late night ranting

I watched Glee tonight, in something of a sick haze. I really don't like it when people put extra sounds in front of the words they're singing, like, "uuhhDON'T uuuhhhRAAAIN errrrOOONNNN aaahMMYYY PEEERRRRR-AAAADE". Words begin with the letters that they are meant to start with, right? So why should you add extra letters when you're singing them? It really rankles. Also, I don't like the way they all seem to lunge while performing. It makes the whole thing seem kind of...intense.

righteous indignation

"Harriet the Spy: The Blog Wars". Can you believe it? I'm so angry, well, I could just spit. Here is an excerpt from the wikipedia entry for said abomination against literature and childhood heroines:

"It's a really different version than before. The first book was written in the 60s, so we're putting our own spin on it." The only known plot is that Harriet ends up in a blog war with a classmate."

Do you know that they (by which I mean "The Man" as the term would apply to the mysterious power players in the childrens' publishing industry)are "updating" The Babysitters Club so that the books have references to the internet and iPods? Why? Whyyy?

When I read Harriet and Ramona the Pest there were lots of things I didn't quite understand - "dumbwaiters", "graham crackers", "fig newtowns", the "dawnzer lee light", - but the key thing is that I eventually figured it out or asked my parents and learnt something about the world.*

What if they do this Paula Danziger? I don't think I could handle it.

*I wasn't spectacularly out of touch with pop culture: in New Zealand NONE OF THESE EXIST.

Oh, and: Harriet pic from here, and the sweet, sweet Remember me to Harold Square cover art is from here.

PS. You should totally read all these books, as well as the entire back catalogue of Paula Danziger, right now, no matter how old you are.

hold on while I put on my face

I read an article last night about make up.

Basically, it talks about how if you really want to have pretty looking make-up, the key is to put on six different types of make-up (like skin corrector, then a primer, then concealer, then foundation, then blush, then highlighter) in tiny amounts in exactly the right places on your face. Apparently, by doing this in tiny, thinner than wafer-thin layers, with wee brushes that look like little fans, you can wind up with the best make-up in the world.


My personal makeup usage varies. Sometimes I wear heaps, often I wear none. At the moment, I barely leave my office during the week so I see little to no point in wearing any. My skin is a bit patchy and a bit dry (Auckland is great for patchy/dry/oily) at the moment, so wearing lots of makeup would probably make it worse. Also, I had, for the first time in ages, two horrid pimples, one hidden on the side of my right nostril, and the other, right next to inner corner of my left eyebrow. I have no idea where they came from. Luckily, they weren't huge. And extra luckily, I hardly ever get pimples so its not something you're going to hear me bitch about a whole lot on the internet (dry skin = a whole other story). Anyway, I feel that makeup worsens pimples so I tend to wear less when I have breakouts.

Carrying on. I tend to use Mac. My last trip to the Mac counter was slightly disastrous as my friend who works there was too busy so a less awesome make-up artist piled my face in slap and I wound up buying it just to leave the store. It is wierd though, the way makeup artists take one look at me and say "NW20!!!" as though it is glaringly obvious. Is my skin tone that transparent? Yes. Anyway, turns out this Mac stuff works. It took some getting used to, but my step-mother complimented me on my skin and its glowy-ness the other day which is all I need to declare it a roaring success.

I used to use id Bareminerals. Now that is a nice foundation. PITY IT COSTS SEVENTY DOLLARS. And it has almost no ingredients? How do they get away with that? What kind of a world do we live in, where to buy "natural" makeup with "nothing" in it, it costs seventy dollars? Really, id? REALLY?

OK. Rant over. The point of all this is to say that this weekend I plan on trying the Harpers' several different layers of makeup in tiny amounts in exactly the right place all over my face. I'll let you know if it works.

Images from here