Wish you were here!

I know that it's been a really long time since I posted here, but that's not because of any lack of interest. I think I might have too many blogs.. and too many web services in general. Still love the Vox, though. :)

Recently I signed up for two more web services, one being Pandora and the other being Twitter. I always thought Twitter was really stupid until I tried it.. and now I'm hopelessly addicted. It seems incredibly inane.. and then you sign up for it and start posting random thoughts and links and you start to think "This is pretty cool." because you can post in it without feeling to write in an entire blog entry. I really hate one-liner blog entries. Not only that, but seeing updates from my favorite writers and musicians on a daily basis? Pretty darn cool. You can read the Tweets by yours truly right here.

Pandora is a web radio site for discovering new music.. a bit similar to Last.fm, but also entirely different. It suggests new music to you based on what you already like, using their "music genome project" which compares things like melody, vocals, harmony, instrumentation and more between songs in order to find just the right tune for you. It's pretty cool and you can make up to 100 custom radio channels using any combination of artists you want for the basis of your suggestions. You can check out what stations I've whipped up here.

A few weeks ago I went to Montgomery Mall and inside of the Dillard's they had an iPod Vending Machine. I have to say.. I never expected to see such a thing outside of Japan. It sold other different kinds of Mp3 players as well.. but wow.. a vending machine for costly MP3 players. Things have come a long way from having to ask the lazy@$$ associate to open the glass case to take out a stupid $29.99 video game for you. Then again, the bathroom at Dillard's is about the size of the first floor of my house. How ritzy. Hey look, that plain white shirt over there is only $600! Ah, rich people stores.

I guess it is a given that they had a "guaranteed refund" if your item doesn't dispense properly. I can imagine some guy putting in his credit card and having the product get stuck, then banging on the machine screaming "Give me my #$%&ing iPod!". What would be really awesome though is if you got 2 instead of one. WAY cooler than an extra Snickers.

I'm a big fan of book stores. Locally speaking, my only option used to be my mall's little Waldenbooks. When we got a Borders, I was stoked, and it turned into my main shopping destination. Not only have I purchased hundreds of books there, I've spent a lot of time just 'hanging out' there. Borders is still the store I go to the most, spend the most time in and the most money at.

Still, I wanted for my area to get a Barnes and Noble for years after, just for some variety. Last year, we finally got one. Wish granted! They ripped out the Waldenbooks in the mall and Barnes took over in all its glamorous enormity. The things I like about B&N are the Starbucks coffee, their self published books and the general atmosphere of the place. But there is a problem. Compared to Borders, B&N is a huge rip off. Actually, compared to a lot of places, it is a huge rip off.

Barnes and Noble charges you $25 a year for a membership card. You cannot really take advantage of discounts in the store without this card. They charge retail price for everything, except for the typical cheapo book section up front, and some brand new items. In order to get the 'good' version of the new item discount, you have to have a member card. Then we have Borders; they also have a member card. A FREE member card. You gain reward points for spending money there, but you are not required to have a member card to get most discounts like you are at Barnes. Most items at Borders are retail price, however, new CDs, DVDs and Books are usually fairly discounted when they first come out. This way, you don't feel forced to purchase all your new books or movies at Wal-Mart. Borders has a competitive price for all customers, in order to get you in the store for the new releases. If you want to avoid paying retail at Barnes and Noble, you must have a membership card, and you must realize that it's still not going to be a very big discount.

For example, when Ratatouille came out, I bought it at Barnes and Noble, for the FANTASTIC (sarcasm) price of $24.99, with my membership card. That was the 'special new release discount with member card'. If I didn't have the member card, it would have cost $30. Yet, at ANY other store carrying Ratatouille the moment it came out, you could undoubtedly get it for $19.99, if not less than that. No $25 card required, and still an even larger discount. You're paying more money to shop at Barnes and Noble, member or not. And for what; the free pitcher of ice water over at the cafe?

Sometimes I go to B&N for a 'change' from Borders, but I literally don't have any incentive to buy something at Barnes instead of Borders. The only 'reward' I get from their member card that I am aware of is their "discounts" that aren't really discounts. What it all comes down to is that I'm paying $25 a year to pay MORE than I'd pay anywhere else. Oh yeah, they DO send me email coupons that are specific to new books that I have no interest in. That's a real boon, isn't it?

Seriously, when you're like 1 mile or less from another huge bookstore with way better deals, you need to do something to be more competitive. I go sometimes because I want Starbucks, but of course, at Barnes and Noble, you can't even use your Starbucks card, because they're not a Starbucks; just a place that SERVES Starbucks. Again, there's the convenience of having a bookstore there, but it doesn't matter because there's a much better bookstore, literally, right across the street from it. In that case, I'll settle for the Seattle's Best coffee that Border's serves.

Since I'm such a manga fan, I want to add that the gigantic Barnes and Noble that replaced our tiny Waldenbooks has a comparatively horrid selection of manga. Our Waldenbooks had so much manga it was ridiculous. More than any other book supplier in the area. More than Borders, although our Borders manga section is always growing. Barnes has a really sad manga section in comparison, which is yet another reason to not ever go there. I always thought Barnes and Noble was a really awesome store, until we got one and I shopped there a bunch. It wasn't worth it. Bummer.

I'm also an Amazon prime member. I get great prices on books, dvds and cds and don't have to pay extra for shipping. If I want a book, I can hop to Amazon, order it at an awesome cheap price (I got a second copy of Ratatouille for my mom for $13 cheaper than I paid at Barnes on Amazon BTW) I'm thinking if you can afford it, it's more worth it to pay $70 a year for Amazon Prime than $25 a year for a Barnes and Noble card. Seriously, you will save SO much more money, and you don't even have to leave your house. (That helps with the price of gas these days, too.)

It's been a long and short summer for me this year and somehow in the midst of all of it I have not posted any entries to my beloved VOX blog, so here I am to remind you all that I am still alive and have not yet abandoned this journal.

I regret to say my summer has in a way been uneventful as I am just now realizing I really didn't go anywhere special. But that's alright. Aaron came to visit and we had a lot of fun. Went to DC. Hung out. Ate stuff. Saw fireworks. Etc. The other exciting events were lots of entertaining media presented itself to me in the form of new books, movies and CDs. Materialism, aaah! ... but.. seriously. (Isn't that the name of a Phil Collins album?)

We all know that the final Harry Potter book was released this summer, not long after the film adaption of book 5 was put in theaters. Again, enjoyed the film but felt it was too short. The first movies I enjoyed more because, well, the books were shorter and they didn't have to edit out so much of the tale. Either way, they are always enjoyable and should be viewed as separate entities from Rowling's novels. As much as we'd like to last each Harry Potter film to be 8 hours long, Hollywood doesn't permit it.

Before you reply to me asking how I enjoyed Deathly Hallows I'll remind you now I have not read it yet. Gasp! I know. But I read Order of the Phoenix directly before the film came out. That's how I am with the HP books for some reason. I am however currently reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I am a person with very strange reading habits. Let me just put it that way

Next up we have Stardust, a small adult fairy tale novel written by my favorite author, Neil Gaiman, got the big screen treatment I always hoped it would get. I totally adored the film version of this novel. The actors and actresses were primo and it had all of the fun and wit and cleverness of Neil with its own original elements. This was the book I read to 'get into' Neil Gaiman and it worked quite well. In fact, the movie is now one of my favorite films. It has all the things you want in a fantasy movie. You want to go and be amazed and laugh a bit and have fun and be scared and see a happy ending and Stardust gives you all of that. I can't wait to get the DVD -- but to tide me over until then I've found that a gorgeous limited edition hardcover of the original illustrated novel is available and I picked it up at my local Border's. It's $40 retail which is quite an investment, but Amazon has a pretty good deal on it right now. It's got new text and art in it that you'll want to see. You can check that out here. Also, if you enjoy fantasy films, Neil Gaiman's writing, or going to the movies in general, please go see Stardust out in the theaters while you can! Now that I've pimped out Neil's stuff, maybe he will write me a letter someday and say "Dear Mary, you are awesome. I'm going to write you a story about dragons and mischievous cats! Love, Neil."  ... Well, not really, but a girl can dream, can't she?

My list of excitement does not end, for the most looked forward to release of the summer for me was Darren Hayes' third solo album, This Delicate Thing We've Made. This 2 CD masterpiece of pop is quickly ascending in my ranks of favorite albums ever. It has the elements which ultimately made Savage Garden my favorite band of all time some 10 years ago. While definitively a pop record, it has a vast array of varying sounds and styles that keep it interesting and unique to the genre. Not one song will sound the same. You will crack a grin at the cleverness of Darren's lyrics; sometimes haunting, sometimes romantic and sometimes full of biting wit. As you listen you get a very good idea of which musicians have inspired Darren and you are also reminded thoroughly that this man is indeed a child of the '80s. While he employs the use of electronic sounds more and more in this record it is not generally in a futuristic way but more in a way that shows how he was inspired by the 'roots' of electronic genres past and somewhat present. If you only listen to two tracks on this album, let them be "Who Would Have Thought?" and "A Conversation of God", for I feel they are among the strongest work he's ever done. Personally, though, I believe almost every song on this album is brilliant, and currently have the entire thing on repeat in iTunes. Want to listen to this album for free to see if you like it? Talk to me and I'll hook you up. *wink wink nudge nudge*

That's it for now.

In honor of Earth Day, this weekend I purchased 3 CFLs to use in place of some incandescent bulbs. I put two in my room and one in my bathroom. Each bulb was as bright as a 100 watt light bulb and used only 25 watts of electricity. I was using 75 watt bulbs. Not only will one 25 watt CFL brighten up a whole room on its own, it also conserves energy and saves you money in the long run.

I paid $9.99 for 3 CFLs, which makes them more expensive than regular incandescent bulbs, but the $15 annually that I will save on energy usage pays for those three bulbs and puts an extra 5 bucks in my pocket. Pretty cool, huh? CFLs are not only an investment for yourself but a super easy way to help out the environment.

So get off your rump and change a bulb.

I have got to admit; I am addicted to beauty products. I love to browse drugstore.com, linger in Target's HBA section and spend obtuse amounts of dough at Ulta and Sephora on the rare occasions that I get to go to them. Beauty isn't all about looks for me. It's about fun, self-confidence and relaxation. And so I've decided not so much to make this VOX into a beauty blog, but to talk about all the nifty products I come across that I just have to recommend to others.

I'm going to start by noting a few of the best things that have ever graced my lips.
 

Smith's Rosebud Salve and C.O Bigelow's Rose Salve are like little tins of petroleum jelly, but better, because they contain rose extract and lanolin which are really fabulous for your skin. I use this as a basic lip balm, but it also works great to hydrate other areas of really dry skin and it soothes minor skin irritations you have here and there. This salve is also colored rose pink, which for some reason makes me want to use it more often because it is mentally soothing to look at. Rose Salve is my absolute favorite basic product for caring for chapped lips and other small areas of dry or irritated skin. It feels great, looks great and works great. Can't beat that.

I recently saw Victoria's Secret Beauty Rush Lip Gloss commended in a beauty magazine and had to run out and get a couple of tubes. Oh my god. This stuff is a little slice of heaven. Not only is the flat slanted applicator the perfect shape for a flawless application, it also looks gorgeous, smells gorgeous and tastes gorgeous. As soon as I put it on my lips for the first time, I "Wow"ed at how lovely this gloss felt. Silky, smooth and not sticky at all. It applies evenly and gives your smackers an absolutely glamorous glossy shine. My mom swears by the high quality of Victoria's Secrets's cosmetics. While I think the quality of some of their underwear and signature bath product scents have noticeably deteriorated over the years, their make up products do NOT disappoint. This gloss is better than any other I have ever tried in terms of texture, appearance and scent. It's also affordable and comes in a large array of colors.

 

Bare Escentuals Buxom Lips color is something to behold. The first time I used it I felt like I rubbed a hot cinnamon candy across my lips followed up by an Altoid. I hadn't realized I had applied a plumping lip gloss. (I don't really need to plump my lips. They're fine how they are, but this stuff definitely added some extra oomph to them!) What I did know is that it felt really awesome and looked really good. For about 5 minutes it felt like my lips were undergoing some sort of invigorating spa treatment, which I have appropriately labeled a "lipgasm". While Buxom Lips currently comes only 4 colors, they are all extremely wearable colors that look extremely fabulous. I guarantee you at least one of them will look great on you no matter what your skin color is. Or if you're me, you'll end up liking all of them. (I currently own Dolly and Candi, and adore them both.) In fact, I really like everything by Bare Minerals that I have used so far, and recommend the whole line to anyone who wants to try some totally revolutionary beauty products.

I own dozens of lip glosses, balms, sticks and more.. and these 3 products are currently my favorite and most used. I would definitely recommend them to anyone who wants products that work amazingly well.

Spring has sprung and thus I have developed a dire need to clean. Unfortunately, I have also developed a cold. So I am sitting on my posterior staring at all the things I need to pick up, organize or throw away and groaning because I haven't the energy to do so.

On the bright side, being ill has encouraged me to sit back and really enjoy something I haven't in a long time. '80s and '90s cartoons! Bless DVDs, for they have granted me the opportunity to own many of my favorite childhood television shows. I was an avid fan of just about every show on the Disney Afternoon, including Darkwing Duck, Goof Troop, Duck Tales, Chip and Dale's Rescue Rangers and more. The best of the best of Disney's animated shows are now available in the form of affordable DVD box sets, which provide me hours of entertainment on days when I feel completely incapacitated, be it by illness or my usual lethargy. The past few days, I have been watching episodes of Animaniacs and Gummi Bears on DVD and thoroughly enjoying the miniature trips back into my childhood.

My most recent edition to the toon library is perhaps my most prized; the Saturday morning Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon series from the early '90s, also known by its avid fanbase as "Sonic SatAM". This cartoon was one I was absolutely crazy about. It had great plots, atmosphere, characters.. everything! Having the full series on DVD for me is like a small dream come true.

There's some series out there I'm still hoping to find on DVD one day, though. Bonkers, Tiny Toon Adventures, The Wuzzles and The Raccoons, to name a few.

In heaven, I will have every cartoon series I ever enjoyed in the form of a DVD box set, and they will all be digitally remastered.

Video: Show us a TV series you own or watched on DVD.

Audio: Share your favorite track from a live album.
Submitted by -Lisa.

No surprise here; I'm posting a Josh Groban song. To be honest with you, I'm not the type of person who really likes live albums that much. I mean, I love to get them for concerts I've actually attended, but in general, a lot of artists don't sound as good live as they do on CD. There are exceptions, however, and Josh Groban is definitely one of them. In fact, he sounds a lot better live. A lot more powerful. "Remember" (from Josh Groban Live At The Greek) is a good example because the album version of the song seems to have his voice toned down a bit. I have to turn iTunes up really loud whenever I play it. In this live version, you can hear him loud and clear. This is why I prefer it to the original. Also, it's just a really darn good song!

You've found the fabled pot o' gold.  How will you spend it?
Submitted by Red Pen.

I am such a shopper. I could answer this with about 9 thousand things. Here's a few of the first things that come to mind, though... :)

1. A two week trip to Walt Disney World with Aaron.. and no spending limit! And we would stay at the Wilderness Lodge resort. :o

2. A vacation in England with my mom, to tour castles, drink tea, and check out cute English guys.

3. A shiny new iPod... whichever one has the most space on it! iPods are <3!

4. A Wii.

5. A bottle of every single Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab scent ever made. :D