Category Archives: reviews

Review: Q-in-Law

  By Erin | June 5, 2012 - 4:38 pm | ,
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I debated for a while before posting this review because it’s not a “recent” novel by any definition of the word, and because it’s genre specific. Still, it’s really good, so I have to share it.

There are two reasons that I really like Star Trek novelizations. First, because they don’t need to be mindful of special effects budgets, Star Trek writers have free reign to go “all out” and do things that are visually either impossible, or at least cost prohibited. Second, since they don’t have a time limit, there’s a lot more leeway for humor and other such “unnecessary” scenes. Q-in-Law takes advantage of the freedoms of the printed word in a great way – it brings Lwaxana Troi and Q to the same place at the same time. And the end result is awesome.

Lemme preface this review with one tangent – if you do not like humor, if you are the sort of Star Trek fan who prefers all serious, all the time – you will hate this book. That’s not to say that it’s completely silly, as it’s not. But there is a good deal of hum or involved in the story, and it’s very well done.

In my opinion, no one writes Q better than Peter David. Keith R.A. DeCandido tries, but falls short. Given time he could probably write Q as well as David. I wasn’t a fan of Greg Cox’s books. Perhaps it’s just because Peter David is so prolific, and so good at writing complex storylines. Perhaps it’s because he’s done several projects with John de Lancie. Whatever it is, Peter David + Q = (Almost) Guaranteed Success. I think the key is that he knows that he can’t be too heavy-handed with Q. Some other authors seem to feel that they need to do all sorts of crazy things with him, where David understands the importance of subtlety.

Q-in-Law starts out innocently enough. The Enterprise is chosen to host the Wedding of two members of opposing Tizarin factions. This union is important both for the Tizarin people, and for the Federation’s relationship with the Tizarin, who are a powerful trade partner. Of course, because this union is so important, it is only natural that a certain Ambassador from Betazed be invited. Mrs. Troi’s crush on Picard is still quite alive, at least, until Q arrives. He does so – ostensibly enough – to try and learn more about the mortal concept of love. Suffice it to say, Lwaxana’s attentions quickly change to the man that she perceives as most powerful aboard the Enterprise.

This book is one of my favorites, not only because David writes Lwaxana and Q (and even Wesley!) very well, but because of the humor inherent too. It’s also fascinating to see Picard telling Lwaxana about his past encounters with Q, because she justifies all of Q’s actions as being ultimately good. What follows is a hilarious battle of both wits and hearts, that at times goes a bit too far, but that’s really the only weakness present in this story. If you can overlook that, you’ll find that it’s quite a worthwhile read, and one that will leave you wanting to read more of David’s work.

Long story short, if you like Trek, you like humor, and you aren’t one of those heathens who hates Lwaxana/Q, you will love this book.

Review: The Guns of Seneca 6

  By Erin | May 25, 2012 - 7:00 pm | ,
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I’ve added to my list of general “goals” (that are likely things I will never achieve) – read one book a week. As someone who possesses a Kindle, and who wastes a rather considerable amount of time randomly web surfing, that should be rather simple, right? And if I’m feeling extra snazzy, I’ll write a review of what I’ve read! I’ve started off this shiny new “goal” with a review of The Guns of Seneca 6, by Bernard Schaffer.

First, a minor gripe, which is more about the advertising and marketing of the book than the book itself. If you mash up wild west and Sci Fi, you do not automatically become “like Firefly.” Nor do you join the Steampunk genre – Steampunk is more High-tech Victorian than High Tech Wild West. I think in using these terms, people are set up for potential disappointment. I do think it’s a good book, and one that’s worth reading, but I would not use either of those terms to describe it.

But enough quibbling. Let’s break it down to the good, the bad, and the ugly.

(more…)

Erin Recommends – Vampire Academy Series by Richelle Mead

  By Erin | April 19, 2012 - 11:42 pm |
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I’ve done many things recently to try to improve my blog, and the single most valuable thing I’ve done has been read a TON of other blogs. Before now, my blog reading has been pretty sporadic. But now I have Google Reader setup with about 40 or so blogs that I like. I’ve tried to steer clear of blogs that are similar to mine as I don’t want to outright “steal” ideas from people. Most of what I read are nail polish blogs and Corgi blogs, and that has influenced me into including more of that sort of content. So far it’s been well-received. I tend to assume my audience is male, and therefore doesn’t give a shit about my nail polish and such. But really, I’d like to make my focus Geek and Girl stuff, and I think so long as it isn’t all pink all the time that men wouldn’t really care too much.

Anyhow, I was inspired by a Nail Blogger, Phedre from Colour is Magic (She’s a Redditor too, which makes her awesome in my book). She does a weekly Sci-Fi/Fantasy pick of the week. While I unfortunately just don’t have enough time to read that sort enough to recommend one book a week, I think I am going to do a segment called “Erin Recommends” that is devoted to movies, TV shows, books, etc. that I enjoy.

The first Erin Recommends is a YA urban fantasy novel series called “Vampire Academy” by Richelle Mead. I’d like to start by stating two things. Over the years, the number of authors who I have followed has dwindled. Anne McCaffrey passed away recently, and she gave up the Pern novels years ago. I actually stopped reading the Harry Potter novels at book 5. And most of the things that I read today I don’t necessarily “pay” for. Richelle Mead’s novels are worth buying.

Second, I know many of my friends tease me for reading a lot of Young Adult fiction. But it’s really quite simple. The bar has risen since the Harry Potter novels have become famous. Publishers are realizing that Young Adults have just as much desire for compelling plots and storytelling as Adults do – if not more. Young Adult novels can’t gloss over terrible writing by having risque sex scenes.

The one downside is that a lot of female protagonists in YA fiction tend to fall into the Bella category. They are weak-willed “shells” that are designed to not be overly developed so the reader can easily slip into their position. Rosemarie Hathaway is not that heroine. And this isn’t a story of a human female who falls in love with a Vampire man. Rose is a dhampir – a half-Vampire who is devoted to the protection of Moroi. Moroi are one of the two types of Vampire that are in the Vampire Academy universe. They are born Vampires, and are for the most part benevolent and in tune with nature and the elements. By comparison, the Strigoi are the more classical Vampires. They are created, generally by taking the blood of another Vampire as they kill them. They have the typical Vampire weaknesses to sun, stakes and silver.

There are a few things that I like about this. First, I like that there are multiple “types” of Vampires, as it is something that I haven’t really seen in other Vampire fiction. Nowadays, you need to really create a niche for yourself to differentiate your work from that of everyone else writing about Vampires. It also adds an extra level of politics and intrigue. Since the Strigoi are violent and “evil,” they are an everpresent threat to the Moroi.

There are a lot of levels of conflict within the stories. There are the typical teenage angst storylines, with who’s dating who, drama between students and instructors, etc. There’s also the power struggles between various families, the fear of Strigoi attacks, and of course betrayal of all sorts. The characters in the story are all very three-dimensional, and they all grow and evolve over the course of the storyline.

As mentioned before, Rose is very different from many YA female protagonists. She makes mistakes, and she pays for them. She isn’t universally loved by all, and she upsets people. She has to work for what she gets in life, and she rarely has a man that comes around and saves her. She’s the definition of the “Self-Saving Princess” and she is the sort of character that I would want my children aspiring to be like because she’s a very real person.

The supporting cast are all quite varied and realistically portrayed as well. Rose’s best friend Lissa is a Moroi Princess, but she doesn’t fall into many of the traps that are common in “royal” characters in YA literature. The main love interest throughout several of the books (who I’ll let remain nameless for those who’d prefer to be surprised), is quite Darcy-esque in his portrayal, but who is different enough to not be predictable or redundant.

Vampire Academy consists of the original 6 book series, which covers the entire story arc of Rose, Lissa, and friends. There is another series of books that will follow the stories of a few of the minor characters from said 6 book series, which I have unfortunately not began to read yet. I should be writing a follow up when I have a chance to read the first book in that series, Bloodlines. If you’re interested, Richelle Mead has an excerpt of the first Vampire Academy book on her website here.

I suspect my next “Erin Recommends” will be a book that I’ve just started reading on my Kindle, called “Guns of Seneca 6,” by Bernard Schaeffer. I’ve heard good things, so I’m optimistic at this time!

The Hard Cider Challenge

  By Erin | April 17, 2012 - 10:23 am |
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One of the best things about being female is that I generally don’t get teased for choosing to drink things that taste good, instead of just A: slamming cheap beer, or B: drinking something that seems manly. That’s not to say that I don’t appreciate a good beer or hard liquor beverage, but when it comes to relaxing around the house after a hard day at work, Hard Cider is my thing. I’ve always gone for Woodchuck because it’s easy to find, delicious, and cheap. And really, what more do you need in a beverage? But as I looked over the various choices that were at my local Harris Teeter, I decided to grab the two other options they had available – Strongbow and Magner’s, an English and an Irish offering respectively.

As I felt like a total lush for carting my 22 bottles of Hard Cider to the check out, I decided that perhaps this was a good opportunity to do a (more-or-less) objective test of the options. There are four Woodchuck offerings, because I got the variety pack, which is my typical purchase. I’ll likely devote a post to each once I get to drinking them, but for now, here are the hard facts. Descriptions provided are from the manufacturers.

Woodchuck:*
Amber:
The original Woodchuck. People liked it so much we made four more styles. The Amber is sweet (but not too sweet) with a nice golden color and crisp finish.
Alcohol Content: 5%
Price: $16.99 for 12, roughly $1.42 a bottle.
Size: 12 ounces

Granny Smith:
Made from only Granny Smith apples, this one’s a lot more tart and quite a bit tangier than your average Woodchuck. If you’re a green apple sort of person, this could be your Woodchuck.
Alcohol Content: 5%
Price: $16.99 for 12, roughly $1.42 a bottle.
Size: 12 ounces

802:
A drier Woodchuck. Its made with caramelized sugar to tone down the sweetness a bit and give it its bronze color. In case you’re wondering, 802 is our area code up here in Vermont. So if you’re planning on calling us up to say, “Dude, that 802 stuff like rocks!” just add 388-0700 to the name of your cider.
Alcohol Content: 5%
Price: $16.99 for 12, roughly $1.42 a bottle.
Size: 12 ounces

Spring:
Warm days and cold nights will make the sap flow in the woods, but keeping the cider flowing in your fridge is up to you. Start with our spring cider – the taste and aroma of fresh maple syrup and brown sugar will make you think you’re sitting in a warm sugarhouse in the Vermont countryside.
Alcohol Content: 5%
Price: $16.99 for 12, roughly $1.42 a bottle.
Size: 12 ounces

Magner’s:
Alcohol Content: 4.5%
Price: $8.99 for 6, roughly $1.50 a bottle.
Size: 11.2 ounces

Strongbow:
Alcohol Content: 5%
Price: $9.99 for 4, roughly $2.50 a bottle.
Size: 15.9 ounces

*Woodchuck Prices Skewed Somewhat by the Variety Pack Purchase

Since we’ve recently moved right next to a Wegman’s, there are a few others that I’ve picked up as well, in the near future, there will be posts about Woodchuck’s Belgian White (I’ll spoil it now – this is one limited edition that you’re going to hate to part with), and a few of Hornsby’s offerings as well.

Music Frustrations…

  By Erin | July 24, 2011 - 3:21 am | , ,
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(Image Credit goes to the amazing Kurt Halsey)

 

Before I get started, I’d like to point out the shiny new layout that I located! Maybe one day I will do a custom one, but until then…. this will work :-)

 

That said, as mentioned in my last post, I’ve been testing Spotify and Google Music recently. I’ve been looking for an ideal solution to my music problems, which are threefold:
1. When I’m busy, I want to play a random station Pandora-style.
2. When I’m not busy, I want to listen to what I want to hear, even if it’s the same song 30 times in a row.
3. I don’t really have spare inputs to hook a PC up to the Receiver, so I’d really like it to work on my X-box (this is a big issue).

 

Obviously, #3 is kind of the dealbreaker. I don’t like Last.fm that much, so I basically can’t get #3 out of any player. Hopefully, at some point in the future someone else will expand to the Xbox… but I don’t really think that’s likely, even though Pandora wants to expand to the platform. I suspect Last.fm will try to prevent it at all costs, and the vibe that Microsoft gives is that it doesn’t want the Xbox Live experience to be cluttered.

 

As for why I dislike Last.fm? I find that it doesn’t really gauge my musical tastes nearly as well as Pandora does. In fact, there’s not one single thing that I care about that Last.fm does better than any of it’s competing services. I did try it out again on the Xbox to see if I could force myself to like it, but it’s just frustrating.

 

So far, I am quite fond of Google Music. I really like being able to listen to any of my songs from my home PC wherever I have a PC/Android. And their Instant Mixes (basically, playlists that are automatically created of similar songs in your library to the one you select) are pretty neat too. And I like that it doesn’t require me to install anything on my PC, so it’s easily accessible for work PCs. But at present, Google Music doesn’t offer me anything outside of my own music, and that’s somewhat annoying. I would honestly like some of the functionality of Pandora so I could explore new music as well. Or perhaps the ability to purchase music from within the service like iTunes, so when I hear a new song on the way to work, I can add it to my playlist before I forget what it was called.

 

Spotify is reasonably nice as well, although the features that interest me the most are all part of the premium subscription, and I’m not certain whether they’re worth enough for me to justify yet another monthly expense. One of it’s features that Google Music lacks is the ability to share playlists with others, which is an interesting concept to me. But like Google Music, Spotify doesn’t have a good way for me to say, “I like X song, please play other songs that are like it!” Spotify has replaced my random hunting around YouTube to find a song that I want to hear that’s not on my playlist. But some of my music tastes are not especially “common” and I have a hard time finding some of my less-mainsteam favorite songs on there (Like Vast… :-(). The biggest downside is that there’s an installer involved, and since it connects to the internet, work PCs might block either the application or it’s traffic.

 

Between all of the various music providers, there is one that fulfills every need I have (save actually hearing the song that I want, when I want to hear it on my Xbox). But it’s annoying having to have accounts for Pandora, Google Music, Spotify and Last.fm just to fulfill my basic desires from a music program. Admissibly, I don’t have hugely extensive experience with any of these services, so it’s possible that I overlooked something, but overall I think my observations are pretty good.

True Blood Season 4 Begins

  By Erin | July 8, 2011 - 2:38 am | ,
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Note: This will contain spoilers, there’s just no way around that. Don’t read if you don’t want to know.


So let’s get this out of the way early on. If you don’t know me, I’m a huge True Blood fan. I’ve read all of the books (save the newest one, for reasons we’ll discuss later), I’ve greedily devoured the episodes, and for the most part I’ve liked what they’ve done. I liked that they kept Lafayette around because I thought he was a good character, I dealt with the fact that Tara is quite frequently annoying, and I understood the reasons for why they developed secondary storylines. I even understood Jessica, who added another attractive female to the cast (nerds like redheads), and who allowed the show to explain Vampire things to the audience without dumbing down the show. The simple fact of the matter is: The books followed Sookie. Ensemble cast TV shows are more successful than ones that focus on a single main character to the exclusion of all others. You can’t do what Charlaine Harris did and just helter skelter murder regular characters, nor could you just have them disappear for an entire season or so (because Charlaine didn’t bother writing them).  Beyond that, I adore Anna Paquin as Rogue, but I don’t really like her as Sookie. There’s just something subtly “better” about the Sookie in the books than the Sookie as Anna portrays her. I think her demeanor is different in the books, she’s less skeptical, more accepting, more optimistic. maybe I’ve just watched X-men too many times though and Rogue’s characteristics just show through too much. I also hate this facial expression, and she does it a lot:

That said, I hated the 1st episode of Season 4 (although Episode 2 somewhat redeemed it, but that’s another post). The plotline with Sookie going to Fairy was out of nowhere, and serves no immediately identifiable purpose. Yes, it gives Eric a reason to purchase Sookie’s house, and to therefore “own” her. It furthers the Faery plotline, which I understand (they’d been hinting she’s special every episode before she was revealed as one, and people have shorter attention spans with TV than with books), but it just seems… well… lame. The concept of the Fairy realm seemed a lot more natural when the Fairies were introduced slowly in the books. Not, “Boom, you’re a Fairy, let’s go visit Fairy now.” I’ve also been kind of bothered by her “Fairy Powers” as one of the more interesting things about her in the book was that she frequently got by on wits, looks and charm alone. But again, this makes sense as you don’t want her to come off resembling Bella from Twilight too much. I suppose the whole thing with Fairy allows them to introduce the whole Fairy Civil War thing a bit slower than it was introduced in the books, but still… very hokey. And her “real grandfather” dies mere moments later, and we’re left with far more questions than answers. The problem is – I didn’t want any of the answers.

 

The fact that the police, and really everyone else too, dropped the subject for the most part and trusted Bill’s excuse for it was pretty shaky as well. After what Russel did on television, they’ve mentioned numerous times that humans are becoming more distrustful of Vamps. Speaking of Bill, the whole “King of Louisiana” thing reeks of future lameness. I assume that this is partially to cover the time period of Hadley’s death (seeing as she was never alive in the books), and also to make him a more interesting character (as during these parts in the book, he was… well… either absent, or lamely pining over Sookie).

 

I think part of the reason we’re seeing “Evil Bill” is because Charlaine did a lot of early foreshadowing that Eric and Sookie would end up together. Despite his bad deeds, Eric was frequently the one who was saving Sookie from harm – even when that harm was Bill’s deceit. But unfortunately, the TV show seems to have cut out many of the places where Eric comes through for Sookie. This is largely because of how much Season 2 strayed from the book it was based off of, so we didn’t see the crucial developmental scene of their relationship while Sookie investigated the “Orgy” caused by Mary Anne. One of Sookie’s struggles in the recent books is most clearly evident when Niall says, “The vampire is not a bad man, and he loves you,” and Sookie realizes that she does not know which Vampire he speaks of. Sookie’s love and loyalty had been split between Eric and Bill for some time, long before they got together when Eric lost his memory, and long before Sookie herself realized it. But the TV show has portrayed Eric very negatively, moreso than in the books. Sookie has seen him at his worst, and she is disgusted by him. TV Sookie would have no problem deciding between Bill and Eric, despite Bill’s betrayal of her. In making Bill appear more demonic, it makes her decision actually a decision again, and it also serves to placate people who are disgusted by the current trend of making Vampires warm and cuddly. In fact, because the dynamic of Eric and Sookie’s interactions have strayed so much from the books – with so much more negative, and so much less positive, I wonder how well received the eventual Sookie/Eric relationship will be from the perspective of people who have not read the books.  I also wonder how they’re going to explain how Bill – who frequently seems to be the black sheep of the local Vampire community – ended up as King. I haven’t given up hope that they’ll come up with something plausible… but it better be good. One possible reason why the writers of the show would go in that direction would be to make it apparent how low Eric gets without his memory, since previously he has clearly been the Alpha Vampire. Elevating “Mopey” Bill and Brainwashing “Masterful” Eric might be an interesting flip flop.

It was good to see Sookie and Jason get some bonding time in, as it feels like their relationship is completely different in the books than it is in the show. A lot of this is because Jason’s V addiction wasn’t originally written in the books, so they didn’t have the initial strife that all that caused. But Sookie was always loving of her brother, albeit slightly skeptical of his lovelife, and his penchant for getting into bad situations. Her relationship with Tara was similar, and while the decision to send her away to be a lesbian cagefighter isn’t necessarily surprising, it’s definitely the complete opposite of book Tara. I truly hope that they make Tara be a more optimistic, less self-injuring type through this plotline.

 

Which brings us to Lafayette.

 

I like seeing a gay male character on a popular TV show. I love his portrayal, and I love how he makes the best of sometimes being dealt a fucked up card. I don’t like the frequent references to his “darkness” and in fact most of this whole business with Jesus. The problem I have with it was that Sookie was a magnet for Supernatural beings in the books, but most of the other human characters were reasonably normal by comparison. This push to make every single character (including Arlene’s baby) some dark, creepy, Supernatural thing just detracts from it all a good bit. Someone needs to be normal in it all, or at least relatively so, and right now the most normal one we’ve got is Terry, the extremely PTSD war vet. Everyone in Bon Temps has a darkness about them, save Hoyt Fortenberry! Even our dowdy Sheriff Andy Bellefleur is a V addict.

There were some smaller positive things that I noted that were worth mentioning. The scenes with Pam and Eric were a welcome breath of fresh air to the whole thing. Even Nan was far less aggravating than normal when compared the the remainder of the clusterfuck that was occurring. I was also somewhat glad to see that Jessica and Hoyt’s relationship seems to be disintegrating, because I think it opens up Jessica’s character to be far more interesting than just the “Vampire Virgin who pines after the Awkward Human.” The situation between Tommy and Sam interests me, because it adds a depth of character that Sam desperately needed (although seriously, more drama and negativity! Yeesh)

 

All in all, when things were said and done, I think the first words out of my mouth were, “If the rest of the season is like this, I’m not watching it anymore).

Google Plus

  By Erin | July 7, 2011 - 6:42 pm | ,
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I was planning on writing a post about the new season of True Blood first, but I’ve been spending half of my time screwing with Google Plus – or G+ like all the cool kids are calling it. I might go more in depth about it later, but for right now, I just wanted to give a list of my likes and dislikes.

 

First – The Likes

1. By Default, you can easily moderate content. You are prompted from the very beginning to put people into Circles, and to only share things to Circles that you want to see the content. You can even moderate people that don’t even have accounts yet, so if you want to put Mom into Circle for when she eventually gets an account, you can do that! This means that you can add people that aren’t necessarily “friends,” much like you would on Twitter. But since you can filter your Stream by Circle, you can make sure that you don’t lose your real friends in all the chatter of random people.

 

2. The phone app is fricking amazing. It’s quick, it doesn’t seem to destroy my Droid X’s battery, and it’s effective. It also has a setting to automatically upload all photos that I take with my Droid to a Private Picasa folder. (this feature is disabled by default though, if you tend to take pics that you don’t want randomly on a web, even if it is a private gallery).

 

3. The first few times that you post to your Stream after you’ve taken a new picture, there is a little camera icon that has a number with it (the number of pictures you’ve taken recently by haven’t shared). I like it because when I take a cool picture, then forget about it ten minutes later, Google reminds me that I haven’t shared it with my friends.

 

4. At present, there are no spammy addons, games, etc. And I know that when there one day is, that the Circles feature will allow me to isolate the people that play those games into their own spammy little Circle. Conversely, if I decided to play those games, I could place my friends who also played into that little Circle as well, so I wouldn’t have to harass the remainder of my friends.

 

5. Google tries to prevent you (and your friends) from being douches. When you share something to your Circle, you can flag it as not share-able, so other people can’t post it to potential strangers. If you don’t mark something us “Do Not Share,” and only share it to a few Circles (as opposed to sharing it Publicly), your friends will get a message if they try to reshare it. Basically, what it says is, “Hey, your friend didn’t share this publicly, do you really want to share this?”

 

6. The Circles aren’t just for privacy. You can make a Circle for all the Star Trek fans, or all the people in your Drama club so you don’t need to spam the people who don’t give a crap about this stuff. I’m really hopeful that this will cause an overall more “likable” group of people on Google Plus, because it’s so easy to control who sees what.

 

7. You can see whether a  friend posted something Publicly, or to a Limited group of people. You can click where it says Limited to see everyone that has access to it. This prevents awkward situations when you reply to someone’s status, and someone that you don’t want to see it responds.

 

8. Google Integration. I use Gmail, Google and Google Docs a LOT. I like that I can view and respond to my G+ notifications without even leaving the tab that I’m on. It also makes it easier to keep up with your Notifications while you’re trying to “look busy” at work.

 

9. The Feedback submission is nice. It seems that Google is already acting on some of the Feedback that people have registered.

 

The Dislikes

 

1. You can’t at this time manage your Circles on the Phone app, which can make it clunky if you’re trying to respond to a Notification that someone has added you to a Circle. You had to go to each person’s individual profile and edit it from there.

 

2. There is no present way to change the Permissions on your Profile pic. Everyone sees it by default. I would like to see it so different Circles can see different Profile pics.

 

3. It would be nice if you could change the privacy settings on your Comments to Friends Statuses. Like limit it to only people in Mutual circles, or only the person who’s Status you’re responding to. Again, this would prevent awkward situations where someone that you don’t want knowing your business is in a friend’s Circle.

 

4. Many companies and Universities utilize Google Mail for their institutions. I’d like to see the new Notification toolbar on top of these pages as well. (for reasons expressed in my feedback screenshot above)

Yay, Purse!

  By Erin | May 31, 2011 - 2:34 am |
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I have a hard time shopping for purses.

Yes, I love them. If I were slightly better off financially, I’d likely get a nice Coach bag or a Dooney and Burke ever year or so. But the problem is, in the business casual world, accessories are one of the few ways a woman has to display her personality. I can’t exactly wear my Starfleet Academy T-shirt to work.
In this regard, Etsy has been a godsend. I managed to get a cute Princess Leia necklace with pink lightsaber earrings that I absolutely adore wearing.
But for some reason, I’ve been at a loss to find a good purse that I like. There were a few retro Trek and Wars inspired ones that amused me, but that weren’t quite what I was looking for. After purchasing a tokidoki unicorn figure from ThinkGeek, I ended up wandering to their website.
And lo and behold I found exactly what I wanted!
It’s absolutely adorable, the wallet is insanely functional (my Droid X fits in it!) and I love the details. From little rhinestones on the tokidoki logo, to heart skull and crossbones shaped zipper pulls, it’s positively awesome.
For a helpful reference, if you happen to be looking for a Coach carrying case that will fit even the Droid X, their Poppy Universal Leather Case is quite nice (although their site fails at direct linking).

Downton Abbey

  By Erin | May 30, 2011 - 1:44 am | ,
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I’ll admit it – I’m a glutton for a good period piece. So when I saw that Felicia Day had mentioned Downton Abbey, I knew that I had to take a peek. Luckily enough, the entire 1st season was on Netflix, and I happily devoured it over a period of a few days. The TV show features the residents of Downton Abbey – both the Earl and his family, and the servants as well. In this, I was quite intrigued, for it seems like much of the time, it’s the upper-class members of society that are featured in such productions. The seven episodes of season 1 encompass over 2 years of time between April 1912 and August 1914 – specifically, it begins with the sinking of the Titanic, and ends with the beginning of World War I. This prevents the show from dwelling too much on minor details, but the writers are careful to ensure that we don’t feel like we missed to much in between episodes either.

It starts out in a very Pride and Prejudice sort of manner. The Earl of Gratham, Robert Crawley, has three daughters, and because of inheritance laws, none of them are able to inherit Downton. In the first episode, his heir (who was to marry the eldest of his daughters) dies tragically on the Titanic, throwing life at Downton into turmoil. Admissably, I was initially disappointed, figuring that this plot has been done time and time again. But by the conclusion of the first episode, I was already pleased with how they were handling something that could have easily become cliche. A large part of this was the acting – all of the characters from the great Earl to the mere kitchen maid were quite realistically portrayed.
As mentioned, the servants lives are just as integral to the plotline of the show as their employers are. It’s fascinating seeing the differences between the two worlds, which is often starkly evident through the use of clever camera shots and editing. We see the footmen walking through the lavish family sections of the Abbey, down into the servant’s quarters, which are stark and cold. We see cuts between the Earl’s family having a lavish, multi-course dinner and the servants eating a simple bowl of soup.
That’s not to say that you are meant to feel bad for the servants, or to feel that the aristocracy puts the Crawleys unfairly ahead. Both the Crawley family and the servants feature some characters that are worthy of empathy, and others who are more deserving of scorn. Some of the servants are proud to work for such a nice house, and to not be laboring in a factory or a farm, while others resent the cards that they’ve drawn in life.
The Crawley girls are dynamic characters in that I found myself split between feeling bad for them, and feeling like they’d gotten what they’d deserved. They interact in a fashion that is typical of a real family – they bicker, they disagree, and occasionally they do something to ruin one another’s lives. They are complex characters in a fast changing world, who – despite their parent’s best attempts to protect them – seem to have no difficulty getting themselves into bad situations.
While the movings of a rapidly evolving world impact the Crawley girls, it is their grandmother the Dowager Countess who primarily demonstrates both these evolutions, and the differences between high society and the common man. She is fearful of the electric lights that are in Downton Abbey, especially because they are in the kitchens, and she worries what it might do to her food. And when in the presence of the working class Matthew Crawley, she is confused by his use of the term “weekend” – as people who have never needed to have a job don’t grasp the concept of days off.
The only major complaint that I have was that while the costumes and sets are amazing, the camera work is kind of annoying. I’m not a particularly big fan of the use of soft focus… especially not in every single shot of a series. I also think it would be nice to have a few more episodes in a season, as the 7 from season 1 left me wanting more. Hopefully, the next season will deliver.
After great success in both the UK and Australia, they have begun to film the second season, which will take place during World War I in England, and should feature the characters going through dramatic changes as a result.

Sodastream

  By Erin | May 1, 2011 - 9:37 pm |
1 Comment

While I was driving to Chick-fil-A for breakfast the other day, I was listening to the Jack Diamond Morning Show when I heard an advertisement for the Sodastream. Immediately, I was interested. I love soda. I hate the fact that everything at the grocery store for the most part has High Fructose Corn Syrup or Aspartame in it. It’s not so much that I buy into the hype about those sugar substitutes being bad for you, but moreso that whenever I ingest either with any large quantity, I tend to feel like crap.
So I looked into and noticed that all of their syrups were free of HFCS and Aspartame, and instead used Sugar and/or Splenda. Furthermore, their line of Naturals, which releases in May, has no artificial sugars, colors or flavors at all. That piqued my interest considerably more.
I began reading reviews, and noticed a few things. First, the ever present people who vote 1 on a product for dumb reasons. Second, people that commented that there was Aspartame and High Fructose Corn Syrup in the mixes, when there wasn’t (perhaps the recipe has changed? Still, not valid complaints). Third, people were complaining that they were having difficulty swapping out the Carbonator because it is a proprietary design. Lastly, people complained that they didn’t like the syrups that Sodastream had available.
The third concern was enough to give me pause. If I fell in love with the thing, and couldn’t get syrups for it, I would be tremendously disappointed in the long run. So I tabled the thought – at least for now – and headed off to Bed Bath and Beyond, not intending to pick it up until the reviews for it were more consistent.
I came across the Sodastream endcap at Bed Bath and Beyond, and noticed that they had a sign there regarding the Carbonator. Apparently, BB&B offers a swap service on the Carbonators, so I wouldn’t need to send them off to Sodastream like some people had complained. Realizing that this wouldn’t hinder me, and that we had a 20% off coupon, I decided to take a gamble on whether or not I liked the flavors.
We rushed to get it all assembled so we could try it out when we got home, and I learned a few things that I didn’t realize before about it. First, I guess I assumed it needed to be plugged in to work, but it actually doesn’t, the Carbonator does everything. Second, it doesn’t require cleaning, as all it does is make carbonated water – you add the syrup to the water bottle. Third, because of this, you can control the amount of fizz and syrup in every bottle. I intend on trying it out with the MiO Water Enhancer, and Crystal Light Pure Flavors that I typically use to make water more palatable. Of course, it’s also good for making Selzer water for those alcoholic beverages too!
All in all, my only real complaint is that the bottles that come with it are not dishwasher safe, which is a bit inconvenient. I understand that there are glass bottles available that are, but I didn’t see them at the BB&B. But when I got it, I assumed it would be a lot more “work” to make soda than it actually was, and that the machine would need to be cleaned between uses as well, so all in all, I am pretty darned happy.
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