Not make-up related: news!

I'm really, really exited because I've found a new job! It's a small business with great products, I'm not taking a paycut and the hours are just as good, if not better because I'm a casual again (instead of being part-time). What has me personally relieved is that there is no uniform and the dress code is smart-casual. So I'll be able to wear coloured polish and eye makeup again! I can feel myself relaxing already! I'm giving my two weeks notice at my current job tomorrow, and by the time uni starts I will have finished there and be finishing my initial probation at the new job. You can expect to see a LOT more NotDs and EotDs from me now, and maybe even some more jewelry making (since I have to get my study ready for the semester, I might be able to set myself up a craft station as well).

It's sad how customers can ruin a job for you. I think if the company itself hadn't been so ridiculously strict on some things I could have handled that particular stress a little more easily... vice versa, maybe if we didn't have such a high percentage of rude/demanding customers, it might have left me with more head-space to shrug off management issues I had problems with. But things being what they were, I decided that having the mental capacity to concentrate on graduating at the end of the year was more important than trying to stick it out at a job that was increasingly stressing me out.

My boyfriend has been wonderfully supportive through my decision-making process. I have to stay I'm glad it happened now rather than 6-7 months ago when I was still at home, as my parents were really skeptical about me leaving such a "good" job (and I am still very much concerned with their approval :/). They are an extremely generous company to both staff and customers, don't get me wrong, but... No amount of training sessions or discounts or free product is enough for me to pander to customers being rude and demanding! You don't get to walk all over me because you 'contribute' to my paycheck. That is NOT how it works for me and since that seemed to be how my workplace did it, I felt it was time to find an employer who was a better fit for my personality and my beliefs. That it happened so quickly, and with a company who sells product I am actually passionate about is a huge blessing. When I say quickly, I mean I dropped my resume there on a Tuesday morning, received a phone call from them Tuesday afternoon, had the interview on Friday and am starting Monday (tomorrow!) It was amazing and ridiculous and I'm really nervous but also happy. I am going to miss the amazing co-workers from my old job, but if I put aside all my money worries and my anxiety about learning new things, I know I will be much better off with this new job.

Just so this isn't a wall of text, here's the Australis flaky over a taupe franken!

MORE FUN NAIL TIMES TO COME.

P.S. Check out my rant/essay on customer service at my other blog, where there will be more book and comic book reviews soon. /plugplug

A stove and nails and animals

I got home from work tonight with the intention of doing swatches and finishing up the post for my Silk Naturals Kisser Slickers review. Instead, I did this:

That, ladies and gentlefolk, is the cleanest damn stove in all of Australia right now. Not pictured is the cleanest damn kitchen that it lives in, because it's the boyfriend's turn to put the dishes away and of course he hasn't done that yet. It is also a newly repaired stove - the ignitors on the two front burners have been no-worky since we moved it, and the technician finally got the parts in for us and fixed it yesterday. We waited a month for our property manager to start doing something about the problem, a month for the parts, and then it took the technician TWENTY MINUTES to fix. Riiiight.

Two months since my last post! How did that happen?! I have been working on my nails in that time (read: whining about the fact that they split and peel all the bloody time, and moisturising like crazy). IT HAS PAID OFF. Here's a pic of the fabulousness before something bad happens to them.

Picture taken with my new camera that doesn't do macro as great as the old one, but I couldn't find the old one so it'll have to do. Polish is a franken I made for work. YES, my nails are rounded! Some of my fingernails aren't really... symmetrical. Especially the middle finger of my right hand, that nail curves inward quite dramatically on one side so when my nails are long and squared, it looks really weird and is actually quite uncomfortable. I decided to try out a rounded shape with the amazing length, and lo and behold, me likey!

I have lots of reviews to do, here AND over at Jade Likes Words for those of you who like reading about books and comics. I am going to do my darndest to post once a week in both places. And you can poke me via Twitter if I don't!

Speaking of Twitter, I'm going to be online a lot less often for a while as I've, er, misplaced my phone. It's literally disappeared. I remember having it in my hand when I got home from work and then just POW! Can't find it bloody anywhere. The things I have done whilst trying to find that thing are absolutely ridiculous (read: I checked the microwave, and shook every piece of clean laundry in the laundry basket, and searched the pockets of bags I haven't used in months). It's a bit of a bummer because 1) being without a phone SUCKS and 2) I still have about 7 months left on my contract for it, so if I have to get it replaced it will be kind of expensive.

On a happier and more picturesque note, over Christmas my grandparents were visiting from Melbourne (well, that wasn't a happy note for my parents who had to deal with doddery and extremely passive-aggressive oldies for two weeks) so here are some snaps from the Perth zoo.

AMINALS AWAY

Meerkat

Pretty flower

Bamboo graffiti. BAMBOO. GRAFFITI. I so do not remember seeing that the last time I went to the zoo.

TOIRTOISE

Meerkat butt

Rhino, chillin'

While I was going through these photos I found this photo from our Sydney trip of several months ago:

Carrot cake from Starbucks. God I miss you.

(there will be honest-to-god real posts soon. After all, now the kitchen's clean I have nothing else to d- oh shit I have work tomorrow. Raincheck?)

Face Painting

What does one do when the uni semester is over?

Convince people to let them put make up on their faces, of course!

I went over to my darling Elimy's house and had a peek at her stash.  (When I say stash, I'm only calling it that because that's what I call mine but of course but I have a blogger's stash and she has a normal person's stash.  As opposed to Tom Sellick, who has a regular stash.)



It is Movember, after all.

 It was really interesting working away from my usual cache of various instruments/ make up craziness.  But it was fun, too, challenging myself to think outside the square.  Box.  Ha.  I haven't had the opportunity to do makeup on some one else since doing theatre and that's a whole different kettle of fish.  I really liked the end result, and Elimy didn't say she hated it, so that's a plus. 

I used mostly powder shadows from various "drugstore palettes" and used one brush from Priceline.  Without further ado, please view my handiwork, and Elimy's pretty eyes.

I used a translucent white gold from lashline to brow bone, a soft dirty purple in the crease, pale pink in the centre of the lid to create a focal point and peacock green in the outer V.  There is also eyeliner on the lower lashline.  I wanted to emulate Elimy's style which is very soft and natural but also wanted to add a pop of colour.  To complete the look I added pinky blush and lipstick.  I let Elimy do the rest of her face, including foundation etc.  She used Fit Me 115 which she recommends to anyone thinking of trying it. 

All in all I had a lot of fun and will sneak some more colour in next time if she lets me. 

New blog

Let's face it: this blog, and its followers, are mostly make-up oriented.

Comics, books and writing are huge passions of mine, and were with me long before I discovered make-up. I want these parts of me to have their own space, and so I've started up a new blog called Jade likes words.

If you're interested in reading my rants and reviews about comics, novels, and my writing journey, please head over there. This blog will continue, never fear, and it will now be pretty much exlcusive to make-up and nail stuff.

Head over to the new blog if you've been interested in my wordy stuff, otherwise you can stop looking at the tags at the top of the posts to make sure you'll be reading about sparklies!

An open letter to all indie sellers who aren't GlitterSniffer Cosmetics

I was visiting the Glittersniffer Complaints Facebook page today when an exchange unfolded that had me almost literally headdesking. I'm posting it in sections, because my laptop monitor is teeny weeny and the relevant comments were a bit lower down.

It went on, and is probably still going, but I honestly didn't want to read any more. It has become infinitely clear to me that a lot of people don't actually care what goes into the things that they buy, use or even eat. Apparently, customer service is also a negligible part of buying, too!

I don't know about you, but I like to know a bit about companies that I buy from, especially online. I want to make sure that not only am I getting quality product, but that I am supporting good business practices. I dislike the idea of A) throwing my money away, or B) enabling somebody to continue ripping people off, lying to and harming people. Even if I've never had a bad reaction to a seller's products, or had bad CS, or a 'missing' parcel... I want to know about it. I want to ensure I'm encouraging good business practising with my spending habits - the only really effective way to do so, in some cases. Ignoring other people's bad experiences is short-sighted, and in my opinion, incredibly selfish.

In light of this, I wanted to write an open letter of gratitude to all of the honest, genuine, hard-working indie companies out there - more than I could name in this post, as I haven't tried them all yet.

Dear companies:

Thankyou for observing FDA regulations, for always being upfront about your ingredients and giving options to those people who are allergic to common ingredients like talc and bismuth, or those who don't want to use beeswax and carmine.

Thankyou for knowing WHAT is in your products and WHY. Thankyou for all your research and experiments and hard work in making the best and most unique products you can.

Thankyou for wearing gloves, sterilising your instruments and packaging your products carefully.

Thankyou for shipping things on time, and for updating ALL your customers when you can't because of extenuating circumstances.

Thankyou for listening to your customers - combining orders, making new products, altering old ones, making custom listings, giving advice, changing the way you do samples.

Thankyou for taking criticism gracefully and using it to help improve your company, rather than taking it personally and reacting badly.

Thankyou for combining your creativity, vision and skill with sound business sense, ethical practises and a solid understanding of what makes good customer service.

Thankyou for replying to emails, convos, tweets and making us feel like we are important to you.

Thankyou, above all, for being trustworthy.

*    *    *

I'm also going to plug the Sparkledex again. Blogging  has become a vital part of the online community - no matter whether you're buying make-up, bath stuff, embroidered pencil cases or silicone phone cases. You're almost always stepping into the unknown, buying a product you've never seen in person from a complete stranger over the internet. Blogging helps take away that uncertainty, and give you a better idea of what you're getting yourself into. Unfortunately, most bloggers don't have unlimited income or time with which to blaze the trail constantly.

The Sparkledex will allow us to pool our resources when it comes to the indie MMU and B&B sphere. We can collect material, pointing the way to places where potential customers can get the information they need, to make a decision they are happy with. If you've recently reviewed a company, go add your review to their page! Or if they don't yet have a page, make one. Many hands make light work, and a full Sparkledex is a happy and useful Sparkledex (many thanks to VijiiS who edits like a boss and has made all the current Company pages look amazing).

Also I want to shout out to Frances, who runs the GlitterSniffer Complaints blog and Facebook. She is a patient, determined soul who really stood up for all of the GlitterSniffer casualties. It look like (I have my fingers very tightly crossed) that there's some real progress going on there, and that there might at least be some resolution for those who got caught in the mess, if not restitution for everyone who was affected. Please know that for every person still blindly following Lela and supporting GlitterSniffer, there are dozens more who support and sympathise with you.

Cat-astrophe, Kittehgeddon, Needlegate

If you follow me on Twitter you've probably read about most of this already. It's such a bizzare story, and such an important and little-known issue that I had to share it. Plus, who doesn't like cute cat pictures?

This is my cat. Her name is Mei Mei, which means 'little sister' in Mandarin (yes, that's a Firefly reference).

note: that is not my computer, I'm a PC girl.

On the 22nd of April, Mei Mei swallowed a 2.5cm sewing needle, with 7cm of thread attached.

I don't know if you know - I sure didn't! - that the thread was actually more dangerous to her digestive system than the needle. The needle wasn't sharp enough to puncture anything, but thread can cause bunching in a cat's intestinal tract, which means the damaged portion will have to be removed. Cutting into the intestines has two pretty big risks post-operation; either the intestines will not join together properly, or the bacteria inside will migrate to the abdominal cavity and cause a pretty bad infection.

Very luckily for kitty, I realised what had happened a few minutes after she ate the needle. It being midnight, I had to do a frantic Google search to find the nearest emergency vet clinic. About an hour later, a very tired boyfriend, myself, and slightly freaked out kitty (she hasn't been in a car for about two years and didn't like it one bit) arrived. She was whisked away for an x-ray, and I attempted to remove some of her hair from the sleeves of my jacket. I looked like I was slowly transforming into a yeti, it was pretty ridiculous.

 don't be fooled by the cute face, her 'FUR ATTACK' is infamous.

The vet confirmed that she had indeed swallowed the needle. She wasn't in any pain or distress so we concluded that she'd be ok to wait until morning, when we could take her down to our regular vet and organise surgery, since that was going to be a bit cheaper.

Arrived home at 3am. Boyfriend left. I fell into a fitful sleep, rising again at 7:30 so I'd be able to call the local vet when they opened at 8am.
Me: "Do you have any appointments open today?"
Receptionist: "A few, what's the probem?"
Me: "My cat swallowed a sewing needle."
Receptionist: "OH. Well in that case, don't worry about an appointment, just bring her in as soon as you can."

Shortly after 8:30am, we arrived. Kitty went straight in for x-rays (so they knew where to go) and then surgery. Around 2pm I got a call from the vet saying that the surgery had gone really well.
"The needle and thread got stuck in a fairly large hairball in her stomach," the vet said. "There was no stomach or intestinal damage at all." I laughed and promised to never complain about her hacking up furballs again. Another phone call an hour later confirmed that she had come out of the anaesthetic really well.

The whole ordeal cost a ton of money, which was not fun since my parents are on holiday. I ended up paying quite a bit for x-rays and consultations on my debit card (thank GOD for my new job) and luckily, the vet take payments over the phone, so I was able to use the credit card dad left me for grocery shopping to pay for the actual surgery.

 kittybutt!

So the moral of the story - apart from "keep needles away from pets" - is OH MY GOD PET INSURANCE IS YOUR FRIEND.

There are actual companies that specialise in pet insurance. I reccommend looking it up. We could have saved sooooooo much money and stress by having it. This is probably the worst medical problem we've ever had with a pet. I mean, one of our dogs has developed a cataract over one eye, but that's not life-threatening, and he's no worse off because we couldn't afford to get it removed. In fact, most of the time I forget he's half-blind. It doesn't affect him at all. However, leaving the needle in Mei's stomach could have killed her. I am so grateful I figured out what happened. It sounds far-fetched, but it's actually a really common occurance.

If you have pets, and you don't have a spare three or four thousand dollars lying around... get pet insurance. Seriously. Just do it. Also learn how to give pills to animals. It took me nearly a week to be able to give her medicine by myself; I have to force them down her throat since apparently they taste so bad, no food could disguise them sufficiently for her to eat them ground up in any way. Also she scratched me AND my boyfriend - the first time she's ever scratched anyone, ever. I'm so glad she finishes her course of antibiotics tomorrow. Two pills twice a day = unhappy kitty and unhappy me.

post-surgery kitty  

(those white bits on the bottom of the collar are from her spitting up pills. fun times)

 she is REALLY hates that collar

Little things that make me happy

Thursday nights the boyfriend and I are both really, really tired, and I work til 6pm, so we usually get something cheap and quick for dinner. Here's how last night went.

Window server: "That's $21.70, please pay at the next window."
Me: "I have exact change!" Waves money at boyfriend. He pulls his card out.
Boyfriend: "What was that babe? I didnt hear what you said."
Me: "Put your card away, I have exact change!" I push my hands towards him. He continues staring straight ahead.
Boyfriend: "Still can't hear you, you really need to speak up."
Me: "I have moneeeeeey!"
Boyfriend: "Really? That's nice."
I laugh and put my money away.
Boyfriend: "Oh you have exact change? Oh well, you've put it away now, guess I'll just have to use my card."
Me: "I love you, silly head."

Other little things: me not knowing my second class for Thursday has been cancelled, finding out from somebody before I went to the room, and thus having an extra two hours before work. I was able to go and have a nice, leisurely lunch in the locker room instead of having 20 minutes to buy and eat lunch AND get ready for work.

Making progress on a story I'm struggling with.

Taking a chance on a mascara and eyeliner because they're on sale, and absolutely loving them (Covergirl Lash Blast Waterproof, and Covergirl Liquidline blast).

Pocky, and feeling cheeky because I'm a girl eating MEN's Pocky.

Having good coffee with a dear friend, who you can be honest with and who will totally understand when you're geeking out about James Marsters, or are worried about a uni assignment.

Co-workers you can joke around with, even when the shop is really busy and you're all feeling a bit under pressure.

What little things have perked you up this last week?

Truckin'

I have a zillion draft posts, I swear. Things just keep coming up that stop me from writing, like trying to balance 26 hours of work with full-time study and not be a complete hermit. It's gotten pretty stressful, my depression and anxiety have flared up and the stupidest things make me cry. Like yesterday when I was going to have breakfast with my boyfriend before work, but my phone put the time back an hour so I thought it was still 9am when he came to pick me up at 10am and I wasn't dressed.

Yeah.

Anyway I got my Sugarpill haul, which was my birthday present from my darling boy :) my new job has a strict policy in regards to makeup, I can only wear really soft and neutral shadows. So I've tried to play with Sugarpill as much as I can on my days off.

Here's a few looks and some matching nails:

Junebug and Tako

I wasn't really excited about Junebug since I have lots of green shadows already, but this is absolutely stunning in person

Buttercupcake, Flamepoint, a bit of Fyrinnae's Banana Mochi and Afterparty.

Inspired by this tshirt :) the crease was a lot brighter and more orangey in person. I had to use Banana Mochi over Buttercupcake because yellows just do not show up on my skin for some odd reason.

Afterparty and Midori, with High Voltage Outshined to highlight.  

I also did a matching manicure for this look, using China Glaze Starboard with Rokk 96 Moonlight layered over.

 

 I ended up with a ton of bubbling, but I only had it on for two days so it didn't bother me too much.

I'll try to take some photos of my work looks soon. The whole 'neutrals only' schtick is slowly growing on me - it helps that I have a fair bit of variety of textures, tones and companies to choose from.

Hopefully I'll be back on the bloggy horse soon, and I'll be able to finish the photos for the blog sale as well.

Tales of a Part-timer

**Please read my review of Chew if you haven't already, and comment on the review for a chance to win a copy of issue 1!**

You guys, I did it! I made it through my first week (by week I mean two days, I haven't done my weekend shifts yet) of part-time work (mostly) intact!

I look a bit tired because, er, I am, and also because I'm wearing NO MAKEUPS in this photo. I'm smiling behind the paper, I promise. I was going to do the whole cheesy thumbs-up thing, but I can't find my tripod at the moment. It's probably hiding under my couch cushions. One day I'll find a dust bunny under there the size of an actual bunny. Then I'll sell it on eBay.

These are some of the more entertaining thoughts that were running through my head over my first few shifts:

• This POS system is so old I think that it might actually BE a dinosaur.
• No, sir, I cannot give you a free display box worth $60 because you're buying a "lot" of coffee. FYI, you are not actually buying a lot of coffee.
• Oh god which one did she say?! Just tell me the package colour please. On second thought, don't do that, because you'll say gold and then I'll have to ask you if you mean the pinky gold, the pale gold, the yellow gold or the copper gold... and then it will be bad (thank god there are only three reds, two greens and one that people keep referring to as blue but I swear it's purple... albeit a very bluish, cool lilac-y periwinkle-y colour).

Today I had the trial run of what I like to call the "doomsday race"... basically, I have classes from 8:30am to midday. Then I have to somehow:
1) Get changed into my work clothes.
2) Have lunch.
3) Get to Perth, which is an approx. 20 minute trip via public transport.
And I have to do all of this in one hour. Hence by the time I got to Perth it was 12:45 and I hadn't eaten yet. I ventured to the closest and least busy place-that-sells-food, which happened to be a great Japanese sushi bar. I got a Teriyaki chicken box which was about twice the size of the one I normally get (from a different shop). It was my first shift with the assistant manager so I was absolutely FREAKING out about being late and making a bad first impression, so I starting wolfing down my food like it was going out of fashion (funny phrase, but I can't think of anything similar right now).

I got the hiccups. I'm eating and freaking out trying to eat fast, and hiccuping, and thinking "oh NO, I have the hiccups, how long is this going to go for aaaah nobody is going to be able to take me seriously!..." and then they stopped. Normally when I have hiccups I have them for a good twenty or so minutes. By sheer force of will I made these ones go away. I didn't quite finish my food because I suddenly realised how much I'd eaten and I didn't want to make myself feel sick later, so I hurried off to work. The assistant manager is delightful, in case you're wondering.

One of the girls I worked with today will be on with me on Saturday, and she's already told me I can ask her anything at any time, which is so nice. Also my boyfriend has promised to get up (gasp!) on Sunday morning to have coffee with me before I go to work. It's not that early, don't worry, but I do feel a bit bad making him miss out on his weekend sleep-in. He's a tradie so he starts work at 5:30am.

More makeup reviews, swatches, comic and webcomic reviews are on the way! I was going to do 'a something' tonight but this will have to be it... I kinda sorta maybe haven't done my readings for class tomorrow (EEP) and I'm rather sleepy.

How are you all, any significant changes in the last few weeks? Read any good books lately? Had something funny happen to you or to someone you know? Share in the comments, or if it's something you'd rather not tell the whole interwebz, you can email me at the.jade.carver at gmail dot com. Or tweet me. I'm on Twitter all the freakin' time!

Grovelgrovel

Sorry for the unplanned hiatus guys! Whilst I've been silent on the blogging front, a lot of stuff has happened, such as:

• Being really sick on my birthday
• Going back to university
• Flying to Melbourne for the weekend for a family thing (NEVER. AGAIN.)
• Having a job interview (for a super fancy coffee place)
• Turning down a job interview (the shop was waaaay too far for me to get to)
• Having another job interview (for a supremely overpriced makeup shop)
• Not getting a job (at the makeup place)
• Getting a job (at the fancy coffee place! part time! OMG)
• Reading a buttload of new comics, and a few books
• Enduring stinking hot weather (it's 29 degrees Celcius in my house right now)
• Buying new jewellery supplies and not doing anything with them
• Accumulating more makeup and trying new perfumes

Two weeks into semester and I'm behind already! There's a lot more reading to do since I'm in third year, and there are small, recurring assessment components as well. I have about 16 draft blog posts at the moment, I'm having trouble finishing things. Blogger's block? Anyway, I'm aiming to try and post 2x a week from now on, bare minimum.

I have a give-away planned in a few weeks :) true to my blog's theme of 'everything', the prizes range from comics to perfume to a pair of earrings made by yours truly. I'm waiting for something to come in the mail and then I'll set it up.

READER QUESTIONS! Please comment OR, if you feel like a more private chat, you can email me at the.jade.carver at gmail dot com. I'm also on Twitter a lot more than I should be.

1. What would you like to see first, or more of in general from my blog? I.e comic/webcomic reviews, book reviews, personal posts, photography posts, makeup reviews, EOTD/NOTDs, Blog Brags?

.2. What have you blogged about recently that you would like me to read and/or comment on?

3. What weather do you prefer, hot or cold? (Personally I can't wait for winter to come back, though I haven't really made use of the hot weather at the moment - I've probably swum once so far and I haven't been to the beach yet. I am such a bad Aussie!)

Link sharing

10 comic books that pass the Bechdel test. More in the comments.

Support the online mag I slush read for!


Bubble wrap, anyone?


This is funny to those who live in/have visited Aus.

In more personal news, I updated my list of magazine submission guidelines, and I have five articles I am starting to work on so I can actually start submitting stuff! I don't expect I'll be published until late 2011, but I know I need to write more often, and get much, MUCH better at editing my work.

Feel free to share some interesting  links in the comments :)

EDIT: Persephone Minerals review and swatches coming soon, I checked the mail after posting this and there was a package full of SPARKLY DUOCHROME GOODNESS!

I ain't doing this for kicks

Lately it seems I've written about a million cover letters. I won't deny the practise has been helpful, but lordy is it depressing! For every application I send, for every half an hour I spend agonising over word choices, I am getting nothing back.

I've heard a lot of people say that Australian employers are by far the worst for getting back to you. I've never tried to get work outside of Aus, but I'm inclined to agree with that assessment. If you don't want to hire me, FINE! Just bloody well let me know! I'm not going to sneak in during the middle of the night and vandalise your shop!

It especially gets me when I drop my resume off at a shop in the city that I walk past often. No emails, no phone calls, and nearly a month later they still have their 'staff wanted' sign up. Doesn't do much for a girl's self-esteem. I've heard back from maybe one out of four places I applied to, and it's all been "Blah blah thankyou for your application we found someone with more experience".

Picture snitched from here.

I pretty much am doing the assistant manager's position at my current job, because we don't HAVE one, and one of the 'co-managers' has been away. I've done rosters, customer orders, banking, returns, opened and closed the store, and tracked the budget. I'm not getting paid extra for it but I don't care. It needs to be done and I'm here pretty often so I just do it. However when I get back to uni, because of our weird shop schedule and overabundance of casuals, I'll be getting 6 hours of work a week. Yup. SIX. HOURS.

Hence why I am looking for another position. New or second job, I'm not fussy. Except that I've been looking since about November.

I have a lot more availability this semester than I did last semester. A lot of places are looking for full-time staff but even more are looking for casuals. I have a ton of experience in a wide range of fields. I learn fast, I'm easy to work with and I'm great with customers. I don't understand what I'm doing wrong! I want to be able to save money while I'm at uni, not just scrape by.

Writing endless cover letters and worrying about money isn't fun. It's sapping my creative energy, hence why I haven't been blogging much. I haven't done any writing for myself lately either, despite having some really great feedback from a magazine.

I've got about a week and a half til I go back to uni, so I'm applying for things left right and center, and trying to muster inspiration to get things started and finished before I get bogged down with studying and assignments. I have been thinking about (thinking about thinking about :P) opening a jewellery shop on Etsy - simple and slightly geeky items, but I don't know if I have the stamina for such an extended creative project! I also don't have the equipment or expertise to do anything beyond beading. I know that some of the stuff I have come up with is really quite pretty and marketable:

The first and last necklaces also have matching earrings. Some of the pieces I can fairly easily re-create... but some of them are really 'one-off' designs that were made out of vintage beads or just took really long to make. I've been working on a gorgeous tiered safety-pin necklace for months now, it keeps falling apart on me! I'm thinking it may need to be soldered. Clamping them works fine for the earrings as there's no strain on them, but the weight of what I want to make usually ends up being too much for a necklace and it just falls to pieces on the third or fourth wear.

I also don't want to just make random junk-y things, I wanted it all to be 'discreet geek': inspired by books, games and TV shows. I don't know if I'm going to be able to come up with enough designs to merit a whole shop... I get inspired by beads, by jewellery and by plain ol' necessity. Most of the pieces in those photos were created because I didn't have a piece with a certain colour scheme, I acquired a piece of jewellery that didn't quite work for me so I altered it, or I saw the beads and just HAD to make something with them. This inspiration process can take anywhere from a day to years.

 I have had these beautiful blue marbled beads for months and still haven't been able to decide what to do with them.

I guess I'm still in a state of indecision, where I'm waiting for things to happen (i.e, uni to start so I know how busy I'll be, and to hear back from some jobs) so that I can figure out what my next move should be.

Lazy Down-Under Day

You know it's Australia day when you roll out of bed at 11am and eat Doritos for breakfast.

I hope all my fellow Aussies have a great day! Get to a body of water or an air con STAT, and give a wide berth to any pesky druken bogans.

 

Real blogging will resume shortly :)

Brisbane and Queensland: please help

Right now the East Coast of Australia is experiencing flooding, expected to become more disastrous than the 1974 flood, which affected much of the same area.

The last figures I heard were:
9 dead
62 missing
300 people being airlifted out of Forest Hill
15,000 homes and businesses affected

The flood levels are expected to continue to rise this week. I have seen some truly horrifying footage both on TV and online today - cars being washed away in Toowoomba, a clip on the news of a floating van careening into a tree that a man was clinging to (how he managed to hang on, I don't know. Rescuers were able to get to him shortly after. They had to half carry him out of the water, he was dazed and completely exhausted).

Brisbane and Queensland are in chaos. Homes and businesses have been either completely lost under the water, smashed by torrents, people's belongings and loved ones carried away. The death toll will only continue to rise and the damage count is already in the hundred millions.

Kira, a fellow blogger, is actually in Brisbane but she's in a suburb which is safe (for now). Jerry's also on the Gold Coast. I never thought I'd be so happy about living in Perth, but right now I am.

Please donate if you can, and pray if you're the praying type. We were not prepared for this. Surviving the next week is going to be incredibly difficult for thousands of people, and once the waters have receded, the grieving and rebuilding is going to be even harder. I'm donating what I can when I get paid on Thursday.

Blog Brag #4

Phew! It's been quite a while since I've done one of these, which is a shame since I actually have several drafts backed up. Anyway, onto the brag.

Defeating Mediocrity is a project being run through a blog. One of my long-time friends, Adam, is setting out to achieve twenty one goals to be completed by 11:59 pm, December 31, 2011. Not talking cheesy new years' resolutions, either. Here are the goals:

1. Record a five song EP
2. Get my motorcycle license
3. Donate blood
4. Busk for a day
5. Take a solo road trip
6. Cook dinner for me and five friends
7. See a game of sport, a concert, a comedy show, a musical and a theatre production
8. Paint a self-portrait
9. Learn a song on piano (or any instrument that's not guitar)
10. Read 12 important books
11. Create a 10-minute arthouse film
12. Do a 365 Photo Challenge
13. Ride the Indian Pacific
14. Do City 2 Surf and the Perth Freeway Bike Hike
15. Spend a month following a type of meditation
16. Write a NaNoWriMo novel
17. Get a tailor-made suit
18. Get kissed on a beach at night
19. *Hidden goal*
20. Begin learning Sign Language
21. Spend New Year's Eve at Times Square, New York

He's running a vlog (weekly, I think) to keep followers/curious bystanders apprised of his progress. Like me, Adam is an avid writer and not-yet-reformed drama student, so the blog itself is very conversational and the vlogs should be quite entertaining once he settles into the rigmarole of talking to a camera.

I have volunteered to help him busk - he's going to play guitar and I'm going to sing. Easy to type, but what an undertaking! I'm going to be practising a LOT in the upcoming months (in and out of the shower, hehe).

I'm thinking I might jump on the wagon for a couple other of his goals - I want to do another NaNo novel, I'd love to learn Sign, and a couple of his books are ones I want to read as well.

New Project!

I've finished uni and work's not being too liberal with shifts (for me, anyway) so I'm finding I have a lot of free time on my hands. Struggling with ideas that don't require lots of moolah (see above re: not a lot of work), I've decided I ought to do some more reading and reviewing. I am behind on my comic reviews, so I'll get to that, but I've decided to work my way through the Australian scifi/fantasy section of my uni's library, and my own bookshelf. I'm passionate about Australian authors (since I hope to be one :P) and even though my blog is mostly beauty (and that's a lot of fun!) I've decided to branch out a bit more. I'll also being doing some classics/'must-read' books. I just finished Life of Pi by Yann Martel. I'm going to re-read it before I review it, if I can manage to keep myself away from all the shiny new books I'll be getting tomorrow!

I will keep posting make-up and nail polish stuff, don't worry (I have a lovely big High Voltage Cosmetics order on the way)! And I still have my handy-dandy tags at the top of the posts, so you can see without having to read the post itself what it's going to contain.

Do you have a favourite book/series/comic? Please comment and let me know; if I can get my hands on it, I'll definitely read and review it! If you don't have any rec's, tell me what kind of info you like to see in book/comics reviews.

On my shelf (Aussie authors bolded):
The View From the Mirror quartet by Ian Irvine
Silverbirch by Rob Kaay
Dragon of the Second Moon by Christian Taamblyn done!

Dragonfly by Frederic S. Durban I'm dumb, and forgot I already did a review of this. Read it here. See how my blogging style has changed (heh). Then go get the book.

Dark Heavens trilogy by Kylie Chan

On my list:
Ansai Boys by Neil Gaiman
Life of Pi by Yann Martel (read)
My Last Duchess by Ian Crichton Smith (read)

Comics:
Serenity: Shepherd's Tale
Artifacts #1
Kill Shakespeare #3-#6
Chew, vol. #1 & #2
Deadpool: Pulp, #1-#4
Changing Ways, volume 1 done!

Deadpool: Wade Wilson's War   done!

Thoughts on: eBooks

Recently, ebooks and ebook readers have begun to intrude on my world. Well, maybe 'intrude' isn't quite the right word. It first started in class, when we were discussing the cost of our books for a literary unit, after discovering that a play we had all paid $20 for was available for free download online (yes, legally!) Our tutor wondered aloud why the university didn't provide ebooks for students, to lessen the sometimes ridiculous costs of texts and readings.

Secondly, a book blogger that I love to read has just bought an ebook reader and is documenting her experience with it. Her reviews are wonderful, completely out of my usual genre (which is good), and she's Australian which I like because it means I know the books she reads will be available to me.

Thirdly, after ogling the Kobo in Borders, I discovered that there's a Kobo app available for the Blackberry!

I promptly downloaded it (it's free) and started browsing. Kobo have a 'free classics' section so I was able to download a few of the titles that have been on my "I need to read these one day" list: Moby Dick, Ulysses, The Phantom of the Opera. I also downloaded some T.S. Elliot, and out of curiosity, Little Vampire Women. Then lo and behold, I stumbled across, in the free classic section, the sequel to one of my beloved op shop finds called The Princess and the Goblin! I couldn't believe it. It's one of my favourite old books, just beautiful and fantastical, and there was the sequel, right there, for free. Truly an amazing moment!

Obviously reading on my Blackberry is very different to reading on an ebook reader or even an iPhone, since my display screen is quite small, but the formatting of the ebooks I have read so far (Little Vampire Women, which I might review later, and about half of The Phantom) makes it actually pretty easy. Paging is quick and efficient, and it's simple to bookmark the page you're on if you need to exit the app to use your phone for anything else. Reading Phantom has been a little challenging because of the footnotes - they all get stuck on a seperate page, so you literally find yourself reading a page of footnotes in between the actual story. It's a bit disconcerting. However most contemporary books don't have footnotes, so I don't think that will be a problem I encounter again.

White version of the Kobo, and no that is not a picture of my Blackberry, I was too lazy to take one! I have that silicone skin though, mine is purple.

I really like that you can still see the covers of the books when you're browsing - in fact, if you like to go against the popular adage and judge a book by it's cover, you can choose to just view covers in Kobo, instead of seeing the title and rating.

For a student working casual hours, the price of ebooks versus print books is a huge factor for me. Buying Little Vampire Women in Borders would have cost me $24.95. The ebook version? Just $5.80!

My one gripe with the Kobo app so far is that it doesn't tell you whether or not an ebook is available to Australians until you're about to purchase it. There were several other titles I was interested in as a 'test run', before I ended up purchasing Little Vampire Women. The only other downside so far is the time factor: I am a very fast and proficient reader; I can tell (roughly) the amount of time it will take for me to read a book just by looking at the page numbers. With ebooks, you can look at the 'contents page', but my sense of time is completely thrown. Also since it's much easier to sneak in a chapter here and there, I can't tell you exactly how long it took me to read Little Vampire Women. It might be less time than the paper version, it may be more. The general consensus by those who have bought ebook readers is that they read faster, though.

What is really winning me over is the fact that I no longer have to worry about books being sold out, or out of print, or needing to be shipped which means A) paying shipping and B) waiting for it to be shipped. I just searched Louisa Alcott (the author of Little Women) and discovered that, besides Jo's Boys (which I was incredibly lucky to have found in an op shop), Alcott wrote several other books about the March family!

Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to run out and buy a Kobo just yet, though I do reccommend them if you're curious like me, since you can use it (again, for free) on your computer if you don't  have a smartphone. You can share the account/library between your Kobo, phone and computer, which means reading anything, anywhere, any time. I still love paper books and will still buy them, I just think the Kobo and all its software is a great option for people who can't afford to buy books all the time, want more portability. I mean, look at my bookshelf:

That is just my fantasy/scifi section. There's another shelf under that one down the bottom, and then I have a second shelf unit, same dimensions, filled with other genres, and with my comics and encyclopaedias on the doubly-tall bottom shelf! So there's no way I'd give up on paper books. I love them too much. That being said, I'm not completely against ebooks any more, now that I realise how useful they can be.

Have any of you tried ebooks? What do you think of them?