and such, you've learned by now that I don't really listen to English music. I mean, I still love groups like Muse and the Beatles, and I'm a huge fan of Ingrid Michaelson (saw her in concert last year--it was fabulous!!). I occasionally listen to new American music, but it just isn't for me, you know? Kinda like some people don't like country. Though I do like some country, I have to be honest. haha

I think the draw for me is the lyrics, while they may make zero sense to you, I learned a lot of the language and they're so much more simple and lovely. It's refreshing and takes me back to the music I loved growing up in the 90s.

So I'm going to start with KPop today because I feel like most people have heard at least one KPop song, even if it is just a song by Psy. By the way, contrary to popular belief, he is definitely more popular overseas than in South Korea.

Today, I'm just going to give you some suggestions from my own experiences to try and draw you into my world of Asian music!

My first recommendation is GFRIEND. They're a new group, but they're super fresh and bubble gum pop sounding. I think they're super cute and their music is really catchy. It's kind of like the old school Britney Spears. Light, fluffy, happy music.

Then you could go for something like SHINEE. I don't listen to them, but they're huge with a lot of my friends. It's a cool guy group, I have to attach a photo because I don't know how else to explain them. They're a male pop idol group, they're totally funny and weird on TV and their music is pretty intense. Now, I don't like male groups in general--it's just not my style, but I like these guys. I was watching a TV show Taemin (2nd from the left) was in a little while back recently. He's adorable.

My third recommendation is definitely on the hip hop side of pop, which is why I'm recommending them. They're not exactly new, but they didn't really become big until this year. I'm not going to lie, their music videos are weird. I remember watching Up & Down and spent the entire time like,"What is actually going on." But the songs are great. They have a lot of rapping in them, if you're into that, and the chorus is, again, catchy. Kpop tends to do that.

Other recommendations of groups I'm a big fan of are Red Velvet, Girls' Generation, Girl's Day, April, MAMAMOO, Lovelyz, AOA, Hello Venus, Nine Muses, Dal Shabet, Ladies' Code, SISTAR...those are the main groups I try to stay on top of. In terms of guy groups, if you like one, you'll probably like most. B2ST, ZE:A, INFINITE, Block B, B1A4, BTOB (look at all these B names haha), BTS, VIXX... I could go on for hours. There's a lot. haha

Pictured Above: Red Velvet (Dumb Dumb album)

If you listen to these, let me know what you thought of them next time you're in, give me some of your music recommendations (not One Direction--I'm already recommended that a lot hahaha), or you can comment them here. :)