Friday, July 22, 2016

New make up eyeshadow line I am loving....

Its been a long hot hot summer, especially where I am with no rain for weeks on end. Can I say I am ready for Fall? Yes! And what has come out just in time for Fall? Urban Decay's Moon dust shadows,
Yes I like makeup, ever since I was allowed to wear it at age 12. Recently it has caught my interest even more. I usually dont go for more pricey but stick to drug store brands ( which alot work just as well)  However this line caught my attention.
 Really pretty wouldn't you say? This pic just has some of them, a good selection but there are more! Checkout Urban Decays website and choose the Fall collection and choose the single Moon dust shadows and you will see the full range of these really pretty eye shadows. 
I dont own any glittery, shimmery, sparkly shades and so these look pretty cool. All of these are shimmery or sparkly or  duo chrome, They stand out.   I have 3 coming to me I just ordered Zodiac, Horizon and Vape, A  mid tone pink one (Horizon), a neutral one which is light pink (Vape) and a  dark green one( Zodiac). There are others in this line I totally want, I am looking forward to trying out these. If I like them as much as I think I will I might go for the palette which also has the same name and has 6 other shadows which are separate from the single shadows. So far all the makeup reviews I have seen for that palette have been very positive. So it might be on my list to get and this would be my first high end palette I have gotten, I own other palettes but they are drugstore kind or I got them in a subscription box but they were not high end but still ok. These shadows are $21 each which is to me a bit more than I normally do but not too high. The Moon dust palette is $49- yep nearly 50 dollars comparative with Too Faced Palettes. Other high end palettes are only slightly less. ( still in the 40-50 dollar range) I like the look of these far better than the Alice through the Looking Glass palette. I like the colors better in the single and the Moon dust.
I shall have a review after I have received the ones I ordered and tried them on for a bit. To me they do look out of this world. 



Saturday, July 2, 2016

Game Review: The ABC Murders based on Agatha Christies Novel

Cover of The ABC Murders- I have the PC version but this had the right cover
I have been into games for a good portion of my life. My favorites are Adventure, Mystery, or Hidden Object.  I always like it when a game is done well and I think Microids who produced the game did a great job on this.  It is done in a slightly different style than a couple of the other Agatha Christie games I have seen such as And Then There Were None or Murder on the Orient Express.  In this one its like you jumped into the novel, which is illustrated ( which I dont think they actually were) but the characters and all the surroundings have a drawn look.  You can move around and pick up things etc like in  the other games.   The characters just look different than seen on this cover. The attention to detail for the surroundings is very spot on for the time period, and how you see it in the films. Poirot's apartment looks like his apartment. In fact every area looks like you have seen on the tv, just in a illustrated way. One cool thing is you can turn objects totally around and on their side, see all the different parts of it these objects do have a a 3d look to them and not so illustrated when examined.

As you can see here, this is the style they  have the characters in.   One thing that took me a bit of time to get used it the difference in the creators idea of what some of the characters look like. I got so used Hugh Frasier for example looking like Hastings, I didn't expect him to have this look. Poirot looks a like but not totally like David Suchet where as Inspector Japp who is played by Phillip Jackson on film again kind of does kind of doesn't look like the Japp I have gotten to know but perhaps they were going more of what Agatha Christie might of had these characters look like even though how  David Suchet played him was pretty much it.  Once I got past that, the game is very good and does follow the storyline as it is very well.  It does miss out  some things seen in the film of it, like the movie theatre where someone is killed there.  Things are interactive, puzzles are hard enough they take you more than a minute to solve.  You have to observe things only for some activities and point out things about a scene you find out of place, or of interest to the case. You get to talk to those who knew the victims. You get to study the victims themselves.  All the things you see Poirot do either if reading the novels or watching the shows, you see him do here.  This was good because you feel like you are part of the game.  Its very addicting I have to say.  The first night I played it I stayed up way late.  Always a good sign of a good game if you cant tear yourself away. ( even though you should )

One other thing I found different is even though this game comes with a CD, it doesn't really use it for the actual game.  The game is actually run on the site Steam.  This surprised me as most of my games have been CD or online only ( like LOTR, yes I play that too!)   This one came with a code you put into your account on Steam which once set up lets you download the game and you play it from their site.  Once you figure that out its easy to play from there and things run fine.


Things I wish they did a bit different:   The drawing of the characters are ok, but I kind of like the polished look that I have seen in other games,  Its higher quality than the cheap Poirot games I have seen on Big Fish ( the Hidden Object ones)  but not as polished as the other games I have mentioned or like Nancy Drew games  ( which new ones I am sorely missing and wishing they would do!!!) I also think they made Poirot's accent a bit funny, I know he is Belgian but there are words not even he would mispronounce as wrongly as the person doing this voice does. I also wonder where  Miss Lemon is, she was in the film and I am sure in the book.  It is also hard sometimes to get the controls you need to interact, you have to hold down the mouse to see them and they come up quickly.  Other than those which are small things, its a great game and I highly recommend it.

Bought from Walmart. Cost $20.00.

Friday, June 17, 2016

Product review- Purple Bed

My husband and and I have been thinking about getting a new bed. We have had the bed we currently have since 2008.  My husband has seen the ads for Purple.  Purple is a mattress company which was born from a Kickstarter. Its been very successful and so far everyone who has tried it has liked it alot. They are located in Alpine Utah.  That's not too far away  so we went to the showroom/call center and tried it out. The staff were nice and friendly. When we tried out the bed it felt nice and it was not hard to sell us on it plus compared to other beds, it costs way less which we also like.  Our current bed has gotten a bit lumpy.  I also find that I wake up with aches or its hard to go to get to sleep. Laying on this bed I felt nicely supported, nothing ached. Mind you it was not the size we want in the showroom but from what it was I could tell a difference.  We are planning on getting one and I look forward to sleeping on it. 

Full view of what it looks like without the top cover on it.
If you are interested click this link: 
Sample of the hyper-plastic polymer ( 2 samples here shown)
Its like having a hand exerciser and playing with them is very addictive.)

Monday, June 6, 2016

Summertime!


It's officially summer and it is starting to get hot!  This month is a birthday month- for me and my spouse. We are both Gemini's. Not that I pay too much attention to that but we both are and I find that interesting. I can't say that my spouse is my twin but he definitely is my soul mate.  My birthday is the Summer Solstice- the longest day of the year.  If you know your calendar then you know what day that is. I was born in the Bicentennial year of our country and if you know what year that was then you know how old I will be.  Yes that one :)
 So far summer I have enjoyed seeing all the girl cousins who are the daughters of one of my aunts and their lovely babies.   I also got to spend some time with my Grandma both in St George and also here at home.   Remember my garden?  Its starting to grow!   I have high hopes for it.  The fruit trees are beginning to make fruit and look like they will produce a good harvest.  There is also Father's day which is coming up and a nephew and sister in laws birthday- she shares my birthday too.  There is lots of unknown still for the summer but I am hoping it will be  a good one, So far the start is pretty great.

Sunday, May 15, 2016

More rain and a Reunion



We have been blessed as of late to get quite a bit of rain where I live.  This is good for our water table.   Even with the amount we have had though, Salem which is just below me has restrictions. This is because of one major thing: They are building too many houses.  If you build houses and houses the amount of water everyone has or can have eventually gets stretched. Here is an article which is about California building but can easily be applied here  about this issue.  http://www.ocregister.com/articles/water-660406-county-new.html  You should build for what is needed not just to make a profit.  Either that or new sources of water need to be found.
In other news I had a happy reunion at a good friend of mines wedding.  We all met at in a town called Odenton which is in Maryland.
 His folks were my seminary teachers and also
were at my wedding, his dad  was our sealer. Which if you are LDS you know what a sealer is and does. For those not, he basically is what the bishop or pastor is when they marry couples.
To us, it means more than the "till death till you part." its more than that. For us, it is forever but its not a guarantee,right there and then. We have to obey and be true to the convents we make when we are sealed together.

We had a nice time at the reception and several folks who we have known for quite some time were there. We being my parents,and brothers. My spouse being from the UK of course did not know the couple or the others who we knew.  It had been about 13 yrs, or since I got married since I had seen some of the folks who attended and it was great to see them.  Some of them it had been even longer, since I was a teenager.  Hopefully it wont be so long till we meet up again.

References:Aerial Photography Map of Odenton, MD Maryland
www.landsat.com  Aerial Photo of Odenton Maryland
 Jeff Colins,  In the continuing drought, can Orange County keep building?
May 3, 2015 Updated May 4, 2015  Orange County Register. 

Friday, April 29, 2016

April Weather and more Music artists I like..

 Lately we have had a lot of rain, We have had some nearly every day for a good several days.  Its good for the water table, and the plants, fields etc.  It can get quite dry in Utah and so any time we get good amounts of rain its certainly a good thing.  I am just about ready to start planting. I have lots of seeds to choose from. I need to get the soil right as its not good. It also needs to stop raining so its not so soggy to work in the garden.
 I have been continuing my liking of ambient, new age, electronic artists. I have liked this particular one for awhile, The group is a duo who are Swedish. http://www.carbonbasedlifeforms.net/   I like their music because it helps me concentrate and I like the songs which are produced by the artists. Their music falls into the ambient category.  If you are looking for a good example of this type of music these guys are definitely one. This isn't the only range of music I like.  My music tastes are quite vast.  I find this type of music is calming, peaceful but not too peaceful so that I get sleepy and fall asleep, though I could if sleep is what I wanted to do . I find myself quite stressed for some reason on a daily basis, its just how I am though not what I like to be .  I find this kind of music greatly helps reduce that...  I also like alot of 80/90's alternative bands, and some oldies. The only kind of rap I can stand is in Gorrilaz music and only if its clean. I know they can be dodgy sometimes to explicit and those type of songs I don't care for, but they do have some catchy ones which are perfectly fine. Other than them, I don't care for that type of music or hip hop etc. perhaps because its not my culture. Will Smith is ok with his catchy dance tunes.  I cant say I am country fan, even though I live in the West. Not a type of music I ever really got into any more than Jazz does.  However give me Enya, or Carbon Based Lifeforms, or the Keane, sure I am happy. My taste for electronica/ambient is something I developed on my own. I simply checked them out and found that they were totally were agreeable with me.  My like of 80-90's I grew up with and my brothers introduced me to several bands I still listen to especially if they are still making great music.

Sunday, April 17, 2016

Music Artists I am liking

I have been a a fan of New age, Electronica,Atmospheric, and similar kinds of music. Pretty music which sometimes has words and sometimes does not.  I like to write to it, work to it you name it. When I dont wish to sing along in the car or have my own karaoke session that is the type of music I go for. Its interesting, often very beautiful and calming.  
  Vangelis has been around for some time I first came across him when I heard Chariots of Fire. This video clip taken from Youtube is Conquest of Paradise from the movie 1492.  Vangelis is a Greek composer.  In an article I found online about him at allmusic.com I learned the following information: "Best known for his lush, Oscar-winning score to the 1981 film Chariots of Fire, Vangelis was among the most successful and admired electronic composers of his era. Born Evangelos Odyssey Papathanassiou in Volos, Greece, on March 29, 1943, his nascent musical talent was recognized at an early age, but he refused to take piano lessons, instead teaching himself."( Jason Ankeny,2016)  
I have really started liking Vangelis music, he has many he has done and several for movie scores. The interesting thing about the piece I have posted here is that Vangelis has used a technique used by some artists in this genre called word painting. There is no translation to the words the chorus is singing in Conquest of Paradise, it is a made up almost sounds like it could be Latin but is not a language. Lisa Gerrard is another artist who did this in the song she sang which you probably have heard in the movie The Gladiator. Enya has also done this too on a couple of albums. Whilst it would be cool if there were actual words in language that is known, it is also a interesting way to do a song, have words but you don't need to worry about a meaning, there isn't a translation the words instead they just flow nice and work with the song and are often very beautiful. They can evoke a meaning without having one.   Another group I have just started listing to is a group called ERA. I discovered this band whilst listening to one of Vangelis's songs on Youtube. I decided to give them a shot too.  I found not only their music interesting and very pretty but the videos they have for their songs are interesting as well. I noticed they like to mix history themes in their videos.  I still need to listen more to them to get a better idea of the group but I like what I have heard so far.  They too like to use word painting, though they do it much more in fact exclusively. Vangelis  will use actual lyrics in his work as well. 

Reference: 
Era picture, found on Google- CD cover. ( 2005)

Vangelis - conquest of paradise. Found on Mor.kh channel  Uploaded: Apr 29, 2007

Jake Ankeny( 2016)

Artist Biography by