Watching, Playing, Reading #1

Welcome to my new post series.  It should be pretty self-explanatory.  I'll be sharing what I'm watching, playing, and reading lately, and what I think about those things.

Watching:

Monk (on Netflix): It's a show about an OCD detective and I love it.  It's funny sometimes and sad sometimes, but always good.

So many movies.  Some of my favorites are: Identity Thief (from Redbox; I love Melissa McCarthy in everything ever and this movie does not disappoint), Cabin in the Woods (on Netflix; It's a movie written by Joss Whedon and it is not your typical teens in a cabin get murdered story; I loved it to death (and there are zombies in it!)), House at the End of the Street (on Netflix; This movie seemed really predictable but I was actually completely wrong and it kept me guessing until the end.)

Playing:

Magic the Gathering (the card game)  I've been playing for almost a month now.  I played against a person at my happy place, the comic book shop which I'll be sharing in its own post at some point, for 2 hours.  A single game took two hours!  We were both playing with life gain decks and the way the game works is that whoever loses all 20 life first loses.  So it took FOREVER (to be read the way it is said in The Sandlot, and if you haven't seen that movie stop reading this and go watch it right this instant!) despite the fact that I was using a 20-card beginner deck and my opponent was using a full 60-card deck.  I think I would have won if they had actually used a 20 card deck, but I did hang in there for awhile.

Linger in Shadows: (downloaded from Playstation Store) This game is like nothing you've ever played before.  The game is essentially a 6-minute movie that keeps stopping and rewinding.  Gameplay is very interesting.  You have to move the controller in different ways to progress to the next part of the movie.  Sometimes you have to shake it from side to side.  Other times you have to turn the controller in circles.  It's a very interesting system of controls that would not work in a fast-paced game, but is pretty perfect here.  The first time I played through, I just finished the movie.  The second time I played through, I accidentally stumbled upon a secret and then found out that there are a whole bunch of secrets that give you trophies when you find them.  So the third time I played through I was all about finding the trophies.  I still missed three though.  This game is very replayable and well worth the, I believe, $2.99 that it cost.  Plus the movie itself is pretty cool.

via

Free Realms: (Downloaded from Playstation Store) This game is an RPG.  The free version, which I have, will provide hours upon hours of entertainment.  The environments in this game are incredible.  There's a snowy environment with a North Pole feel to it, a beach environment, and even a fairy tale land environment, just to name a few.  You go around exploring places and completing quests.  You can earn coins to use to purchase stuff to either make your character better at their skills or just look really cool.  This game allows you to try lots of different jobs.  So far I have played as an adventurer, archer, a miner, a brawler, and a chef (I'm not very good at that one).  Some of the other jobs are postman, race car driver, sorcerer (that might not be what they call it) and fisherman.  It's a really fun game.  My favorite jobs so far are adventurer and brawler.  I like being an adventurer because it's basically just exploring the environments as much as possible and trying to find every single secret or hidden place that exists.  You find explorer coins which go in your collection.  You can also collect lots of other things, like wildflowers, insects, and seashells.

My Singing Monsters: I downloaded this app for free on G's phone because I don't have a smartphone but I love monsters.  You get to buy, breed and hatch different monsters.  The different monsters play different sounds that mingle together to sound pretty cool.  You can feed the monsters baked goods to level them up and put them next to their favorite things to make them produce coins faster.  It's a really fun game and I play it for a little bit every time I hang out with G.

Reading:

I just finished reading The Good Thief by Hannah Tinti.  I don't remember exactly where I got it, probably a thrift store or yard sale.  It was really good.  Hannah Tinti has been called the Robert Louis Stevenson of the modern age and she lives up to that title.  Her words paint vivid pictures of ghost towns filled with vagrants and wrongdoers.  This book focuses on an orphan boy and his adventures with a man who takes him from the orphanage, claiming to be his brother.  This man turns out to be quite a con artist and puts the boy, Ren, in all sorts of dangerous situations.  It's a really good book that I highly recommend.

Now I'm reading Watchers by Dean Koontz.  So far it's about a depressed man discovering an extremely intelligent dog and realizing that life is worth living after all and there are still wondrous things to discover.  There are also two side stories, which I'm sure will all converge later.  One involves a hit man being hired to kill doctors, and the other involves a woman who is basically a hermit because of her aunt teaching her that most of the people in the outside world are harmful and dangerous.  This book is very good so far and has made me laugh out loud at quite a few of the dog parts.

I'm also reading webcomics and real comic books which I'll share in two separate posts.

Qwertee is an Amazing Company!

Get ready to scroll because there are some pictures on this post.

I discovered Qwertee a few months ago.  It's a pretty cool online shirt seller.  They have a design each day and it's available for purchase for the next 24 hours.  Each shirt costs just $12 and they're all super cool and nerdy.  But I didn't buy one until I found the absolute perfect one, because $12 is not much for a tee shirt, but I didn't actually need any more shirts and also I shop at thrift stores so my shirts usually cost 50 cents to 5 dollars.  But this shirt was too amazing not to pass up.  I watch Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends.  I'm not ashamed.  It's a great show.  And you should know by now that I love every single thing Tim Burton makes (aside from Sweeney Todd).  So I bought this shirt because it's amazing, they still had it in my size, and because it's black and white, which goes with just about everything ever.  By the way, I bought this shirt with my own money and was in no way compensated for blogging about the company.  I just adore them and want everyone to know how awesome they are.  I got my shirt in the mail way sooner than I thought I would, especially since I paid standard shipping and it came all the way from Ireland.   I was super surprised when I opened my package and found not only my shirt but some candy that I could actually eat!  I have celiac disease and thus cannot eat anything with gluten in it.  This candy was gluten free, dairy free, and I think soy free, so pretty much anyone who is not diabetic can eat it.  Also there was a robot picture on the package, which I immediately cut out and attached to my ever-expanding wall o' art, which I'll share soon.  It's worth the wait.

The shirt fit me perfectly.  It's true to size.  It's also very comfortable quality fabric.  The printing is done well.  The only thing that would make me love this shirt more is if it was glow-in-the-dark.  But seriously, I have worn this shirt at least four times in the two weeks I've had it.  Pictured above are two of those times, the day I received it in the mail and yesterday.

I didn't even realize until I was editing these photos that I wore it with my combat boots both times.  I love those boots.  So in the first set of photos, I am wearing the Qwertee shirt plus my free hat, a dress from my favorite thrift store (which I think cost me just $2), jeans from Crossroads Trading Co., studded combat boots from Crossroads Trading Co., and a bracelet that I made.  I was going for a layered look because Seattle has been cooler (temperature-wise) in the mornings and then heat-wavey in the afternoons.

In the second set of photos, I am wearing the Qwertee shirt plus the combat boots, amazing floral pants (I won't tell you where I got them from yet because I'm saving that for another post, but I will tell you that they cost just $5 brand new!), and a thrifted Topshop belt.  People seemed to like this look a lot more than the first one.  My boss told me she liked my outfit, and she rarely gives compliments, some random frat-looking guy said my pants were cool, and a guy around my age tried to sell me a single old beat-up shoe for $1 and then sang "You're Beautiful" to me as I walked away, so obviously this outfit is pretty great.  I think it's a really good mix of girly and punk (or hippie punk as G calls it).  Most importantly this outfit just feels like me.

So you guys should all definitely check out Qwertee if you're into cool nerdy tee shirts for low prices.  +Qwertee also gives away a lot of free shirts to people who follow them on social media and/or sign up for their weekly newsletter.  All of the information about that is in the right sidebar on their site.

Have a fun weekend and be sure to join me again next week to read the tale of how I once commanded an army of goose minions.

I Fought and I Conquered...

... my sewing machine.  Which may not seem like a great feat to you, but sewing machines and I are not on good terms.  To give you an idea, the last time I used it, my sewing machine came unthreaded no less than, and probably more than, five times, then tried to eat my fabric.  I had to take my sewing machine apart and cut the fabric out.

I have had a few sewing successes though, notably this.

So I've had this dress since I was probably in elementary school.  The one time I wore it my brother told me it looked like an old lady dress.  And to be honest it's never fit me right.  But I really love the fabric so I just couldn't part with it.  And I finally decided that the easiest thing I could do is make it into a blouse.  (Well the easiest thing that would result in me being able to wear it.  The easiest thing would have been to let it sit for ages and gaze longingly upon it from time to time.)  So I got to work.  I pinned a straight line and stitched it right across.  It was easy.  Too easy.  After trying it on, I realized why.

So yeah, those two sides are supposed to be the same length.  Whoops.

Not ready to throw in the towel, or the dress, I gave it another go.  I pinned, tried it on before stitching, then stitched it once more.  And I succeeded.  And it was easy.  Just easy enough.

Tada!  It's all cute and fitted because there's strings that tie in the back, or in the front.  That's what I call options.

So now I have a bunch of leftover fabric waiting for me to turn it into something, which is pretty exciting.  A sea of infinite possibilities.  Well more like a sink full of finite possibilities, since my sewing skills are at a beginner level.  But this was really exciting because my needle didn't come unthreaded at all and my sewing machine didn't try to eat my fabric!  Maybe it doesn't hate me anymore.  Or maybe it's just trying to give me a false sense of security.

Oh and in case you were wondering, the shirt I'm wearing underneath the blouse is this awesome black tee shirt that I thrifted from Goodwill as a wee freshman in college.  It's got a robot who looks kind of like a fatter shorter Iron Man and he's plucking the petals from a daisy.

I'm Back

Hi guys.  I have still been crazy busy, but I'm finally learning how to say no!  No to staying an extra hour or two after work every day.  Because although the extra money was pretty great, the exhaustion was not.  I am still the only employee at work, but that's not my fault and I don't need to try to take on all of the extra work that isn't getting done.  That's not my responsibility.

So I have been working the regular amount and I even worked up the courage to ask for time off!  I am taking August 30 and September 2 off so I go visit my parents, who I haven't seen since February.  I have almost worked there for a whole year now.  I started Labor Day of last year.

In exciting news, I did some fun stuff while AFK (away from keyboard).  I went to an indie craft fair, an art fair, made flower crowns, and bought some carnivorous plants!  Plus I just went on a little online shopping spree on a pretty great site.  I'll review it and actually let you know what it is once my stuff gets here.  I hope you've all been doing well in my absence, and I'll post a pretty cool post soon.  I promise.  But right now I'm leaving to play Magic the Gathering :)