Final Shopfession of February

I'm closing out February with a Shopfession. I will maintain, if I can get it for free, it doesn't count. I got a reading of Macbeth by a theater troupe with Viggle points so I don't count that.

I splurged a little on music with $3 to finish out an album after a gift card and spending $13 on an album on bandcamp. The bands were Raining Jane (discovered on Dear Sugar), The Vespers, and Fault Lines (discovered on Welcome to Night Vale). Fault Lines is a small time indy band out of Portland and bandcamp is better about places like iTunes about more money going to the artist (as far as I've heard). 

Other than some tunes, I was doing pretty good until I started poking around on ModCloth. I need to get that blocker back on because they had a shirt in stock that I had on my wish list. It said 'Be Nice or Go Away.' If anyone can pull off a shirt like that, it's me. To follow it up I added a fox shirt that I should be able to get away with at work.

If the fit isn't perfect, I'll return them for a store credit. They have enough stuff that I can find something that will work for me and save me on shipping. I'm really hoping these shirts work obviously.

Do Girl Scout cookies count? I had a crappy day to end a stressful week and they were right outside Metro. 

Can I blame The Boy? He was totally inferior of the shirts and appreciated the cookies. I'm going to go turn that website blocker back on.

Music: Love Is a Battlefield by Raining Janes

PopSugar Reading Challenge Book 6

Checking off 'has magic' on a book that really didn't feel that magical to me. In Simon R. Green's Ghost of a Chance, magic was a very subtle element in the overall story with the occasional spell or dark artifact. It blended in seamlessly with everything else going on which is ideal with urban fantasy.

Despite my love of the genre, I have mixed feelings about this book. The main characters are great and the banter is excellent. The events they were dealing with and the monster had hints of horror in addition to urban fantasy. The bones of a good series are here.

But I kept wanting to use the word 'contrived' over and over again. The Crowley Project agents were the best example of this. They're descriptions, dialogue, and wardrobe just did not feel natural. I couldn't tell if Green was trying to be tongue in cheek or sincere with his sociopathic villain in a pink leather cat suit. Either way it didn't work nearly as well as he or his editors intended.

I've heard good things about his other series so I'd give the second book a try and hope Ghost Finders found its footing. If you like the genre or his other work, this one will probably be worth a read but go into with low expectations. What I liked versus what I didn't balanced out to 'meh.'

This book and my last book were both disappointing. I know you can't love them all but it would be nice for me to actually like the next book on the list.

A Graphic Year Week 8

This week, I read Deadpool Corp: Prelude (0.5) by Victor Gischler. After discovering the Deadpool Corp was a thing in Deadpool vs. Deadpool, I pounced on the used copies on Amazon because it’s currently out of print. There was a bit of backstory that would have been helpful but I saw how much those were selling for and decided to call it a day. There was a little bit of backstory I was missing but nothing that really got in the way of my enjoyment of the story.  

The prelude is when Deadpool rounds up Lady Deadpool, Kidpool, Dogpool, and Zombie Headpool to save the multiverse. It was interesting to see all of the different universes. I hope I can visit them again when it’s not so insanely expensive. It culminated in a battle for the Deadpool Corp to prove they were worthy to save the universe against robots and what appeared to be homicidal Carebear knockoffs. The last piece of the story was fun but done in a very dated computer graphic design that reminded me of the 1990s instead of the 2010s when it was published. I would have enjoyed the story more if the art wasn’t so off. I’m hoping this will shape up to be a fun series.

Shaving the Fat

A while back I wrote about how much more expensive women's products are compared to men's products. There was definitely a difference with body wash and shampoo. Deodorant was fairly comparable. Last week, I got to compare shave gel/foam.

As a feminist, I believe the decision to shave, not shave, and what to shave is a personal one. I know why society expects me to shave my legs and it's a BS reason but I don't like that hair fully grown out and I have an office job so I routinely shave my legs. When I ran out of shave gel, I decided to do a price comparison. Once again, big difference.

The generic bottom of the line men's shave gel was $2.04 at Target. The generic bottom of the line women's shave gel was $3.04. You might be thinking, "What's the big deal? It's only a dollar." You mean, it's only a 50% increase in price to make the bottle and gel vaguely pink. 

The bottles are also designed differently. The men's bottle is more of a top down design which I wasn't used to. Not that it made much of a difference but I wonder if it contributes to the BS price difference.

The women's shave gel has more of a sideways design. You still push down but it's not as top down oriented to get the foam out.

I wonder if it's because women have to contort themselves into ridiculous positions to shave everything the world expects us to shave. Men just sit the foam on the counter and push as needed. If you don't regularly shave your bikini line, just imagine the angles we have to twist into to remove that hair.

The Boy thinks it's an issue of supply and demand. Women have to share more square inches so we're charged more since we buy it more often. The wheels of consumerism grind on. I beat the system on this one. I'm sticking with my cheapo men's shave gel and saving my dollar.

PopSugar Reading Challenge Book 5 or An Exercise in Frustration

I finally finished Writer Under 30. I read Never Have I Ever: my life so far without a date by Katie Heaney. The title is inaccurate since she went on a few things most of us would recognize as dates but because she never let it turn into anything, it didn’t really count. As someone who was in a similar boat for a while, I sympathized until she became self-defeating.

Anyone in Heaney’s situation is there partially by choice. She may claim she’s not totally happy with her circumstances but when presented with an opportunity to change them, she never takes it. When Spruce tried to see if the was interested in dating him, she found ways to shut him down out of fear. When Heaney thought he might kiss her, she instinctively found a way to avoid it.  He never explicitly asked but she never gave him a reason to. I’ve read enough to know that part of Heaney’s problem is herself. If you don’t take the risk, you don’t get to bitch about lack of reward.

Heaney is an entertaining writer with a good wit but this particular topic made her sound incredibly juvenile. Why did we waste 45 pages on her life before elementary school? Please explain to me the point of that. When looking at past relationships, nothing before high school really matters. I didn’t have my first date until right before college so part of my sympathizes but I went off and had experiences. It was scary but in a way that rites of passage are supposed to me. Heaney talks about wanting them but is too afraid to go out and actually get them. This is very high school level stuff and after so many pages, I was over hearing about it.

I’ve seen a trend of women getting to their mid-twenties never having had a relationship or much dating experience and they’re all incredibly immature for it. They need to go out and date and learn to communicate and relate to another human being. They also need to own that part of their lack of experience is to do with them and their own choices. You can’t always make people materialize but you can control what happens when they do. I enjoyed Heaney’s writing style and I’d love to hear more of it when she grows up and has something else to say.

Valentine’s Day, a Shopfession, and Ensuing Shenanigans

This weekend The Boy and I hit up the mall to find some accessories for a couple of cosplays we have coming up. I’m set but he needed a few things so we hit Hot Topic and Spencer’s. The problem of having fandoms and fitting into Hot Topic’s stock is the massive amount of temptation. I tried on several things but my pickiness lead me to narrow it down to only two items: a TARDIS skirt on clearance for $20 and Deadpool socks for regular price but DEADPOOL SOCKS! I’m wearing them right now. Since the whole store was buy one, get one half off, the whole thing was only ~$23.

Our plan was to hit the mall for lunch, The Boy’s cosplay essentials, run to the local comic book store (love you Third Eye) then go back to VA for dinner, dessert and Downton (we’re still on season 1). Just when we were ready to leave the mall, the movie theater was being evacuated and we had to take a roundabout way to get back to my car. I parked on the top level of a garage area in a way that had me consistently blocked in by the traffic gradually leaving the garage. We tried to wait it out but gave up when the same compensation car spent 25 minutes blocking me in.

Since our dinner plans were shot at this point, we call my mom and suggest killing a Groupon for a nearby Mexican place we all love. We wander the mall, I buy a bunch of clearance Rudolph’s for Toys for Tots next year, and The Boy and I sampled most of the new candy store in the mall. Heading back to the car we are shocked to notice flurries. The second we’re in the car they stop being flurries and start being real snow.

We make it to the restaurant without incident but once we’re all gather around free nachos we find out the Groupon isn’t good on holidays, including Valentine’s Day. There were only 3 tables with paying folks but we still couldn’t use our Groupon. As we sat there, we watched the snow pick-up and accumulate to over an inch by the time we left. The Boy wiped all the snow off my car and we (slowly) drove back to Virginia. We were full and tired and just wanted to watch Downton.

The Boy’s TV has to be on different feeds for cable or DVD. Despite the size of his apartment and our thorough searching, we could not find the TV remote. We finally figured out how to change the feed using the cable remote and watched some Downton. It was a good day all things considered but as far as Valentine’s Day planning went, we could not catch a break.

I almost wonder if the universe won’t let me quietly enjoy Valentine’s Day because I spent so many years actively hating it. I’ve lost the acrimony with time and I want to let The Boy enjoy it. Nothing went the way it was supposed to go but it wasn’t a bad day. I spent the day with the man I love at the home of consumerism which is really the point of Valentine’s Day.

A Graphic Year Weeks 6 & 7

On Valentine’s Day I managed to play a little catch-up and read Archie: A Love Showdown. I remember reading this back when I was just getting into Archie comics. It also has a lot of the different styles of art which I really enjoyed revisiting. It’s got the unfeminist love pentagram with Cheryl, Archie, Veronica, Betty, and Jason. Part of my brain talks about the unrealistic relationship expectations and gender attitudes but another part of me loves this part of my childhood. Sometimes being a feminist can be a real killjoy.

The graphic novel for this week is was pretty short with Stuff About Sex for guys who are not, like total idiots by David Mellon. It’s a very male heteronormative guide but it makes a lot of important points young people should be hearing. Lose the shame, always communicate, and use protection. Even if you’re not in love with the perspective it offers, it says a lot of valuable things that people should hear, especially teenagers. It’s technically more of a floppy but it makes an important enough point in so many words that I’m counting it.

Shopfession: Feminist Comedy and Work Wardrobe

I have another shopfession. I needed more plain tees to wear to work so I picked one up in royal blue for $9 at Target. It's simple and practical.

I also bought the album of a feminist comic for $9.99 on iTunes. Liz Miele got a lot of attention recently for her bit about feminist sex positions that is definitely worth a watch/listen. I would have downloaded it from her website or Bandcamp but it was only on iTunes or Amazon.

I've been checking out Beck post-Kanye idiocy and he's got that sound I expect would accompany me in the indie movie that would be my life. Other groups I've thought would fit this bill are Now, Now and The Joy Formidable. Maybe a little Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs.

Honestly, before Kanye decided to prove he's an egotistical man-child again, the only thing I knew about Beck was that he had a really cool music video back when MTV and VH1 used to air those. I know I like one song. I don't count this album as part of my shopfession since I 'bought' it with Viggle points.

The big shopfession I have is two dresses I got from eshakti. They make great clothes, I was bored, and everything on the website was 30% off. I got one jersey shirtdress for $56 plus $7 for customizing the sleeves in addition to this red and black color block dress for $46 plus $7 for nixing the sleeves.

The color block dress is what started this. It reminded me of Deadpool and I could wear it to work. If I 86 the sleeves it will be easier to rock them in the summer and I've got all sorts of shrugs and cardigans. While both dresses are practical, it definitely does remind why I use website blockers. I considered asking for them for by birthday but I figured if I want to embrace consumerism, I should pay for it.

I really suck at this not buying stuff thing.

Current Music: Think I'm in Love by Beck

STFU Kanye. Nobody Cares What You Think

Everyone is talking about Kanye West crapping all over Beck’s Grammy so I might as well throw in my two cents. Buzzfeed has an amazing list explaining why Beck was more deserving of the Grammy than Beyonce this year and I especially agree with points 1, 3, and 4. Beck’s album has better lyrics, he wrote them all himself, and he played an insane amount of instruments on his album. I found the album to be a little sleepy in sound but the amount of work he put into is remarkable.

What gives Kanye West the right to decide who is and is not deserving of awards? He has no idea what goes into these awards and how these decisions are made. All he knows is his friend isn’t getting the props he thinks she deserves. I doubt he wants to know anymore. If the world is not the way he thinks it should be, it’s wrong.

Does West make good music? Sure. It’s not my favorite but he’s good at what he does. Does that give him the authority to take things away from Taylor Swift and Beck neither of whom he knows? Absolutely not. Honestly, I know someone a lot like him. He thinks he knows better than everyone else, isn’t interested in facts that might alter his point of view, and doesn’t realize that he’s not that goddman special. I think very little of this person just like I think very little of West.

We need to stop tolerating behavior like this because that person is famous, skilled, or to avoid the ensuing drama of informing them their shit does, in fact, stink. Man-children like this aren’t going to get better or stop making everyone’s life difficult until we put them in a time out and make them think about why they’re really not that much better than the rest of us.

PopSugar Reading Challenge Book 4 with NPH

I just finished the memoir for this list. Choose Your Own Autobiography by Neil Patrick Harris was delightful.

True to his word, he let you jump around and choose your own adventure. If you wanted to pursue your theater career, he let you fast track that story. If you wanted to work on your sexuality, he let you focus on that ‘storyline.’ Harris even threw in a few alternate endings that were usually hilarious and ended within a page. Because it let you choose the narrative, it was a second person point of view. It was interesting to read someone else’s life story from ‘your’ eyes.

There were several letters from friends, a fake magazine interview, and a few other fun bonus features. I managed to catch them all because I’m boring and read it in order. Occasionally I’d jump around or back but it works if you read it in order. I think one of my favorite pieces of his life story was his fortieth birthday adventure that was put together by everyone who loved him. I’ve heard it said that theater is a true actor’s medium and NPH shows he loves acting, not the fame, by how much he throws himself into his stage roles. I can only hope that a DVD of him as Hedwig will come to exist one day.

Fans of NPH, Dr. Horrible, HIMYM, Doogie, and anything he’s touched should read this book. It’s a fun read no matter your fandom but if you don’t know and love NPH, you’ll be missing something (most likely because you’re dead inside).

A Graphic Year Week 5: Archie Gets Dark

I got week 5 in just under the gun. Last night I read Afterlife with Archie Vol. 1 and it was amazing. Archie is always pretty PG, even when he gets married. This series takes Archie to a place no one ever expected it to go.

The necromicon, secret lesbianism, zombies, adultery, and Betty and Veronica finally sniping at each other like normal women competing for the same boy. It starts with the death of Hot Dog and Sabrina making a mistake. From there all hell breaks loose with zombies invading the high school Halloween dance and characters start dropping like flies.

Who steps up? Who shows their true colors? Who does Archie go to in his time of need? I don't want to release rampant spoilers but this is a very powerful volume. Any adult fan of Archie needs to read it. I'm still having some feels about it.