Who wants to talk about stuff?

[lunabee34]

I don't want to read, there's nothing on TV, and I miss talking to y'all.

Ask me something. Tell me something.

We could talk about NCIS, specifically Abby or Diane (Gibbs and Fornell's shared ex-wife).

Or we could talk about the educational system in the US.

Or we could talk about makeup and nail polish.

Or Penny Dreadful. MMmmmmmm. Penny Dreadful.

Or, you know. Anything.

Ever since being sick, I am struggling with the worst apathy. I could post more but it seems too much trouble. I could read fic but nothing is pinging me. I could *write* fic and even have several WIPs already started, but I never work on them. Maybe a rousing convo with my friends is the kick in the butt I need to start feeling engaged again. :)

Comments

[china_shop]

I don't know about any of those things (have only seen one episode of Penny Dreadful so far, though I plan to watch the rest at some point), but I could talk with you about, hmm, Korean TV dramas or Brooklyn 99 or New Zealand or grumble ill-informedly about tumblr. :-)

*hugs*

I hope your writing mojo comes back soon. (And mine -- I'm in the same boat.)

[lunabee34]

I have only seen a handful of episodes of Brooklyn 99 but I loved them! Andre Brauer is awesome as the straight man. And i love the kooky girl (I can't remember her name but she's also on Kroll Show).

[china_shop]

Her character is Gina, I think? Chelsea Peretti? She's great.

I actually really like Jake. I didn't expect to. I thought he'd be too much of a doofus-ass, but he cares just enough about the people around him to redeem him, I think. And is just barely self-aware enough.

Holt is fantastic.

My partner and I recently decided to rewatch the whole first season (as a reprieve from the oppressive evilness of House of Cards), and discovered we'd missed an episode of B99 first time through. Bonus new ep! :-)

[lunabee34]

I need to figure out when it comes on so I can fold it into the shows we regularly watch.

I've always liked Andy Samberg, and he's great in this show. There's an affability about the characters he plays that make them endearing to me.

[wendelah1]

I always have opinions about education since I am married to a retired teacher and my parents are retired teachers and my sister is a working teacher and everyone in my family attended public school, K-12, including my son.

I don't use nail polish regularly but I love makeup. I'm in love with my new Almay CC cream, which is replacing my Stila BB cream--at one third the cost. I'm using a new blush, too, but I'm less taken with it. Although I like its price, it doesn't have much staying power. I'm probably going to try Tarte's Cheek Stain next. I'm getting three new lipstick shades tomorrow from my Avon Lady (she's also my pet sitter). With any luck, I'll like one of them. Last product: I've been using Jergen's BB Body Creme for a week and I swear my upper arms look firmer.

[lunabee34]

Your family sounds like mine. Everybody on both sides of my family attended public school K-12. One of my grandmothers was a teacher's aide, my dad is a retired middle school teacher, my mom a retired college professor, and both my brother and sister-in-law are middle school teachers (right now she's home with their kiddo, but she plans to go back to it when my niece is older).

What is the difference between the BB and the CC creams? I bought some Clinique BB cream during all the hype and I like it just fine. But it seemed like immediately after I bought it, I started seeing commercials for the CC cream.

I have just discovered the amaze-balls-ness of face primer. My eyeshadow doesn't crease! Or fade! whooooooo!

[wendelah1]

BB stands for beauty balm. All of the BB creams I've tried had sun protection, moisturizer and varying degrees of coverage. L'Oreal's was very moisturizing, but I needed foundation to feel polished. Stila's I could wear in lieu of foundation, which made me very happy, and it comes in a goodly variety of shades, one of which was a perfect match. Some you can use as makeup primer. CC stands for color corrector. Mine is by Almay. It has sunscreen, moisturizer, supposedly light-diffusing particles, and antioxidants. It provides enough coverage that I don't need foundation, even though I have mild rosacea and dark spots due to insufficient use of sunscreen in my misbegotten youth. Almay's CC cream only has three shades--light, medium, dark--but the light shade matches my skin. They claim to have a technology called "Perfect Match" which is supposed to provide a perfect match for every skin tone. If the light shade matches me, it wouldn't match someone with porcelain skin, would it?

This morning I'm cat-wrangling in one part of the house and my regular makeup is in the other bathroom so I've been experimenting. So far, I've got on moisturizer, bronzer, powdered blush, finishing powder, and various shades of neutral eye shadow, just because it was in the same Tarte palette with the bronzer and blush. I don't usually wear eye makeup because I'm lazy and also because I wear thick glasses. No one can see my eyes anyway (except my husband when I take them off at night) so what's the point? And I've never found a mascara that didn't flake off over the course of the evening.

Eh, I think I look more natural with just the CC cream and cream blush. This was a lot more work, too. The eye shadow isn't creasing...yet.

What face primer are you using?

[havocthecat]

I want to talk! I don't even know about what. So many things. Not just fandom.

Tell me about Penny Dreadful? Don't worry about spoiling me.

I wish I cared enough to wear makeup. It's so pretty! But it takes so much time that I could be doing other things, like reading. (I'm fairly sure I just regressed back to being 15 there. In my head, I sounded just like 15 year old me.)

I know what I need to write! I also have pages and pages of space vampires fic written in hard copy that I need to type up. But I...haven't gotten around to it yet. Also, I have oodles of pages that I need to actually scan and upload so I can use two (tablet and laptop, or split screen on the laptop) instead of going back and forth between an awkwardly propped up notebook and a screen. (I don't want to buy one of those document thingies to hold papers upright. It'd just be more clutter.)

I know all the things I need to do, and even have finally figured out how to work back in the FBI-type agent that they encountered at the start. I just...have to write it. Still. I'm facing similar apathy, but for different reasons.

[executrix]

Makeup doesn't have to take a lot of time!

Instead of putting on plain moisturizer when you wash your face, put on a little smidge of BB (...or CC, or whatever they're calling it these days) that has SPF, and smoothes out your complexion and gives you a little hint of glow. Wet'n'Wild also makes a great blush stick that looks like a roll-on deodorant--put on a teensy bit on the apples of your cheeks. Quick swipe with a smoky eye pencil. Lipstick or tinted lip balm. Under two minutes for the whole face!

[havocthecat]

Okay, this is going to sound like a dumb question, because I can do makeup, but it's such a pain that I mostly ignore it, but you can straight up reply moisturizer with BB or CC cream or whatever it is?

I am trying to be extra professional at work, which is difficult, because I am a) lazy, b) roll out of bed at 6 a.m. and run out the door about 6:25 a.m., and c) hate fussing with my appearance. Also it's difficult because, on the days I actually do makeup, I like not-professional colors, like eggplant. (I do lip gloss, though, because it's easy and I like the look of it, and I feel like it helps me get away with not wearing makeup.)

Hrm. Possibly I can do this. If I can find an easy blush thing. Can you just smear on the blush stick and then, what, blend it with your fingertips or something?

[executrix]

For all intents and purposes, BB and CC creams are tinted moisturizers, possibly with some other stuff.

Yes, you smear (or dot) on the blush stick and use your fingers or a tissue (or, to be perfectly honest, a square of toilet paper if that's what's handy). Wet'n'Wild used to make a highlighting cream that was the Best Thing Ever but of course they stopped making it. ELF has a little tube of illuminating cream that is nice but smells like lemonade which seems incongruous.

I'm allergic to eye makeup, but a lot of people would argue that the #1 basic makeup item is either mascara or a smudgy pencil you can use for both eyeliner and eye shadow.

[lunabee34]

for what it's worth, I don't think eggplant is an unprofessional color at all. I wear varying shades of purple eye shadow and/or lipstick to work all the time and I think I look pretty classy. I think the key factor is intensity; if your lips are neon purple or you've got strongly pigmented purple all the way up to your eye brow, that's not going to look professional. But the same makeup a little more subtly applied could look professional all the way. :)

I have this same issue with my hair. I despise taking the time to dry it, even though it takes probably seven minutes to dry it. It seems like it is foreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeever.

[lunabee34]

I've never used any of the cream or liquid blushes because I'm afraid they'd stain or streak. Do you ever have that problem?

[executrix]

Nope, but maybe the key is using just a tiny skosh and blending it out. The elf is more of a highlighter than a full-scale blush--I find I look at least 10% less dead with a little gleam.

[lunabee34]

I agree with Executrix. Makeup doesn't have to take a long time although I love the results when I do take a long time with it. LOL What takes the longest re: makeup is getting fancy with the eye makeup.

I would second most of what Exec says except that I always put old lady cream on even before my BB cream. I have dry skin, and everything just looks better if I moisturize beforehand. If you have dry skin, I would definitely use your moisturizer first. If you have regular or oily skin, you could prob skip that step.

Here's what I consider essential and takes me less than five minutes to do (it should also be noticed that practice is probably a factor here too):

moisturizer immediately when I get out of the shower for max absorption

clinique face primer (two months ago, I'd not have considered this essential, but it keeps everything from creasing and it smooths out your complexion; I just put it all over my face and on my eyelids; my eyeshadow would always smudge and crease and it's astonishing to me how just a little dab of this stuff keeps it perfect for like more than 12 hours)

eyes (I do eyes first because the shadow inevitably flakes on your cheeks or some such, and if you do them before all the other stuff, you can just quickly wipe underneath when you're done and not lose any makeup you put on your face; for something quick, I'd either put a neutral shadow, probably a pink or brown on my lid only and then do mascara on the top lashes only or do mascara on the top lashes alone)

clinique BB cream put on with fingers

pressed powder put on with a brush

bronzer put on with a brush (I only do this in the summer because we swim like every day, and I get tanner than my BB cream)

powder blush put on with a brush

lips (quick swipe of lipstick or gloss)

This looks like a lot, but it really isn't. It's really just rubbing three lotions on my face and then quickly swiping some stuff on with a brush.

Even when I put on multiple eye shadows and use liner, it only adds a couple minutes to the process; I suspect that's the result of practice though.

[lunabee34]

Penny Dreadful is very very femslashy. And it features perhaps one of my favorite female protagonists ever. It smooshes together all the usual Victorian horror characters: characters from Dracula and Frankenstein plus Dorian Gray. It's 19th century London which I adore and it is so unexpected in its plotting. I am continually surprised by what the show does and I don't think it's nearly as predictable as many of the shows I watch.

[havocthecat]

So it has Mina and Lucy, and maybe even Elizabeth (from Frankenstein)? Or other women too? I've never actually read Dorian Gray, despite my love of Victorian horror, oddly enough. I might have to actually read the book soon.

Now to see if I can find it anywhere! Ugh, I'm not paying an extra $20 a month for a premium channel. (I only did that for Stargate years ago.)

[lunabee34]

Well, it has Mina. But Vanessa isn't really a Lucy analogue. She's something else entirely. Something utterly wonderful. Vanessa and Mina are childhood friends, and Vanessa is attempting to save Mina from the vampires. Then there's Brona, a consumptive prostitute who is about to become the Bride of Frankenstein; a medium who I believe will have a much greater role in the next season; and an actress whose arc is possibly over and may not appear again.

So far, they're not really going into Dorian's story from the book very much; I still like his character though.

[zulu]

Hallo! I don't know about most of those things but I have been reading a lot lately. Yesterday I finished Fances Itani's Deafening, which I first read for a Can Lit course in undergrad. Kind of underwhelming this time through. I can see that it wants to be poetic, but then the poeticness doesn't actually do anything for the story, you know? And even though the main characters are separated by the first world war, nothing really ever gets in their way or needs to be overcome (except the war, which is so big and external and un-influence-able that it doesn't feel like it counts).

Today I'm reading Strandia, which is YA coming of age with magical dolphins. :)

[lunabee34]

I hear ya; I hate when a re-read is a disappointing. I love re-reading and do it frequently, and the best books just get more interesting and complex when you re-read them rather than diminishing.

Oooooh, magical dolphins. Are there humans too or just sea creatures?

[executrix]

WRT disappointing rereads: Jo Walton calls it "a visit from the Suck Fairy."

[lunabee34]

That is also what I call my period. LOL

[havocthecat]

I once read this book called Drowntide about merfolk and their human families, and I'm pretty sure there were sentient dolphins in there. There was also merfolk-and-people-eating seaweed with a sirenlike call. I feel the need to share the cover, with the mermaid whose hair has tendrils that mysteriously float into just the right space to cover her breasts.

This was one of the well-read joys of my childhood, but I wonder if it would actually hold up today.

[cloudsinvenice]

"Ever since being sick, I am struggling with the worst apathy.">

I know what you mean! I'm over my cold but I can't seem to convince myself that things are doable even when they're easy!

[lunabee34]

*hugs*

I hope you get your mojo back soon.

I wish the universe would declare a hiatus on illness until fall. LOL