So on Tuesday Nights my friends and I sometimes go to Bomber’s to Trivia and this week was the first time we’d gone since I’d gotten my Younique Presenter’s Kit so I wanted to test it out. Now, in my opinion the make-up looked so much better in person than on camera. But I’m still going to post the pictures here just so you can see them.
This is straight on.
This is from above. (Please excuse the fact that my closet is on the floor behind me)
This is in bar lighting.
The products I used are titled and listed below. It was really fun experimenting with all of this stuff. I still need some practice with the Dip&Draw eyeliner and also some of the brushes. I probably also need some new types of brushes that I don’t have yet.
In my previous post about Tor Books I stated that a book came out March 16th, 2019. This is incorrect. The book The Tesla Legacy was actually due to be published tomorrow March 12th 2019. The tweet confirming is quoted below.
Only 1 day until you get to meet my kickass scientist Lucy Phelps!
If you want to know what Bruce Banner would be like as a high school girl, then you need THE TESLA LEGACY in your life!
Younique is a concierge make-up company kind
of like Mary Kay or Pampered Chef in design. You
have one seller that can do parties for you and explain products and the person
hosting earns perks. The person selling can also recruit, which is how I
started selling and why I’m writing this post.
One of my friends from high school started
selling Younique on Facebook and my first thought was ‘Oh great, another person
who’s going to bombard my feed with crap.’ But then I started watching her live
videos and bought the make-up to support her. From there I was hooked. This is
just as good as anything I’ve ever gotten from Sephora or CVS or any of the places
that I’ve bought make-up from.
I will say it is closer to a Sephora price
point, and maybe that’s not what most can afford. But it is totally worth the
price.
So when I started buying from her I had
just done it to support her because I already had a job and wasn’t looking for
a new one or a new expense. But now, probably six months later, I’ve found myself
buying the Presenter’s kit and coming on board as a seller. These things can be
addicting but so far I’m not sorry that I’ve done it. I could use some extra
cash, and I could also use some me time. This gives me both.
I have included my selling link on my about me page. I’ll include my selling link and my join link at the bottom of this post. But please know this will not change my blog. It will still be mostly book centric. I just wanna have a little fun.
It
started with an advertisement on Facebook for Tor Books “Free eBook of the
Month Club” and who could resist a free eBook every month? The first book of
the month was V. E. Schwab’s A Darker
Shade of Magic. I had heard about this book from friends and my Goodreads
feed, but I hadn’t really heard much about it plot wise just that it was a good
book. But then I started reading it and I was hooked. Not to mention look at
this great cover:
The cover alone is like a summary of the
book. And with this as my introduction to the imprint how could I not be
excited to discover more books curated by them? So, I followed their Instagram.
I hadn’t really finished a book by them,
or by anyone really, because I was in sort of a reading funk. But between
Stephen King’s It which consumed most
of last year, and Tamora Pierce’s Tempests
and Slaughter I finally felt like my reading slump had ended. But what to
read next? I didn’t want to pick up A
Darker Shade of Magic again just yet. Not because it’s not a good book,
just because it wasn’t the type of book I was craving. It was too real world
still, I needed a complete escape. Enter Mistborn
by Brandon Sanderson, another book with an AMAZING cover:
This cover is just so gorgeous and
interesting to look at that I couldn’t help but be drawn to it when I first saw
it. But that’s not why I had picked up this book. I had first heard of Brandon
Sanderson’s books from Critical Role and Tor Books sponsorship of them but I
had never known where to start with them. Mistborn
was exactly what I was looking for in a book because it was short enough to
read in a couple of months (as opposed to taking me an entire year) and it was
enough out of this world for me to escape into its setting. And that’s what I
needed at the time.
A
Darker Shade of Magic
was just too grounded in reality still to accomplish that task. But that’s part
of what makes Tor Books so perfect to me. They have books that cover every
level of real-world grounded settings. Mistborn
is one that has minor similarities to the real world where you can see the
influences that historical background has had. But that’s about it as far as real-world
similarities. A Darker Shade of Magic
has London as its real-world tether with side worlds that are less connected but
still based on the standard society.
But Tor also has books that just twist the
real world slightly. I just received an ARC from a give away I entered called The Tesla Legacy by K.K. Perez and I am
so excited to read it. It seems to treat Tesla like Sanctuary does, but with a twist and it is most definitely grounded
in modern day America/World (I haven’t gotten far enough to determine a
definite setting. Once I do, I will definitely do a review). The cover on this
one is just as gorgeous as the rest:
And I just have the ARC. So I can’t wait
to see what the finished product is like.
This book comes out March 16th,
2019 and it’s ARC give away and the free ebook are the only ways in which I was
“compensated” for this review and they had no idea I was going to write this to
begin with. As I’ve said in the past, nothing I write about on this blog ahs
anything to do with sponsorship. They are all things I genuinely like and enjoy
and Tor Books imprint is no different. They have books I love, they have great
editors from what I’ve seen (you’d think this wasn’t important as long as the
story is good but I’ve found that to be very untrue), and their cover designers
are awesome!
So, in conclusion, I 10/10 would recommend
Tor Books as an imprint to check out, as well as each of these books I have
mentioned in this post.
This past weekend it snowed about two feet at my house, making the outside an undesirable place to be. Luckily, Hulu and Netflix have many many things that I have placed on my Watchlist. Unfortunately for my Watchlist Castle Rock was not one of them, meaning that Watchlist is still just as big as it was before. Now, Castle Rock hadn’t been on my watchlist previously because I hadn’t thought to put it on once it had come out. But on Friday someone had mentioned watching Castle Rock, thus started the weekend binge. I finished this series in two days, the fastest I’ve ever finished a series.
The series starts out with a sheriff of a small town searching the woods only to find a young boy standing in the middle of a frozen lake. The town the sheriff is from: Castle Rock, Maine; the year: 1991. Now, fast forward to 2018, it has been 27 years since the scene with the forest and we are now follow a man get ready for his day. He is retiring today, but his secret won’t let him. But he is not the focus of the story; his secret is. Can you believe that this is just the first half of the first episode?
This show definitely does suspense very well. But what do you expect from a series based off of the works of Stephen King? It keeps you captivated and intrigued the entire time. It keeps you guessing and makes you gasp. You will always think you know what’s going on but then suddenly be confused. It is very good at making you think. That being said, it’s not an easy series to understand on its own. If I hadn’t spent the entirety of last year reading It, I wouldn’t have understood most of what was going on. I also have background from other Stephen King Stories that I’ve either read, or watched as a show or a movie.
(Spoilers Ahead)
Without this background I wouldn’t have understood anything having to do with the hotel episodes.The episode where they brought in the rift and world traveling barely made sense as it was. Three entire character backstories would have made no sense at all. I’m still kind of confused by the episode about Henry’s mother. (It was cool that she played Carrie in the original movie though.) So over all I think that it’s a good show for the right audience but I don’t think it’s a show that anyone could watch and immediately get into.
This opinion is more solidified by the Syfy network show Haven (currently on Netflix). When I had started watching Haven I had just barely heard of Stephen King. I hadn’t read any of his books and I had only ever seen two of the movies made based on them. But when I watched Haven I wasn’t confused at all. Haven was its own story that could be followed without any other story. It was fun to try and find references to the other stories, but they weren’t an integral part of the main plot. (I almost made a terrible pun there, be proud that I didn’t.) It was a good introduction to the Stephen King universe.
This book was well worth the wait and I cannot wait for the rest of the series. I am going to try to write this review without giving anything away from all of her other books as well as this one. Tamora Pierce’s books are pretty easy to read as separate series without being lost on what is going on. So I started by reading The Immortals Quartet and then went back to read the other series. The Immortals Quartet is where I was first introduced to a majority of the characters in this book. So I know much more about them than someone who was reading this book first. Arram is the reason I fell in love with these books in the first place, and he is the reason I was so desperate to get my hands on this book.
This book follows Arram from age 11 and continues on until he is 15. It follows him as he meets new friends, tries to find out who he is, and tries to figure out who would make him their enemy. Now, if you know the rest of the story you know how exciting even the smallest detail about Arram’s Carthak life can be, but for new readers this probably sounds quite boring. But this book was anything but that.
Arram Draper is the son of a cloth maker who lives in a country called Tyra. They aren’t in the wealthiest of classes, but they are still merchants. They have a good plot of land, and enough money to send their extremely gifted son to a very good school. Now, this is no ordinary school and Arram is no ordinary student. Don’t get me wrong, this school is no Hogwarts, there are no fancy robes required to attend classes. The subjects aren’t outrageous, but they aren’t uninteresting either. Arram’s power is one to be reckoned with, and when you throw in a few meddling Gods, a cute little bind, and a plot for an Empire you get an interesting kick-off to what hopes to be a brilliant new series.
Here comes the part where reading the rest of the books makes this more interesting: Ever wonder what Ozorne was like as a child? Or how he and Varice became so entangled? How about their favorite teacher Lindhall? And wait? Is that The Sarge? And how cute are these besties? These answers and more are in this book, making it well worth the wait in my opinion.
This book was so fascinating to me. It follows the life of a girl living in Ripper era London with her Father, her brother, and some pretty high societal expectations. Her Uncle was a doctor with a university position and the ability to perform autopsies. She was a female with a brain too big for her societal expectations and a father too strict to break propriety leading to illicit lessons in forensic science and some next level sneaking around. From carrying extra clothes in her carriage to slipping out in the middle of the night, she had investigative aspirations that reached the sky. Unfortunately, sky high aspirations rarely lead to grounded scientific breakthroughs and this was no different.
Andrey Rose Wadsworth was happy to study under her Uncle. But when the infamous Whitechapel murders threw a wrench in that plan by resulting in her Uncle’s arrest it came down to her and her intellectual rival / eventual love interest to solve the mystery and save the day. With his help, and the notes of the murders, could she fix everything and save her family? Or would it end up breaking it forever? This is the basic summary of just about every heroine story in the YA section of the bookstore with slight variations on what’s being destroyed forever. The difference between this book and the usual heroine stories is the historical aspects of it.
This book brings in just enough detail to bring you in to the times but also lacking just enough to pique your interest and make you want to know more. For me, my brain instantly wanted to know more about the accuracy of the forensic advancement described in the book. For others, the social aspect was more fascinating. The intricacies of propriety and scientific exploration in London’s 1800’s will clearly never cease to be of interest to people, the social aspect was more fascinating. The intricacies of propriety and scientific exploration in London’s 1800’s will clearly never cease to be of interest to people. There is still so much to explore and different perspectives to explore in. I am excited to read the latest installments and see what level she takes the twists to. My overall opinion is that it’s both a good read, and an interesting window into the historical time it portrays.
So I have been subscribed to Lootcrate for a while now and I’ve always been really satisfied with what they send. But this time I had forgotten to skip a month where I wasn’t super excited about what brands were included in the crate. There have obviously been other times where maybe all of the brands weren’t my favorite but then I’ve just kept what I didn’t want or given them away. But now I’m trying to de-clutter and no one I know will want these items so I was hoping to sell them.
The thing is I’m not really sure how to go about it. So I am asking for suggestions or interest. Would anyone here like to buy a few things from Lootcrate?
So there’s this new website that has been live for, a couple of months by now I believe, called Writely. It’s a subscription based website that encourages you to write everyday. It has a forum for sharing writing and other discussions, a points system to reward you for writing, and tutorial writings that teach you how to do different types of writing. A few people on the forum said they were very excited for the app to be released and couldn’t wait for it to launch. I hadn’t had that kind of anticipation for it so this will be more of a casual review of it.
I liked the idea of this app when I first signed up to beta it, but its functionality doesn’t live up to what I had hoped. Granted, it is still in beta so it may get better with other people and other feedback. The app isn’t a phone app so it’s hard to use when you don’t have access to a computer, which describes most of my day. It also makes it hard to actually achieve the word count I’d like to for the day because I can’t access the web app everywhere I go.
I think with a few adjustments or with the addition of a phone or desktop app this could be a really useful tool for most people. I also think that with the addition of features like Scribophile has the interactive features of the site could also help a lot of people with editing and such. Before anyone who uses Writely complains that neither of these are the point of Writely; I know. I know that the point of the app is to get as many words written and projects finished as possible. But finishing the project is only half the battle. If you’re actually going to do anything with it, besides have it sit and collect digital dust on a hard drive somewhere, you need to edit it and send it out.
So do I think it’s worth checking out the free trial and maybe using if you have a specific project you want to get accomplished in a certain amount of time? Yes. Do I think it is a program I will pay for over a long period of time? No. I think I will eventually find that it does not benefit me as much as it would need to for the amount that it costs.
Disclaimer 1: I have not been paid for this review. I do not get paid for anything I post.
Disclaimer 2: I do not edit any of my posts. They are all just stream of consciousness kind of things. So if they are worded poorly or if they have typos, that is why. Usually it is because my brain moves faster than my fingers and forms five different versions of the same sentence resulting in a combination of all of them. Sometimes it’s just that I’m tired and/or distracted by the other people who live in my house. The later is the case for this particular post.
Obviously by the title this is about Evanescence’s new album Synthesis which is out now and can be purchased or listened to in multiple places, so I feel I should make it clear that I am not being paid for any of the rest of the article. The following is just my own personal opinion of the album and websites discussed in this post.
Okay, so now that that’s out of the way. Let me just say that I absolutely LOVE this album! For those of you who don’t know, the concept for this album is basically the classic Evanescence songs but with a full orchestra and other instruments non-traditional for rock band based music. It is really cool!
As someone who in general likes orchestral instruments better than any electric instruments, I was all about it from the beginning. There’s just something about them that make things sound more epic/movie magic level. The sound is fuller and with headphones you can almost pick out each individual instrument while also hearing them all as a whole. There are so many different elements and movements to focus on that you can listen to a song a bunch of times and it will still sound different each time. Most of the songs on the album are already on their other albums but they all sound so new and interesting that I don’t even mind.
You know how when bands re-release songs or have a Greatest Hits album and you’re like “I’m a fan so I want this” but also like “But do I really want to spend more money on songs I already have?” (In the end I usually end up buying them anyway just for the fan-cred.). When I saw the song list that’s sort of what when through my brain, but when I listened to them when they were released on Youtube (evanescencevideo) and Spotify it completely changed my mind because they were just so gorgeous and new.
I did say most of the songs are old, but there are two completely new songs with lyrics and two new songs that are purely instrumental. Which adds even more new music excitement to this already pretty exciting album. But I think that best part of the new versions and the new songs is that you can hear Amy Lee’s absolutely gorgeous voice and vocal range even better on this new album. Without the rock background she’s just so clear and pure over the top of the music, like her vocals got drowned out before.
Overall, the album is just amazing and I would totally recommend you listen to it or even buy it. And if you want to they are doing a give away on Tunespeak. My personalized link is in the about me tab and then we both get entries. The winning prize includes a signed Synthesis cd. So go ahead and check that out too.
mercury205
Boredom and Words of Nothingness 
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