Captain America: The Winter Soldier

I've been waiting for the Blu-Ray release of this since April 6th (the day after I saw the movie in the theatre.) I liked this one a lot, I thought it developed the characters really well and gave them more dimension. It did a good deal of worldbuilding, too - if you were a regular viewer of Agents of SHIELD, you were advised NOT to see Captain America until after you'd seen a certain episode in that series, because there were major spoilers. Due to its ongoing battle with Hachette and several other publishers who are Tired Of Their Bullshit, Amazon did not have the latest Marvel movies available for pre-order (I was only recently able to pre-order Days of Future Past through Amazon.) I originally pre-ordered it through Barnes and Noble, but then picked it up - for a lower price - at Costco, the first day it was available for purchase. I've watched everything, including the gag reel and deleted scenes. (There was no featurette with this movie. I wonder why? I definitely love both the featurettes and the after-credits scenes.)

My Cats

Seven months ago, I had to put two of my cats to sleep. Just over a month ago, I adopted a pair of siblings. Ari and Amy have adjusted very very well to the household - though I think that most of that is down to their being each others' favorite toy/companion/wrassling partner. They both get along very well with Justin, and a bit better than can be expected with Beep. Mostly, Beep keeps to herself; and while the young girls don't interact with her much, they don't avoid each other or show any signs of aggression; and when they do interact, all three at least act civil, if not outright friendly. (Beep is 19, she's the human equivalent of 90+, so her patience for toddlers-and-teens is limited.) Justin is the one who they snuggle with, play with, and groom. I still miss Bear and Saya immensely, and Beep - my senior-citizen grand lady - has a slight touch of feline dementia, in that she occasionally wakes up and starts caterwauling, possibly because she doesn't quite remember where she is or where "her" cat-sibs are. But since adopting Amy and Ari, my cat-family is rounded out: Justin has calmed down and settled into his role as "big brother", Beep isn't antagonistic towards Justin any more, and I have four contented cats whose company I enjoy.

Blank Journals and my favorite pens

I love writing. For about a decade, I kept journals of all kinds of things. I kind of dropped the habit when I moved up to Canada and started my first online blog (which has long since been shut down.) For a while I wrote only sporadically, and I tried experimenting with keyboarding my journals...but for me, there's really nothing like writing out ideas in longhand. My handwriting used to be so much neater, but - like probably everyone else my age - it deteriorated sharply when we started keyboarding more and more! I've always been in the habit of keeping a blank book or two around, but for the longest time, I didn't write anything in them. One reason was because these particular blank books were gorgeous, and I couldn't bear to use them for "note-taking" or idle scribblings. But then, one year...I took one to DragonCon, and used that as my autograph book (only I got my friends to sign it, not the celebrities.) That seemed to break the mental logjam I had. Then about two years ago Barnes and Noble had some nice-sized leather-cover journals on sale for just under $7. I stocked up (Sirvinya also got a few, when she was here for DragonCon 2013) and recently I've gotten several Moleskine hard-back ruled journals. I also have some larger journals, either metallic-peacock-feathers, or blue-medallion-design from a 14th century Qu'ran, or a reproduction of a 16th-century bookbinding design.

When I journal, I tend to just write, rather than illustrate or paste in items. I'm not big on saving ticket stubs or whatnot; and a lot of what I write is about daily thoughts and events rather than major events that will have things like ticket stubs or playbills. Thus, I'm quite picky about pens. No simple ballpoint is going to do. The grip, the action, the flow of the ink...it's all got to work for me. About three years ago I spotted some blue-black ink Uni Ball pens at an office supply store; and after testing one out to see how it felt, I bought a few and brought them home. I later bought an entire box online because...when one finds a pen that works, one stocks up (because sure and sure, the bastards will discontinue the ink color in a year or three.) Then two years ago, I spotted the "BLX" line - blackened ink colors, in this same pen style. I got a five-pack to see how I liked the colors. And then...you guessed it...I took to the internet and bought a dozen of each color. (Seriously folks, I'm dangerous in office supply stores. DANGEROUS.) There are several ink colors: red-black, brown-black, purple-black, green-black, and of course the one that started it all, blue-black.

The pen body fits well into my hand, and the writing action is wonderful - very smooth, no skipping or catching. The ink is archival quality, and the pens are somehow engineered (I have no idea how) so that the ink won't leak when you take then on an airplane and the cabin pressure changes. (Presumably this same non-leaking also applies to submarines and orbital-travel vehicles, but I'm unlikely to test either of those in my lifetime, and I have taken these on plane trips and not had any leakage, not even a tiny bit inside the cap.

The weather this past summer...and this past month

Not only have we had a really gorgeous, mild summer (not too many days over 85 degrees Farenheit, which is the temperature that the average Seattlite melts) but the trend has continued into late summer/early fall. There has been a day where I've cycled the heater, but it's been a day, not several days. And while we've had rainy days in the past few months, most of the rain has very politely fallen in the wee hours of the night. It's been stunningly lovely. I am looking forward to fall/winter, but having a mild fall is...nice. Very nice. I've been able to get out walking nearly every day.

(Photo taken by me, using my iPod. It's a manmade lake near my house, where a willow tree hangs over the water and is used, yearly, as a "duck-family shelter.")

The perfect brush for cream-shadow application

I love cream shadows and gel liners. Application can be kind of tricky, because I need a brush that allows for finer detail and precision, has enough bristle density to apply the product evenly to my lids, and lasts well. At one point I began using the semi-stiff oval-shaped concealer-ish brush that was in a Tarte kit a few years ago (and of course, this brush is nowhere to be found on Tarte's site, so once it finally died, I'd be back to Square One.) I started buying concealer brushes from Crown, off of Ebay, from ecotools...any line that I'd used previously and liked the quality of their brushes. I do have one of the smaller, slimmer brushes that Maybelline sold with their Fall 2012 LE Color Tattoos, and it works better than other brushes I have; but it's about the size of a lip brush, and I wanted to have something just a little bit wider...but not too wide. I bought some of elf's Studio-line concealer brushes, because I love the eyeshadow brushes from that line, and because if it didn't work, at least I wasn't paying $15 for a brush. Turns out...these brushes work excellently for me! They have the bristle density that lets them pick up a good amount of cream shadow and deposit it evenly on my lids; the end of the brush is not tapered so I can use the flat for broad strokes and the end for detailed application (such as on my lash line); the bristles are long enough that when I clean them I don't have to be super-careful about liquid getting into the ferrule; and I know from experience that these Studio brushes may shed a few hairs the first few uses, and after that they don't shed unless the glue has been loosened.

As a bonus...remember my review about the Kat Von D Studded Kiss lipsticks, and how the color was great but the formula wasn't the easiest to work with? I can use these brushes with those lipsticks, too! Most of the lip brushes that I've tried have been a bit flimsier (or, for the cheap ones, far too stiff) and with this formula, you really need a brush that's going to have enough of a backbone (so to speak) to pick up the product. elf's Studio-line Concealer Brush works perfectly for this! And the non-tapered end gives me finer control, to apply along my lip line (doesn't replace a lip liner, but does help me get a cleaner, sharper application.) I'm now using Lovecraft - my personal favorite "daily" shade from this collection - at a faster rate! I may try LUV again, see if I can't get better performance if I use this brush. (LUV was the worst performer that I tried, bar none. And while I didn't try every lipstick in this collection, I did end up buying ten of them. Thank goodness most of them were the glittery/sparkly shades, which actually perform somewhat well.)

Like this entry? Check these out:

or look at other entries tagged with

Share This Page

Comments