This or That?

I don't usually like playing 'this or that' games, simply because I find them a bit silly. Especially the ones that have you choose between things that I don't even think exist, like asparagus-flavored ice cream. (I would be astonished if this did exist. I can't imagine the taste of asparagus and perhaps a normal, vanilla ice cream mixing together). But I still like doing tags, and I have nothing to post about. I found this tag on July's blog So....



Make-up
(before I start this, I pretty much never wear makeup, so expect very lame answers)
Blush or Bronzer? Uhhhhhhh, maybe bronzer? Because it just sounds cooler, and most blushes make me sneeze uncontrollably.
Lip gloss or Lipstick? Well, I hate the feeling of anything on my lips...it just feels so...weird. I can't focus on anything else. But I do have to wear lipstick for gymnastics meets sometimes, so I guess I'll go with that.
Liner or Mascara? I personally have an awful fear of stabbing myself in the eye when applying any sort of eye product, but I do know how to put on mascara, unlike eyeliner. So. Mascara, then.
Foundation or Concealer? Eh, I have like never worn foundation. Ever. Even though I do have some. I'll go with concealer, because it can come in handy, occasionally.
Neutral Eyeshadow or Colour? I don't see the point of wearing a neutral eyeshadow...I mean, then no one can see it, right? So color. By the process of elimination.
Pressed or Loose Eyeshadow? I don't know what the difference is. And I frankly am way too lazy to look it up.

Nails and Body
OPI or China Glaze? Hmm...OPI, I suppose. I occasionally paint my nails with this brand. I don't know about China Glaze...
Long or Short Nails? Well, I keep my nails pretty short...I find it a lot easier to do gymnastics with short nails. But I think long nails are prettier.
Acrylic or Natural? Ehhh, I don't know what this means either, and I'm not gonna look it up. I'll say natural, because it just sounds better.
Brights or Darks? Bright nail polish is more noticeable. So, bright, I guess! But if you wear a lot of bright clothing, it might be better to wear darker nail polish.
Flower or No Flower? I like flowers...but painting little flowers on fingernails takes away the beauty of real flowers. So no flowers.
Perfume or Body Splash? My school doesn't allow perfume (I have no idea why) so all the girls just use body splash/body spray. Which in my opinion usually smells better because they have some sort of flowery or vanilla scent, which I like. So body splash.
Lotion or Body Butter? I don't use body butter. Never have. Probably never will. But I still think lotion is better, because my hands and feet have extremely dry, cracked skin because of the chalk I use for gymnastics, and lotion really helps. And my dry skin from swimming also requires lotion.
Body Wash or Soap? Body wash...I love the Dove brand. They have these very yummy-smelling body washes, with things like nectarine and sakura blossom and plum and jasmine... And I always drop the bars of soap.
Lush or other bath company? Um. I don't even know what Lush is. But I like Dove, they have great body washes. And Pantene has good shampoos and conditioners.

Fashion
Jeans or Sweatpants? Definitely jeans. I always wear jeans to school. Or jean shorts. I don't wear sweatpants that often, but I do wear yoga pants over my leotard.
Long Sleeve or Short Sleeve? Short sleeves. Even if it's winter, cause then I'll just wear a jacket over. I love tee shirts...
Dresses or Skirts? I only like sundresses...I despise any formal dress. I don't really wear skirts, since I wear jeans so often...
Stripes or Plaid? Stripes. Especially wider stripes. Plaid looks really weird on camera.
Flip Flops or Sandals? Oh, my. This is a rather hard one. I wear very cheap flip-flops to swim practice, and I also have nicer ones that I like to wear if it isn't too cold. But then I also have a lot of strappy sandals, that I all love. Since sandals are also more durable, I have to go with those....
Scarves or Hats? Mmm, scarves. They come in so many pretty colors and prints and shapes and sizes, and there are a lot of different ways to wear them. As for hats, I always feel quite weird while wearing one.
Studs or Dangly Earrings? Dangly earrings are very pretty, but I like studs better. I'm allowed to wear studs to gymnastics practice, and I have a lot of pretty birthstone studs (I have several pairs of birthstone studs that aren't actually my birthstone, just cause they're so pretty).
Heels or Flats? I don't own anything with a very substantial heel...I don't think I own anything that even has any trace of a heel at all. So, flats.
Cowboy Boots or Riding Boots? Er, I don't own either. But cowboy boots do look nice.
Jacket or Hoodie? I really like Aeropostale hoodies. But in general I think I wear jackets more often.
Forever 21 or Charlotte Russe? I don't shop regularly at either, but I own like three articles of clothing from Forever 21. So, I suppose I have to go with XXI Forever!
Abercrombie or Hollister? I know these two stores are very similar to Aeropostale, but I don't really go to either of them that often. I suppose Hollister, I do own a few pairs of their jeans.

Hair
Curly or Straight? I think hair looks better if it isn't completely stick straight. But very springy corkscrew curls must be very hard to manage. Just a few waves, I guess.
Bun or Ponytail? Oh, dear, another hard one. My hair is pretty long, which means there are a ton of different buns that I can wear my hair in. So I have to go with buns. (but I do wear ponytails quite often too).
Bobby Pins or Butterfly Clips? Ooh, easiest one so far! Definitely bobby pins. I couldn't live without bobby pins. Everything--my buns, my braids, my hair twists...I use bobby pins! Love them.
Hair Spray or Gel? Ah, hair spray. I don't use either liberally. But in order to secure my more complicated hairstyles, I use a quick spritz of hair spray. It also adds some shine.
Long or Short? Long. My hair is long. It takes a bit more managing, but you can do so much more with long hair...
Light or Dark? Dark. No, light. I don't really know.... My hair I guess is classified on the lighter end of the spectrum. Both can be really pretty.
Side Sweep or Full Bangs? I would definitely choose side sweep. I have a sort-of side sweep. I've never really liked full bangs...
Up or Down? Well, I've been going off and on about various braids and buns, so they only reasonable answer would be up. But just leaving hair loose and down is also very nice.

Random
Rain or shine? I do prefer a nice sunny day over rain. But rain is also great weather. It smells nice, and the sound is quite calming.
Summer or Winter? Oh no. Another hard one. I love winter so I can ski, but summer has no school and it's gymnastics competition season. Mmm, summer. I love gymnastics.
Spring or Fall? Spring. I have allergies, but I don't care, because I can grow so many flowers and vegetables and it's so nice, to see the world kind of be reborn.
Chocolate or Vanilla? I like chocolate better. Dark chocolate. Yum....
East Coast or West Coast? Both. Both, both, both! NYC is one of my favorite cities in the whole country, but I also love San Francisco and LA on the west.

So, that's my tag! If you feel like doing this or just need a post, you are hereby tagged!

Have a super sparkly day!

--Audrey

Utter Randomness Part 2

Sorry. I really haven't been posting much lately. It'll get better once summer comes...because my teachers have the crazy notion that since school is almost out, they have to cram as many projects as they can before we're done. Sighhh....

I have a lot of short little ideas to post about, so I've decided to compile them all into a post full of jumbled randomness.
Only 12 more days of school until I'm out!!!!! *cheers wildly* My last day of school is May 31st. But it's really more like 10 days, since on two of those 12 days I'm going to different amusement parks (one for getting a 4.0 GPA ((finally)) and one for being on my school band--I play flute). Huzzah! Over the summer, I still have school, kind of. I'm going to take summer math course, so I can skip one year of math. Which means I get 3 math APs in high school. I hate math, but APs make it all worth it. College, college, college!

I have failed to share this with you guys (I think), but I happen to love doing things to my hair, especially fancy braiding. My hair is quite long, and it doesn't get tangled very easily, which makes it a lot easier to do stuff with it. Except more than half the time I just take out my fancy hairdos, because my gymnastics coach only allows ponytails and plain buns. My favorite hairstyles, which I wear to school quite often (besides ponytails and just leaving my hair down) are fishtail braids, waterfall braids, and rope braid buns. (told you I liked braids...) I found these very nice tutorials on YouTube for these hair braids, and I just wanted to share them.

All three of them are by Bebexo. She is one of my favorite YouTubers!!! She has a ton of other hair tutorials too, which are all worth watching. I have wasted many many hours trying to copy what she does.

Then, I saw this article about photographer Jaime Moore who threw a unique photo shoot for her 5-year-old daughter, Emma! Instead of dressing Emma up as beautiful Barbie dolls and Disney princesses, she had Emma copy the poses of real-life women role models. I tried forever, but I can't figure out how to copy the images into this post, so just click the link below to see the very adorable and very inspiring pictures!!!!
http://www.jaimemoorephotography.com/2013/05/09/not-just-a-girl/


As I have mentioned before, I recently joined a message board, Prisoner of Reality. It looks VERY complicated when you first visit (I couldn't find my way around at all). But if you just poke around and visit it more often, it gets really easy to navigate. Please join--the more the merrier!! :)

Last thing: I know a lot of bloggers who don't like awards and tags, but I REALLY REALLY REALLY enjoy doing them. So, if you ever need someone to nominate an award or tag for, please let me do them? I really like them. I have like 4 award-like posts that I'm working on, but haven't finished due to aforementioned crazy amount of projects. And getting ready for a gymnastics meet...because if I do well enough at that one, I get to go to Detroit over the summer for a bigger competition! Have a great day!

--Audrey

Just One Wish?

There are several awards and tags that I haven't gotten around to doing yet. But I will. Promise.
I also have these long posts, one each for Jace, Clary, Magnus, and one for the City of Bones movie. My friend Jasmine will also be guest posting on the topic. But for those of you who haven't read the Mortal Instruments, all the posts will probably be super boring and will not make any sense. So, I'm going to post something today that doesn't have anything to do with anything related to Shadowhunters or City of Bones or movies.


If you could have just one wish, what would it be?
A question I've been asked many times, a question that I think about whenever I have the chance (ahem, this actually means in class when I'm much too bored by the curriculum--usually math--to pay attention)

So here is my answer, finally, after so much pondering (and yet later I may change it. Because I still have many more math classes in my lifetime, which means many more opportunities to not listen to some long complicated formula and think about hypotheticals instead).

I would wish to see magic. Or, you know, learn magic or be a part of magic or just be 100% absolutely certain that magic exists.
Because in my own personal opinion, magic does exist--whether there are cloaked wizards in wands or sarcastic part-angels that kill demons or mermaids that drown sailors, I don't know. But I haven't, you know seen magic or anything, and I would really like to know that it does exist...in some way, shape, or form. (completely off-topic question: is God supposed to be magic?)

The problem with this answer: If there were some magical force that could grant wishes, then I guess I wouldn't really need to wish to see magic. But whatever. Good enough.

For the longest while my answer was world peace. Of course, world peace, the easy, noble, good choice. But world peace is really not all it's cut out to be. So if I do wish for world peace, then all of a sudden, everyone who is at war or arguing will suddenly stop. Which seems good, but imagine if you were in an very heated argument with someone. And then you are forced to stop arguing, it may be peaceful, but still in your mind, your heart, your thoughts, you know that you don't want to agree. Because, well, arguing isn't good, but being forced to keep all of your thoughts inside of you and living a big huge lie is even worse.

And then, there was getting published. My dream. For years and years and years and years and years and years and years. (actually, more like just 4 years. Whatever). But if I get a book published, I want it to be because some publisher out there really, truly believed that my writing was good, good enough to be read by the general public. Not because I wished for it, so a magical force just thrusted my writing into the printer for distribution. Does that make any sense?

Cold fusion discovered. Not as oftenly mentioned, but still significant. For those of you who don't know, cold fusion is basically this science thing where you can combine two atoms, creating free energy. Like the sun does. (notice how I'm sparing you from the long boring scientific explanation. You're welcome). Which is good, very very very good. Because we no longer have to burn the dwindling supply of fossil fuels, which means putting an end to all this pollution and global warming. You can do a lot more with cold fusion but I won't go into it...just know that it would be a cause for great celebration if it happened. But the problem is, the magical force will make cold fusion possible for humans. But the newspaper's not just going to say, "BREAKING NEWS: MAGICAL FORCE CREATES COLD FUSION DUE TO A TEENAGE GIRL'S WISH" Oh no. Someone's going to get credit for it. Some scientist(s), who did not discover cold fusion for humans, will get all the credit. They will most definitely receive a Nobel Prize; will be among the most famous scientists ever. When they didn't even deserve it. Now, that's not good.

Magic, world peace, being published, and cold fusion were my main four choices. And I found flaws in all four, but magic seemed the best. So...yeah. There's my answer! What's yours?

--Audrey

Book Review: City of Bones

 

I really don't know why I didn't think to review this book earlier. Because it is only one of the best books in existence. (but my reviewing skills are reallllyyyy bad, so I won't be conveying how much I love this book very well)

 

 

 

 



 

 

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare (first book in the Mortal Instruments series)

 

Genre: fantasy

 

Synopsis:

When fifteen-year-old Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder—much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. Then the body disappears into thin air. It’s hard to call the police when the murderers are invisible to everyone else and when there is nothing—not even a smear of blood—to show that a boy has died. Or was he a boy? This is Clary’s first meeting with the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons. It’s also her first encounter with Jace, a Shadowhunter who looks a little like an angel and acts a lot like a jerk. Within twenty-four hours Clary is pulled into Jace’s world with a vengeance, when her mother disappears and Clary herself is attacked by a demon. But why would demons be interested in ordinary mundanes like Clary and her mother? And how did Clary suddenly get the Sight? The Shadowhunters would like to know. . .

Good Stuff: Um, everything! Especially Jace. I love Jace, and his arrogance and sarcasm and his jokes. I also really like Magnus Bane. Even though there isn't really a whole ton of him in this first book. Clary, the main character, is also very enjoyable to read. Enjoyable to read...does that make sense? What I mean is, sometimes I get really annoyed or mad at a certain character, but never for this book. I loved the whole thing, every single word on every single page. It's a terrific story that's terrifically written. And the ending was...surprising. Startling. Stunning. Shocking. (isn't it kind of funny how those four all start with s?) Also very, um, action-packed? (yup, really bad at reviewing books...) Also a few big words that I didn't know. (like exsanguinated. I love saying that) The movie is coming out on August 23rd, and the trailer is fantastic. I've been spending the whole weekend completely ignoring my homework and browsing the Internet for everything and anything to do with City of Bones.

Bad Stuff: Well, there is some swearing. (And I really don't know what qualifies as swearing...like, does 'hell' count? Because 'heaven' is not typically considered a swear word, so I really see no reason why 'hell' is). I usually don't like books that have a whole lot of swearing, but in this particular case I think it added to the story. And, a slight bit of, er, implied mature content, but again, I think it helped the story.

I really don't know what else to say, but, well, this book was awesome. Amazing. Terrific. Interesting. Other good adjectives.

Rating: Five stars out of five. No question.

Recommended Readers: Ummm, pretty much everyone. But due to aforementioned swear words, maybe, uhh, 12 and up? The book jacket says 14 and up...really, I would reccomend this book for anyone who wants to read it. Especially before the movie comes out.

Right after I finished City of Bones, I immediately: a) placed a hold on the second book, City of Ashes, and b) rushed to Barnes & Noble and bought City of Ashes. Which is very weird--I mean, no point in both buying the book and checking it out from the library. But I just had to, for some reason, because I just really love this series.



On a slightly related sidenote, I'm going to rant about the movie. So if you haven't read City of Bones, I suggest you don't read ahead because I may spoil something.
A lot of people are displeased about some of the casting for the movie...namely Jamie Campbell Bower for Jace, but I think Jamie makes a perfect Jace. Especially when Clary says "you didn't see that?!" and then Jace turns around...oh, his face <33 And as for Clary, I guess her hair could be a tad redder, but I think it matters less whether her hair is the right shade of red and more whether Lily Collins portrays the part well. And both Jamie Campbell Bower and Lily Collins are great actors (or, um, actresses) and I think the movie will be great.

Clary was supposed to kill the Ravener demon (okay, now I spoiled something) but in the movie trailer it looked as though Jace did. Also, there was this part when someone--Isabelle, I think, says "there's too many of them." I really cannot recall what scene this is. So yeah, the movie is different from the book--but what movie is exactly like the book it is based on? In itself, City of Bones looks like an awesome movie. And in trailer #3 when Simon says "but I'm the one who's always been there for you! Not him!" Oh, Simon <3

AND MAGNUS. OMIGOD. There isn't a whole lot of him in the movie trailer, but he looks so perfect. Simon, too. Neither as I imagined them--no, they were both much, much better than I imagined. And Alec...oh, Alec is perfect too. Especially since Kevin Zegers isn't British, yet his accent is so realistic... I could go on and on about how awesome the movie trailer was. I cannot wait until August 23rd. Which is so far away.................... I'll just be watching all three trailers over and over until the movie comes out. Then I'll watch the movie, and then reread the books until the DVD comes out, at which time I will waste hours upon hours rewatching the movie.

There were bits that were definitely different from the book, but I don't really think that's a bad thing. I mean, there are parts of books that you just can't put very well into a movie. And movies are meant to be more, ah, thrilling. Since there are demons and glamour (magic), there has to be special effects and computer animations. And I have seen more than one movies or television shows that are just...cheesy, because of the special effects. But from what I could tell from the trailer, the City of Bones movie hasn't been ruined with the computer effects. Which I am sooo grateful for.


Anyway, well, I don't really have much else to say. Later, after I tackle my procrastinated homework, I will make a post all about Jace, and his quotes, and the memes I've seen created about him. Because he is my favorite. Hands down.

--Audrey