Sunday Funday: Sweet Jams

It's Sunday! Today I'm just dropping in with a few little music tidbits I keep finding myself listening to. Enjoy!

• Loney Neighbor (What Am I To You?)  ::  Oh Honey

• Tongues (feat. Koppes)  ::  Joywave  (As much as I love this video, it's full of nudity so just be careful!)

• Whispering Willow  ::  Buffalo Tales

• Take Me To Church  ::  Hozier

• Stay With Me  ::  Hannah Trigwell (Acoustic Cover)

Anyway, today's going to be filled with swatchin', laundry, American Horror Story: Coven and whatever else floats my fancy. Hope you have just as lovely of a day! <3

xxx

Sunday Funday: Accumulation Station

Ah, I didn't get much accomplished this last week, did I? I spent the majority of it worrying about an assignment that I put off too long. @_@ (And it was only a rough draft, ffs.) That, and this weekend consisted of a wedding, mom time and World of Warcraft with the boyfriend. There aren't enough days in the week for all this stuff! But I figured I'd give you a run down on the posts I'm currently working on!

• Siren Song Cosmetics - Distant Worlds Collection (That I've been sitting on for a billion years.)
• Blooddrop - Misc Perfumes
• Haus of Gloi - Misc General Catalog Perfumes
• Aromaleigh - DIAVOLI Collection!
• Shiro - Halloween Lip Swatches!

Plus orders I'm waiting on. (So I can eventually blog them!)

• Hello Waffle - Alternate Universe and the 1000 Likes Collections
• Blooddrop - Ajevie's Circle decants from the fall stuff!
• Haus of Gloi - A few Candy Bowl Perfumes

I think that's everything. And I had such high hopes for my no-buy. ;_; Eh, it is what it isss. Anyway, I hope your weekend was a marvelous one!

xxx

Sunday Funday: The Reading List

Happy Sunday! Not so lazy this time around but I figured I'd give a rundown of a few books I've recently read/I'm currently reading/I've been meaning to get around to. If that makes sense.

First up I've got Lord Brocktree by Brian Jacques. I've been meaning to reread the Redwall series starting with this one. (I read a large chunk of them back in 6th grade.) The Redwall series is young adult fiction based on a world comprised of various talking animals and focusing primarily on Redwall Abbey. For something that can't help but be endlessly adorable (the way the moles talk is probably the cutest thing ever) there's still a lot of interesting adventure and action involved. Also, from what I remember, a realistic amount of violence. My favorite race in the series is for sure the badgers. They're the greatest.

Not too long ago I gave Catherine Valente a try and read Palimpsest. It's an strange and erotic fairy tale of sorts. I'm reminded of a much more surreal Tanith Lee. The book follows four strangers through real life and also as they make their way through the fantastical dream city of Palimpsest. Imagine rivers of cream, a forest of bamboo coffins, a living train and veterans with animal heads/limbs. It's weird as shit and I loved it. I've heard good things about Valente's novel Deathless so I might give that one a try soon.

John Updike is one of my favorite novelists and his Rabbit Novels are my favorite of his work. They follow Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom through various stages of his life taking a stop in four different decades. As far as I recall he's kind of a piece of shit but Updike has a way of writing shitty characters that you can't help but fall in love with. I'm hoping to give these a read again soon. (Or at least convince my sister to read them.)

Some nonfiction! Robert Wright's The Moral Animal (Tag line - Why We Are The Way We Are: The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology) is something I read a few months ago. Evolutionary Psychology is one of my absolute favorite subjects and if it's something you may be into then read this book, goddammit. It's written so fabulously - always interesting/never dry.

Lastly, I'm currently making my second way through Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. If you ever saw the movie The Golden Compass then please forget everything about it because it is absolute garbage in comparison. A touching coming of age story in a fantasy setting, this story will make you feel all the feelings. Have you ever had a book make you feel so happy, like you're standing in a beam of sunlight or something? But could also crush all your dreams? Yeah, this series goes there. Prep yourselves. Cuz I know I am.

A quick and easy one after running around all weekend! I'm ready for second weekend, ya'll. @_@

xxx

Sunday Funday: So Many Games

I smushed the case in my purse. >:(

So very little goddamn time.

It's Sunday, I'm hungover, and we're gonna talk about gaaaames! I'm hardly an avid gamer but I've been around and I know what I like. Today I'm going to ramble a bit about a few games that I've been playing/been meaning to play. (Because I'm laaaazy.)

Bravely Default! (This was a surprise Valentine's Gift!) This is basically the reincarnation of old Final Fantasy games - most likely Square Enix's response to complaints that the newer Final Fantasy games have deviated from the true 'soul' of the series. (Even though I still love them.) Bravely Default is a good ol' fashioned grinder for sure. There are so many job classes to find and level; it's nuts. The battle system is turn-based (my fave) but it does have some atypical elements that make it seem confusing at first. It's pretty easy to get the hang of after a short while though. The environments are freakin' stunning. The first time I entered a town I was blown away by how detailed and beautiful it was. The story's decent if a bit generic. Only one thing really bothers me - the voice overs. They are not good. At all. I'm considering switching it to Japanese dialog with English subtitles but I feel like I've come too far with these voices to just change everything. These are my struggles.

Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster! Oh boy! Final Fantasy X was the first console game I ever beat. And, as such, it is one of my favorites. When I heard they were remastering it I was so excited I could have barfed. I didn't. But I could have. Of course, it took years after I'd first heard of the update for it to actually be released. I was able to pick up the special edition that has a concept art booklet in the case and it is perfect. I have such a boner for concept art. (I mean, come on. Check out those sweet Fayth pieces and tell me you aren't completely enamored.) Of course, I'm an asshole and after all that excitement haven't been able to find any time to actually play them. I do plan on playing both (X and X-2) because unlike other people *ahem*wienerboyfriend*ahem* I've come to terms with the fact that FFX-2 is literally only fan service and I can enjoy it as it is. Long story short: These games, I like them. (Even if the English voices are pretty terrible for them too.)

Side note: I have the sample set of Siren Song Cosmetics' Distant Worlds collection based on FFX and have been meaning to blog it. u_u It's been sitting in my drafts folder for ages and just needs finished up! Expect it!

Guild Wars 2! Last but not least, an MMORPG! I love the idea of MMO's but there's one aspect that I can't get over - I'm a single player only type of gal. I'll play with the boyfran on occasion but I love, love, love to play on my own. Especially in MMO's when there's a big huge world to explore! Other people tend to ruin it. Not so much by being jerks but just by being weird and in my way, haha. I get past it though. My favorite part of MMO's? I love building my own characters - image and story both. Above I've shown my Norn Elementalist. She's a badass melee geomancer who'll get right up in your face and shove a boulder in it. (Her name is also perf but I'll keep that to myself. ;3) Unnnf, writing this was probably a good idea because now I'm getting that gaming itch. I'm loading up all the updates since I've fallen so far behind but I'm comin' for you, Tyria!

I'm happy to be doing these rambling Sunday Funday posts! It's a nice little way to push myself into doing new stuff/getting back to things I love. I have a few more already planned along with a schedule of regular posts! I maaayy have already fallen a bit behind being that I'd planned on posting my Haus of Gloi Fall review on Friday but ya'll should be expecting that either later tonight or tomorrow!

Here's to lazy Sundays full of good ol' vidya, pajamas, rest and recovery!

xxx

Sunday Funday: Manga Mania

Here's something a bit different! Makeup and perfume are fun and all but sometimes a girl wants to talk about something else once in a while. Since Sundays are really the only days I tend to have to myself I figured I could use them to drop in and discuss/ramble about whatever's been holding my interests lately. And today that happens to be manga! Honestly, I didn't watch too much anime when I was younger. Manga was definitely my drug of choice. (It's pretty much a drug - trust me on this one.) My collection has been sitting around gathering dust for quite a while (years it seems) but recently I've decided to crack back into it and I'm so glad I have! Here's what I've read recently:

Cardcaptor Sakura by CLAMP. My absolute favorite manga from my absolute favorite group of manga artists/writers. My boyfriend actually hates CLAMP and it's almost a deal breaker. Okay, that's only half serious. Cardcaptor Sakura is one of the first manga I ever read and it is just as fabulous as it was years ago. The art is absolutely adorable and there's kind of a flower motif going on the whole time which I'm really into. (I describe things so good, you guys.) And, oh my gawd, if you think the art is cute then you must know that the story itself is doubly so. It's a typical "magical girl" story with a love/friendship theme done the way only CLAMP can do. Also, I'm not afraid to admit as a full grown adult woman that I still harbor a ginormous crush on Syaoran. No shame. My sister owns the whole uncut, original Japanese version of the anime and, although it doesn't give me the warm fuzzies quite like the manga does, it's very good so I'd recommend that as well. But not that Fox Kids Cardcaptors garbage. Don't subject yourself to that. And if you happened upon it sometime in your childhood - I'm so sorry.

Uzumaki by Junji Ito. Unzumaki is pretty much the exact opposite of Cardcaptor Sakura. It's ridiculously gruesome so I figured I'd leave out any shots of the inside for you more sensitive kids. When it comes to horror manga, Junji Ito (who also does Tomie!) is top of the top and definitely another one of my favorite artist/writers. Uzumaki is a short, three volume long series about a town haunted by spirals. There's not much else to it but it never fails to be interesting! I especially love the conclusion. If you're into horror at all I'd say give this one a shot.

And this concludes my first attempt at a Sunday Funday! Short and sweet but I hope it wasn't too rambling at all. I must say though, it'll be nice to have time set aside for a little rambling now and then since I hate to bother the people around me with my weird interests. ;_; As for manga, anybody out there have any must reads? I'm up for any recommendations. Although, I think I may have to go on a CLAMP binge next, haha. I have all of Tsubasa and xxxholic in my closet and they're calling my name!

xxx