Nubbins...

So long long nails...Figures that I would do one of my favorite manicures in several weeks and my nail would split at the base! I knew it was splitting a little, but thought I could get another mani before I trimmed them down to help the nail so it could grow out a little. Yeah, apparently I should have trimmed them before I did this manicure...Work today broke it! I don't even know when it happened, but I could feel my nail catching in my glove and finally checked to see what was wrong and it was half split off. Ugh! To say the least, I had to come home today and cut my nails super short and completely cut off my right, index nail. It's super, super short. I'm not going to enjoy the callous build-up over the next few days, but what are ya gonna do?

So, here's a photo of the mani that I had to remove today. I got those new plates and am loving them!

  

Look how pretty it is! This is a England Perceval for the base (red foil) and BM 323 stamped in China Glaze Passion (gold chrome). It looks like it was or is a fabric pattern, but I loved it. It was so pretty. I forgot how great stamping could be! Unfortunately, my right index finger (in this photo even!) broke. :(

So then I had to redo my nails and did them to this. This is my left hand and it's cut extremely short for me, but it's not *as* short as my right hand. It's just a little longer than my right. The base is Sinful Colors Winterberry (grayed purple with a holo shimmer) and has glitter on top that's Sonoma Nail Art Sonoma Sunset. Winterberry photoed really gray in this photo, but I promise it has much more purple in it in person. I really like the holo shimmer too. It's really pretty. The glitter is pretty too, but I thought it'd look better over this base. It would look better over something more vibrant, I think. Or maybe just a good purple creme...I'll have to use it again some other time. It's purple, pink-fuchsia, and sky blue glitters in varying sizes.

Once my right index grows out a little, I'll try stamping again. What a bummer for Halloween nail art, but at least I've got a lot of Halloween glitters to try out too. LoL

With that...Not a whole lot otherwise!

My new geek obsession?

Some years ago (okay, precisely, it was July 16, 2008 - check it here), I posted about Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. Since then, it's become a cult favorite and we expect season 2 (or a prequel sequel) to air sometime in the future (it's in the works, but not sure when it'll be available). It was a fun project that was free to the public to watch and it was entertaining (not to mention I enjoy the tune of "Bad Horse Chorus"). In that show, Nathan Fillion, Neil Patrick Harris, and Felicia Day stared. I, of course, knew of NPH and Fillion before then, but the Blog was my first real exposure to Felicia Day. I just knew she was a "Whedon girl," which is basically like any actor who tends to become associated with a particular director or producer (e.g., Christian Bale and Joseph Gordon-Levitt are becoming Chris Nolan guys, Helen Bonham Carter is (always) a Tim Burton girl, etc, etc). In other words, they just tend to do projects with the same director or producer a lot. I liked her in the Blog, but hadn't thought much of her beyond it.

The other day (or week), Chris was watching The Guild on Netflix, said it was funny, and I should watch it. I basically put it on the back burner since I was trying to complete all my summer TV shows (it was an intense few days of Royal Pains, The Closer, Necessary Roughness, and Political Animals. I still have Common Law and Burn Notice to finish). Well, the other day I was bored at work and didn't want to watch Vampire Diaries, but wanted to watch something while on lunch so I started The Guild. Yeah, that was pretty much the beginning of the end.

I.am.hooked.

The Guild is basically about a group of people who are in a guild for a MMORPG (for those that don't know, MMORPG is basically an on-line game that has quests, etc, etc). The main person is Felicia Day's character whose on-line name is Codex and she does video diaries; however, the show chronicles the interactions of "The Guild" on- and off-line. It's pretty nerdy and hilarious. If you play a MMO or are at all in the "know" about them, it's funny. If you don't play one, I'm not sure if it'd be as funny, but I think it'd still be funny in its own way. It's silly and doesn't take itself seriously. There are definitely things in it anyone could find funny, but it is for adults. It's not like it's rated R or anything, but it is more of a PG-13 thing. There are 5 seasons and a 6th season starting October 2nd.

So, The Guild is amazing and lots of laughs. I haven't laughed out loud to something like that in a while, but the best thing about the show? It's on YouTube and totally free to watch. How amazing is that?! They've grown significantly since the first season, which was helped by funding from fans. Now Microsoft, Sprint, and someone else sponsors the show. In addition, they've branched out to do webisodes with the main cast doing various different things ("Written by a Kid" is pretty funny). You can watch all the geekiness here: Geek & Sundry.  To wade through all the various playlists, you can find the individual seasons (stitched together into one long "movie" instead of the individual episodes) here in the playlists page. If you want the original webisodes and/or want to laugh at the Christmas stuff ("Twas the Night Before Christmas" (hilarious) and the Christmas Raid Carol (also hilarious)), go to their old YouTube page called Watch The Guild (uploaded videos at the bottom has the individual webisodes). They also have some fun music videos and some other songs that you can find on iTunes and/or on YouTube ("(I'm the One That's) Cool" is practically the nerd/geek theme song of now..."(Do You Wanna Date My) Avatar" is funny...and "Game On" is especially funny since it's a Bollywood-themed video/song).

So, I can't wait till Tuesday when season 6 starts! Not to mention you can't say Felicia Day isn't talented...

In other news, started reading the new JK Rowling book. I'm not very far in it because Amazon was ridiculously SLOW in shipping it to me (come on! You charged me sales tax, you can at least get me my book on the day it was released rather than the NEXT day!). Okay, so most books/things I wouldn't care about, but...when I pre-order a book back in April, I expect delivery on the day it's released! :) I almost cancelled my order and re-ordered it they were so slow on notifying me my book was coming to me. I almost even bought it at Costco...! At any rate, it is an adult book, but what'd you expect? We were all warned and I at least went into this book knowing it's a) not Harry Potter, b) not going be a great literature work (a good read, but not great), and c) going to be FOR an adult. So far, it's met my expectations. I think it's interesting that I'm 60 pages into a 503 page book and so far it's all been about how everyone is passing on the news that Barry Fairbrother is dead and HOW he died. At the same time, it's a great way to introduce the townspeople, the characters, and each of their personalities. I will say that it's fantastic reading a JK Rowling book. Her writing style hit me from the first page of reading it and brought back the way I would read Harry Potter. That lady certainly can write. However, we'll see how the rest goes!

With that...I've got a bathroom to clean or reading to do or the trivia episodes of The Guild to watch. Oh, I suppose I've got my week's TV shows to watch too (Fringe starts its final season tonight! :( ). I'm now convinced I want Christopher and Sonjia to go to Fashion Week on Project Runway FOR SURE. Dmitry and Fabio are toss-ups. Melissa, as much as I like her, I just don't think she's strong enough. She's been melting down the last few episodes (just finished this week's episode, so it's fresh in my mind!). Hm. I want to redo my nails before tomorrow too...Oh the things to do...

Horse racing or the Zenyatta statue

For those that know me, my love of horse racing is no surprise. I absolutely love it. I love the fact I can spend an entire day at a sports venue for a ticket price that is less than $12 (including parking fees and program, but I've managed free parking at all the tracks I've gone to). I like the craziness that is each race and the ebb and flow of the racetrack. I love how when you first arrive far before the races start you can see people mingling about with their Daily Racing Forms (another $7 or so) trying to pick their winners and the few horses still schooling at the paddock. I like how when the first race approaches and horses start arriving at the paddock that the paddock fills up with fans and handicappers. When the call to post happens and all the horses are either heading to the track or are on the track, it's amazing to see how mostly everyone in the paddock heads to the track to find a spot to watch the race. The whistling and shouting that starts when the gates clang open and the horses approach home is exhilarating and it's hard not to get excited for a horse to win and wanting to start cheering and yelling with the rest....

Awww....The racetrack. I suppose I don't need to keep going into details about how I can lose an entire day at the racetrack and be happy with it, but what I should really say is that I adore Santa Anita Racetrack. I've been to Hollywood and Del Mar and each are great racetracks in their own rights and brought a lot of fun, but Santa Anita brings itself to a whole different level. It's definitely special and amazing.

This weekend starts their fall meet and ends with the Breeders' Cup on the 2nd and 3rd of November. I was seriously thinking of attending the Breeders' Cup with a general ticket (no seat, basically) and you can get in for about $15, I think (less than $20 for sure). I'm not sure when the Breeders' Cup will be back in town after next year's and, more than that, who knows where I will be! But....with the expense of my last trip, I just can't justify the cost of getting down south and attending the races. A little piece of me mourns the lost opportunity because I really want to attend (it's like the All-Stars and Super Bowl all packed into one) and I have a friend I want to meet who will be there, but, more than that, I want to see the Zenyatta statue!

The Zenyatta statue has been 2 years in the making and will be revealed this Saturday. I wish I could be there for the big reveal, but at least the statue will be there for me to see some other day. It's sized to be an exact replica of her and even weighs roughly what she weighed during her racing days. How amazing is that?! Given how many statues Santa Anita has (and they're amazing), it'd be great to see. Oh, how I miss Santa Anita...It's been 1.5 years since I last visited and that's just too long!

On that (slightly sad) note, here's a fun video about Jay Cohen who is the bugler at Santa Anita. He's a fun guy for sure! I can't imagine having a recording of the bugler at the racetrack either. That's just...wrong. It's like having artificial grass at a baseball game or playing a video for halftime at the Super Bowl instead of live performances. It's just not right! I really enjoy the call to the post too. I always try to see it in person once when I visit the track because it is apart of the whole experience.

Anyway, with that...I'm off! Chris's birthday was today and we got cheesecake to eat. :) (And then it's bedtime since I have to open...close to open shifts are never exactly fun...)

A little of everything...

Not much in the way of the personal life. I've been trying to relax lately. My final edits for the Aquarium were short and the report is now off to peer review (turned it in a little over a week ago). I'm on one hand hoping for some good critiques and more articles/information and, on the other hand, dreading more articles/information coming in because that means I'm going to have to rewrite most of the report. So...I'm hoping for a happy medium somewhere? Or, perhaps, I'm a-okay with what I have, which would be nice in its own way. As a researcher, you always want "more data," but sometimes it doesn't exist and you have to come to the understanding that "no data" is, well, a result. It's not a "fun" result, but it's a result none-the-less. So, we'll see!

Work is still work. Trying to finalize some things and other things are sort of in a weird limbo. I just try to do the best I can and not get to me too much. I am job hunting for some new jobs. I haven't applied to anywhere, yet, but I am actively looking. Something in me just clicked recently that I am just tired of my job. And it's not that it's hard work, but it's mind-numbing most days (not to mention I'm tired of penny-pinching constantly). As much as I enjoy my fellow co-workers and everything, it's a little -- I guess -- non-fulfilling. I had been looking before, but not enough. Definitely changing that...!

Other than work, as I've said, I've been trying to relax before the final push for the Aquarium report. That has the potential to being very time consuming and draining between it and a 40-hours-a-week job. Last weekend, though, I was totally "blah." I don't know why, but I just did not want to do anything or go anywhere. It was a little weird. I didn't want to read. I didn't want to watch TV shows. I didn't want to watch movies. I didn't want to do my nails. I didn't even want to be on my computer! That's pretty much changed this week, but it was weird last weekend.

Anyway, nothing much in the ways of movies. I watched two this week and did my nails 3 times this past week. I haven't been reading much right now as there's not a whole lot I REALLY want to read. There's some so-so books, but...eh. Maybe some other day! I am looking forward to my October books I've pre-ordered, so that'll be good! I'm aiming to read 40 books this year (I'm at 39?), so I'll make that. If I could, it'd be great to get 52 to have a book a week, but we'll see. 14 weeks for 13 more books? Maybe doable...We'll see.

Fall TV shows have started up again. Bones and Revolution started last week. Castle, CSI, Criminal Minds, Person of Interest, Elementary, CSI: NY, Fringe, Revenge, Once Upon a Time, The Mentalist, and 666 Park Avenue all start this week. In addition to the fall shows, Downton Abbey season 3 started! So exciting! I've already watched the first two episodes and they've been good. I love how Amazon has already sent me the email to pre-order season 3. Season 3 comes out on DVD the end of January with the US TV show times to start early January. I'm sure I'll pre-order it at some point! Bones and Castle both had good season premieres and I'm looking forward to the rest this week.

I started watching Vampire Diaries, which I've aborted after 3 episodes. Maybe I'll try again later, but it's just not my thing. I prefer my love triangles in book form. :) I also started watching The Guild with Felicia Day. Wow. Talk about nerdy hilarity! I don't know if it'd be as funny if you didn't know about RPGs and MMOs, but knowing about them and having played once or two in my life, it made it all the funnier!

So...movies!

Battleship (Taylor Kitsch, Brooklyn Decker, Liam Neeson, etc) - Think a combination of Independence Day and Transformers and that's sort of what Battleship was like? Alien invasion and the navy has to defeat them. I spent a good portion of the movie trying to pick out the game pieces and how they related it back to the game. One of the funnier things was the aliens' missiles were shaped like the game pegs and they implanted into the ships. I also liked how they were trying to track the enemy "ship" things and they used buoys and they basically shot rockets and stuff using them like the game board. It was clever with what they did, but it's definitely not a great movie. The action scenes and the plotting were neat, but the general storyline was either cheesy or not great (especially the "character" storyline between Kitsch, Decker, and Neeson). The alien concept was okay. I mean, in this day and age, it's not like they're going to set it up against two world powers or something (as is, Japan and America were doing war games together and had a great partnership towards the end), so the aliens basically substituted for that, so I'll let that go. Grade: C+

L!fe Happens (Krysten Ritter, Kate Bosworth) - Got this movie on a whim and, well, I sort of regretted my whim choice. It wasn't as funny as I hoped it to be and it was a little touching at the end, but it was basically 1:40 hours of "Why am I watching this?!" It did get better towards the end, but there's really not a whole lot to this. I actually preferred watching Friends with Kids more than this and, for all intents and purposes, L!fe Happens is similar. 3 female roommates, they lived on the free and young side, one gets knocked-up and it chronicles the lives of the 3 roommates and how their lives change and whatnot. It was either too cheesy at times or too serious. I don't know. It didn't work for me. At least Friends with Kids was a nice balance even if it was a rather dumb premise? Anyway, don't recommend it. Grade: D-

With L!fe Happens, I have finally breached 70 movies! Woohoo! Still haven't seen Bourne Legacy, it just never screens at a good time. I am excited to see Taken 2, which comes out the 5th of October. Yes, it'll probably be all action and the story will suffer for it (unlike the first one), but, come on, I've got to see it! I also am totally into Les Miserables and it coming out in December. I'm excited to see it. Whether it'll actually be really good, we'll see, but the extended look (link here) really makes it look good so I'm excited. I love the book; I love the play; I certainly hope I love the musical movie. If anything, the cast is good so it's worth seeing for that alone. The Avengers came out on DVD today (Tuesday, that is) and my copy came first thing in the morning! I've been watching it in pieces all day. Still a good film even after all this time and seeing it twice in theater.

Nails! These are just a few of the last ones I've done (aka "the coolest"). These are mood-changing nail polishes by Pretty & Polished.

Spring Fling turns the light green color when my hands are warm and the dark green when they're cold. There is also a shimmer in the polish to just add a little flare. It is rather hidden so it's hard to see, but it's nice just knowing it's there. This polish really changes colors quickly too and I really liked it. My only complaint is that the "warm" color (light green) is rather sheer so you can see my nail line when it's all light green (even after 4 coats of polish, albeit thin ones), but that didn't happen often. Most times it looked like the picture on the right with the dark tips. I got several compliments on it.

Dolli-Pop turns blue when it's warm and purple when it's cold. I just bought the new BundleMonster nail stamping plates so I HAD to do at least one nail stamped. The stamp is BM 314 stamped in China Glaze Passion. I really liked the stamp over the polish and debated stamping all my nails, but it made it harder to see the gradient or color change with the stamp and, at the time, my hands were extremely cold and were staying purple mostly. Turns out, the color gradient is a little stronger than I originally thought and probably could have gotten away with the stamp on all fingers, but oh well. I've already gotten compliments on this mani and I've only had it on for a day! The stamp does catch people's eye more. This polish has a blue shimmer in it and the blue (warm color) also shows some nail line, but not as badly as the light green did. This is either 3 or 4 coats. I can't remember...I tend to stop counting after 3...I think because the colors are similar, my nails tend to look more gradient than a strict blue-purple line like Spring Fling tended to do, but it could also just be when I happen to look at my nails too. At any rate, it's fun seeing it change!

With that, until next time!

Busy, busy! And a jelly-sandwich

I have been on minimal nail polish and minimal movies the last few weeks. With the craziness that was helping my parents pack and trying to get my most recent edits back in to the Aquarium, I haven't really felt like I've had a day off in weeks! Well, I suppose up till yesterday and today! I did things these two days I haven't done in ages. For example: Swatch my latest polishes, clean the rabbit's litter box (I know, it's not glorious, but Chris is the one who has been cleaning it for weeks), do the dishes and put them away in less than 24 hours (it's been more like wash half the dishes, let them sit in the draining board till we use them all, and the rest get cleaned as we needed them, etc), etc, etc. It's the little stuff you realize you put off when you're busy.

To say the least, I am THOROUGHLY enjoying my two days off and will enjoy Sunday before I start worrying about comments from the Aquarium coming back to me. I was pretty sleep-deprived this past week trying to get the edits completed (I was lucky if I was in bed before 2 am and had to open all week). On top of it, I was getting over being ill so, well, life was a little exhausting the past week. My aquarium recent draft has been turned in, though. It was amazing how many things I decided to change and add. I also wrote for things I didn't need to and had to remove pages. Joys! At any rate, it's all done!

I went to Gilroy today and got new shoes! I really needed them (I've worn the bottoms almost completely flat and a hole in the toe on the top of my old ones) and have to send my orthotics in to get refinished so new shoes are important so my feet/back don't get too messed up while they're sent away. Perhaps, TMI, but there you have it. :) What can I say, I've had a good weekend!

Perhaps the good weekend is a really good thing since things are changing at work again. I'm 3 months away from my 1 year anni and we only got 4 months of regularity and it's been nonstop changes since! We'll see, though. It could be nothing or it could be a lot! Not to mention I still need to stay on top of my aquarium edits so there's not a lot of time to relax in the foreseeable future.

So, anyway, moving on to movies and nails.

There hasn't been a whole lot and then my time has been minimal so this weekend I've put my movie time in. I watched an older and 3 somewhat-newer ones.

The Expendables (2010 - Sylvester Stallone, etc) - Well, it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. It's definitely a manly-man movie and there's even saving damsels in distress! Not to mention a lot of stabbing, knifing, and shooting of people. Lots of explosions and over-the-top stuff too. There was an actual moment that I muted the movie because it was just shooting and it was LOUD. Eh. It wasn't a bad Netflix movie to watch, but there's definitely not a whole lot to it. Grade: C

Seeking Justice (Nicolas Cage, January Jones, Guy Pearce) - A Nicolas Cage movie...They tend to not be great, but a friend recommended it so I watched it on Netflix. It's not too bad. It's not great, either. I suppose there are worst things of his to watch (i.e., Ghost Rider), but there are better things to watch too. It's an interesting concept of a movie, though, where an organization basically takes justice into their own hands because the police force isn't able to solve crimes with enough proof. So, the organization can "take care of criminals," but also indebts those they help to help out future cases. Cage's character basically tries to expose and get out of the organization after he partook of it after his wife had a horrible incident that involved her being brutalized and raped. It's an interesting thing to think about, but it still bothers me to watch Cage acting. He seems so phoney to me! I will say, this was probably one of the better movies for him, though. He usually does the same acting in every movie and this one actually works, I think. Still, it's not great. Grade: C+/B-

The Lorax - Other than the crazy musical numbers, it's not too bad. Okay, so the environmental message is really strong, but I liked it. The scary man in the building is rather creepy, I must admit, but it's a nice way to tell the story. It does make you think about your impact on the environment and the cute fuzzy animals are, well, cute, but I don't know. It's just okay. It was sad to see the destruction of the forest, though. The song during the whole destruction was...interesting ("How Bad Can I Be?" <-- YouTube Video Link) and the "Let It Grow" song sung by the villagers was rather catchy ("Let It Grow" <-- YouTube Video of the villagers version (not the Ester Dean version)). Okay, so it was a little cheesy, but, eh. It was catchy! I did like the fish in the movie and I enjoyed how the animals looked like what is in the book. The fish, birds, and bears ARE Dr. Seuss characters. The fish I particularly enjoyed. They're funny and the bears are cute.  Grade: B/B-

What to Expect When You're Expecting (Jennifer Lopez, Chris Rock, etc) - I was kind of surprised that I liked it as much as I did. These types are always hit or miss. It's funny and it's got some nice moments in it. It basically follows 5 couples and their trying to have a child. 1 is going to adopt overseas after IVF didn't work; 2 have an unplanned pregnancy (1 couple has twins); 1 had a successful IVF after 2 years; and 1 had a failed pregnancy. There are some other things like the men's club too. It was touching at points and it was funny at other times. This movie isn't the type where all the characters end up interacting with each other at some point (or connect to each other), but their timelines overlap each other (basically all become pregnant at the same point or give birth/adopt at the same time). I think everyone did a good job and I liked it. I don't think I'd really watch it again, but it was good. Chris thought it was funny at points too. The end with the kid is HILARIOUS. And the adoption was sweet. Grade: B

I want to mention one other thing...One of the trailers in front of The Lorax was for Barbie: The Princess and the Popstar. Oh.My.Gosh...Someone remove the memory from my mind!! Barbie singing "Princesses just want to have fun"...Wow...No, no, no!! And to top it off, the storyline is the Popstar wanting to be a princess and the Princess wanting to be able to sing so they switch! Wow...Please...make the memory go away!

Anyway, with that, I'm up to 69 movies for the year! I did rewatch Hunger Games on DVD. I liked it the 2nd time and maybe even more because I was fully awake for it. I'm still not in LOVE with it as some people I know are, but it's good. I'm looking forward to the 2nd one.

In addition to the movie watching, this week I finally watched Political Animals from the USA Network. I liked it. I can't say it's amazing like West Wing, but it's interesting. It kind of reminds me of a political soap opera since it's also very much about the family and their issues. I think I could go either way for a 2nd season or not. I think it's interesting enough to watch more, but I also could live without it too.

Because of my time availability, I've been going about a week between nails. It positively drove me nuts for a few days because my nails were chipped on the left hand, but I just couldn't take the time to redo them. I did, however, redo them Thursday (the first chance I had!). I decided to do my first jelly-sandwich, which is basically a jelly polish on the bottom, a glitter in between, and more jelly polish on top. A jelly polish, for those who don't know, is a type of sheer polish that isn't opaque and has a jelly-like (as in PB&J) look/quality to it. It's kind of like a colored top coat. At any rate, this was my first jelly-sandwich I've done. I like it!

This is Zoya Frida with Lynnderella Snow Angel in the middle. I should probably have wrapped my tips so they were more opaque (wrapping is basically putting polish on the free edge and slightly underneath), but oh well. There is a HINT of visible nail line (VNL) even with 4 coats of color and 1 of the glitter, but it's not too bad. I will probably never wear Frida on its own, though. I can't stand seeing VNL. I probably need a thicker top coat to get the grittiness of Snow Angel completely gone too. Might help the shine of Frida come out better.

In other news, JK Rowling's new book (The Casual Vacancy) comes out September 27! I'm excited! I also have 3 other books coming out in October, which will be good since I've been short on books lately. I sort of blew through everything I really wanted to read. I have plenty TO read, but nothing I really WANT to read. I guess I should just slug through my eh-reads since one of them is the 2nd book in a series a friend likes. We'll see.

Anyway, that's all for now!