Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

I have to admit that I have jumped on the Dr. Horrible bandwagon a bit late compared to others, but this was due to my skepticism for anything that was not Buffy or Angel. However, after watching the first three episodes of Dollhouse I learned that Joss Whedon could never do wrong and decided to give it a try.

Once again Joss does not disappoint. Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is full of the dark humor that Joss is known for. The other appealing aspect of Dr. Horrible is the fact that it contains musical moments which Joss is amazing at. The songs are just as addicting as those from Buffy: Once More With Feeling due to their catchy tunes and relevant meanings. I have found myself singing them for the past four days at the most random times.

The main character Dr. Horrible, played by Neil Patrick Harris (who knew he could sing?), is desperatly trying to get into the Evil League of Evil while trying to capture the attention of his love Penny, played by Felicia Day. Both of his plans are thwarted by his arch-nemesis Captain Hammer, played by Nathan Fillion.

The show was first aired online at hulu.com on July 15, 2008. It was originally aired in three separate acts released two days apart from each other. Each act is only about 14 minuets long, totaling the series to about 45 minuets, which seems impossible while you are watching it because the story is so well developed.

I highly recommend anyone who loves Buffy, any of Joss's other work, or musicals to watch this blog as soon as possible. It can be found on its original website hulu.com

-jessica.marie

2009 Ban on Spending Book List

Sadly this list will have to wait until I am on spring break in two weeks so I can go through my bookshelf and find all the books I still need to read. :)

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2009 Ban on Spending

The 2009 Ban on Spending Challenge is being hosted by Dreyslibrary.

Challenge rules:

1. List all the books on your TBR list. Every single one.
2. No purchasing books for yourself until all the books listed are gone. No purchasing books for other people with the intention of reading them after they are finished. Library or other borrowed books can’t be listed.
3. Any books won in a raffle or given to you as a gift will be added to this list.
4. Books to be reviewed for promo companies, other blogs, authors, etc. do not count and are not added to this list.
5. Challenge runs January 1st to December 31st, 2009. Start anytime and list as many or as few books as you have. Once all books are checked off from the list, the ban is lifted and the spending can begin again.
6. If you don't have a ton of books to list, but would still like to participate in the spirit of the challenge, you may elect to participate in a period of "abstinence" ~ e.g. no buying from January through April. Make sure to state your intent & the period of time you're abstaining for.
7. I MAY have a prize at the end of the year, I'll have to think of the qualifications (most books waded thru? longest wait? random?).
   
8. If you don't have a blog and would like to still join, list your books in the comment section below.
   
9. Any questions? Post a comment, & I'll figure it out. =)
10. Have FUN!

This is another challenge that I am very excited about. I have a huge addiction of buying books, which can become very costly because all of the books I buy have to be brand new. A lot of people think I am crazy for this, but I can not stand used books due writing, bent pages, smells, etc.. I also have the problem of buying books and never getting the chance to read them, so since I am now a poor college student this challenge will help me read the books I own before purchasing more. Wish me luck!

-jessica.marie

2009 Books & Reviews

1. River Town - Peter Hessler

2. The Sacred Willow - Duong Van Mai Elliott

3. The Tale of Genji -

4. Chushingura - Donald Keene

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Read 100 Books in 2009

The 2009 100+ Reading Challenge will be hosted at

J.Kaye's Book Blog.

Challenge rules:

1. You can join anytime as long as you don’t start reading your books prior to 2009.
2. This challenge is for 2009 only. The last day to have all your books read is December 31, 2009.
3. You can join anytime between now and December 31, 2009.
4. If you don’t have a blog, please join the challenge's Yahoo Groups.
5. When you sign up under Mr. Linky (on J.Kaye's blog), list the direct link to your post where your 100+ books will be listed. If you list just your blog’s URL, it will be removed.
6. All books count: children’s, YA, adults, fiction, non-fiction, how-tos, etc.
7. Feel free to post in the comment section or on Yahoo Groups your monthly progress as well as your favorite books that month.
8. If you have any questions, feel free to email the host at jkayeoldner@yahoo.com. Comments on J.Kaye's blog usually get a quicker response.
9. You do not have to decide your books ahead of time. You can add or subtract from your list during the year.

I am so excited to do this challenge because this will make me keep track off all the books I read during the year. I'm sure that I have read 100 books within a year before, but with college it will probably be more of a challenge.

-jessica.marie

MAC: Hello Kitty

Okay so I know that I am a little late with my review of the Mac for Hello Kitty line....

This was my first purchase from M-A-C, and I have to admit that I have fallen in love. I had always wanted to spend a little more on my makeup, but could never bring myself to do it... until the adorable Hello Kitty Packaging caught my eye. Luckily the colors were also fantastic or else I would just have some pretty packaging lying around.

I ordered:

-Cute-ster lipstick $14

-She Loves Candy lipglass $14

-Tippy beauty powder blush $18

-Pretty Baby beauty powder $22

-The Hello Kitty brush set $49

I am absolutely in love with the lipstick and lipglass, partially due to the wonderful vanilla type scent that they have. The Cute-ster lipstick is a wonderful nude shade of pink that tends to look more coral in certain lights due to the gold glitter within it. The She Loves Candy lipglass is the most amazing shade of cool pale pink. I can understand why some people may consider the Mac lipglass sticky, but I do not really believe so especially compared the sticky horribleness or Victoria Secret lipgloss. I tend to be very picky about my lip color, but for me both of these colors are perfect because they are close to a nude lip but have a sheer color of pink and shimmer to them.

The Tippy beauty powder blush is a very pigmented blue pink. I fell in love with this product before it arrived because of the color shown online and trust me the color is even more gorgeous in person. There is also a soft shimmer when it is applied, that can mostly be seen in the sunlight. It can be applied with a lighter brush for a more subtle look. I have to admit that I mostly bought the beauty powder for the packaging. It is a good thing that I was not looking forward to the color of Pretty baby because it barely shows up on my skin tone, so I have been using it like many others as a setting powder.

Many people also bought the Hello Kitty brush set for the cute Hello Kitty cup the brushes came in, even though many believe that the travel size brushes are not as soft as the full sized ones. Since I have never used professional makeup brushes, let alone M-A-C brushes, I was not worried about being disappointed in the quality and figured it was a better deal to be able to try 3 brushes for about the price of one full size brush.

I would highly recommend buying anything you want from the Hello Kitty line before it all sells out, because it has become almost as popular as the Mac for Barbie line.

Temptalia has wonderful coverage of all the Mac for Hello Kitty related news and amazing true to shade swatches of the products.

-jessica.marie

I received the last part of my order today. It's amazing end of story. Except the lipgloss is kind of sticky, but overall I love the Hello Kitty makeup. I just wish I didn't have to deal with Nordstrom's idioticness.

-jessica.renae-

Dollhouse

Dollhouse is Joss Whedon's (creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Firefly) new television series. The show aired on Friday the 13th, which is considered one of the worst days for television series to begin because most that due end up failing, but anyone who is familiar with Joss's work knows that he welcomes challenges. Diehard fans of the Whedonverse will not be dissappointed.

Dollhouse is about a corporation (reminds me of Wolfram & Hart) that takes on "volunteers" who want to change their lives for the better. The volunteer's memories are then wiped completely clean which are then imprinted with memories of otheres that help them do the job they are sold to due. The catch is once their memory is wiped clean they are incapable of thinking about anything until new memories are inserted, so they do not realize what is happening to them. That is until Echo begins to have flashes of her old memories. In theory this is a brillant idea because it allows the volunteers to lead completely different lives from day to day and never have to worry about the consquences of what they have done in the past or may do in the future. The only promblem is the people whose memories aren't erased which includes each volunteer's assaigned person to watch over them along with the doctors who administer their "treatments". The show stars favorites such as Eliza Dushku as Echo (Faith on BTVS, and Angel) and Amy Acker as Dr. Claire Saunders (Fred on Angel).

So far the show has 7 episodes completed and airs every Friday at 9:00 on FOX.

-jessica.marie