My first giveaway

Well, hello!

I've had enough of waiting. My Sigma brush has been posted, but it's coming from America and it's taking ages to get here. I want to say thank you for subscribing, so I'm going to do another giveaway while I'm waiting on this brush.

I'm going to give away an Eyeko London Lips lipgloss tube in Soho, worth £6.50. I love this colour as it's so bright! You can check it out here.

All you have to do to enter is subscribe, and leave a comment on this post saying "Enter me," or something to that effect. On Friday I will pick one person at random (I'll be fair, I'll use a random number generator or pick names out of a hat, or attach name tags to squirrels and stick up an assault course and whoever's squirrel gets the nuts first will win the prize... probably not the last one though) and contact you on Friday. I'll announce the winner on Saturday and once I have a postal address I'll get it in the post on the Monday.

I do have a fair amount of Eyeko stuff to give away, so I'll hold a giveaway each week until it's all gone! Each giveaway will start on a Saturday.

Of course, when I get the Sigma brush I'll review it and start the giveaway for that on the next Saturday. I'm expecting it this week, but we'll see.

TTFN!

PS: I should add that this is open to everyone, so I'll post to anywhere.

Pokemon and Censorship

I just watched Zero Punctuation and Yahtzee's review of Pokemon White, and while I can't write a comparable review because I haven't played it, I can give my own thoughts on the series as a whole.

I don't play Pokemon. I have no interest in it for two main reasons. First of all I played it on my cousin's Gameboy many years ago when it was in its first or second incarnation (I forget which) and I found myself playing it for hours on end. I found it so addictive that I couldn't put it down even though it had the excitement of walking around the back garden picking up worms. The second reason I don't play the game is more of a moral reason: I disagree with getting animals to fight on your behalf. I own two dogs and I despise the people who set their dogs to fight eachother in the aim of proving how macho they are. If you're so bloody macho why can't you fight your own frigging battles? The same goes for cock fighting. The idea of setting animals to fight against eachother, even if they don't "die" in these virtual battles, and to be forced to allow your pet to loose should it not be strong enough, screams of cruelty to me. Add to that the fact that each of these animals is carried about inside a tiny ball and only released in order to fight and all I see is an ethically dark game masked by cutesy (or "kawaii," the Japanese term for cute) manga style art.

People scream and cry about violence in games, romance and experimentation with sexuality in games, nudity, drugs, and crime in games; and I am glad they have, not because I agree they should be censored but because it led to the establishment of an age rating system that has allowed for games to further explore these themes without worrying about kids being exposed to it because such content is restricted and may only be purchased by an adult. However, I do worry that kids playing Pokemon and similar games like Digimon are being exposed to this way of thinking that our pets are there to resolve our disputes. These games aren't age restricted, and they've been around for 15 years. In England there has been a significant rise in the owning of "status symbol" dogs, and in dog attacks, as well as people pitting their dogs against eachother for fun. The majority of these unpleasant dog owners are of the age that they would have been kids when the Pokenomenon started.

Could these two things be related? Maybe. Probably not. As the old joke says, "If we were influenced by the games of our youth we'd all be running round darkened rooms munching pills and listening to repetitive electronic music." Perhaps that is not the best example of my belief that playing Call of Duty does not create the next Columbine kids. It is true, that there are people who will find something and twist it to fit their mentality, and use it to spur themselves on, like the Westboro Baptist Church have done with the bible, like those terrorists did with the qur'an and those kids did with Marylin Manson, Eminem, Judas Priest, Nirvana, you name it, it's been linked to some kids killing themselves or someone else. This doesn't make it our responsibility to make sure they aren't exposed to sticks that they might get the wrong end of. Anything can be twisted in someone's mind to mean what they want it to mean. If they're going to "go postal," then they will. Nothing can stop that from happening. All you can do is hope that no one gets caught in the cross-fire.

My own hope is that these games provide an outlet for troubled kids and in fact make it less likely that they will want to go out into the real world and cause real carnage. I know I've used them for stress release countless times. I also hope that Pokemon isn't implanting a sense that it's ok to treat animals in such a way to the kids who play it, however when I play it I don't feel happy inside, so I think I shall abstain from playing it for the foreseeable future.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thank you for reading this rant. The opinions within it are my own, but aren't set in stone. It's just how I feel at the moment and may well change. I'm not claiming that dog violence is linked to Pokemon, I was just posing a question, following a train of thought.

If by some miracle you haven't heard of Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw or Zero Punctuation, you can check him out here: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation
I love listening to his reviews, and his opinions often echo my own, although he tends to focus on the negative aspects of a game. He uploads a new review every Wednesday. Be warned, he swears a lot, and uses rude humour.

TTFN

King Lizard, and how they rock my socks.

Hello my lovelies.

This is neither a Joysticks or a Lipstick post... or maybe it's both.
I just have to tell you about King Lizard. They will rock your socks off.

King Lizard are a four piece band that used to be a five piece and have rotated through at least 2 members for each position over the last 8 years that I've known them, aside from Flash, the singer, who has remained a constant. Every time a band member has left it has broken my heart because they have all been awesome, and then they are replaced by someone even more fantastic and the band as well as their music just keeps on getting better.

The music is kind of a mix of different sub-genres of rock. I used to think of them as glam rock, KISS style. Then I realised there was a bit of a stadium rock vibe to them, hard to miss when Flash pulls out his Axl Rose impersonation for a GnR cover. They have a metal edge that's hard to put your finger on, and yet there's an air of classic rock about them too. If I had to define them with one label though, I'd say King Lizard are sleaze rock.

I don't have a picture of the new line up,
but left to right: Alice, Flash, Sky, Niro.

When you hear the dirty bass-line put down by Italian stallion Alice Rain, your hips will be swinging before you can hit the floor. It's a low-down, rolling, sexy sound that makes you want to do bad things. When you see what he does to the bass onstage, he's like the devil come to play for some poor sod's soul and all yo want to do is take him away and put him in your cupboard so you can pull him out randomly and impress your friends. Or... that might just be me.

Niro Knox, also known as the "Beast from the Middle East" is a stellar guitarist, responsible for some of the most gut-wrenchingly beautiful riffs you'll ever hear. Every once in a while he will do something absolutely mental, like covering Lady Gaga and turning it into a parody for Flashs birthday (true story).

I wish I had more to say about the drummer, I'm pretty sure he's Arnaldo Rogano (no nickname for you!) but I've only seen him with the band once. I've been to two gigs since longstanding drummer Sky London quit and joined Tres Calaveras, and the first of those gigs was drummed buy a guy who didn't last long. One thing I can say with certainty is that Sky is frigging amazing and I know that the band do not trade down when they change line up, and if Arnaldo's still with them after more than six months (thats how long it's been since I saw them-ish) then he's got to be up to standard. Sorry Arnaldo, I'll be  able to say better things once I've known you a little longer. Sky left some big boots... really big boots.

Flash Roxx, singer

Flash Roxx is the heart of King Lizard, his voice and energy are amazing. I'm totally in love with him. If I wasn't getting married... Oh well, at least I have his word he'll sing at my wedding. Flash is absolutely electric on stage, and he brings his audience alive.

So why am I telling you about this fantastic London based rock outfit?
They've just released their debut album.

Viva La Decadence is the first recording out on general release and it is as close as it's gonna get to capturing the essence of the band's performance. It will never be the same as watching them live, but it's great when you don't have them chained to a stage in your living room (what?)

I constantly listen to this album when I'm driving or doing housework, and it takes me back to all the wonderful times I've had at Lizard gigs.

I wrote a review of the album on HMV, I'll stick it at the end of the post so you can read it if you want.

You can buy Viva La Decadence from HMV, Amazon.com (US) or Amazon.co.uk (UK) or if you'd prefer to download it, you can get it from Amazon or iTunes.

You can also check out their debut video for the title track Viva La Decadence right here.

My HMV album review:

King Lizard have been through a lot of changes over the years, bringing them to this line up and repertoire that have brought about the nationwide release of their debut album. They've changed from a five-piece to a four-piece, been through multiple musician changes, constantly tweaked their existing songs and brought about new ones. You never know what will happen next with this band.One thing, however, has remained constant: King Lizard make exceptional music, they electrify the stage, and they most certainly know how to rock and roll. No matter what happens in the future I will always be confident in one thing; that King Lizard are an amazing band. At last, they have a recording that has done their music justice. From the anthemic rock party tracks of Late Nite Dynamite and Viva La Decadence to the fast paced anarchic rebel yells of Kan't Kill (Rock and Roll) and Riot; the deep down dirty bass line of Rock n Roll Me to the soulful sorrow of Not For Me and all the mayhem in between, Viva La Decadence is a snapshot of the best of King Lizard so far. The only thing better than this album is seeing them live.

Pre-Owned Games = Piracy?

As a games student, I get to speak to some interesting people in the industry (ooh, get me! I'm so special.)
Last year I got to speak to Rob Bartholomew, of Bethesda Publishing, and one of the topics of conversation has been on my mind ever since.

In the UK, since the days of cartridges when games were no longer self-distributed and the NES and Sega consoles had made games a commercial industry, new games have had a set price of around £40. The value of the pound has declined and the technology involved has improved, but the price of a Megadrive (Genesis for the U.S.) game was £39.99 and the price of a PS3 game today is £39.99.
Children generally can't afford this. I remember when I was a kid with my Sega Mastersystem, and after that with my Megadrive, I used to get £20 - £25 a month in pocket money. I had to wait 2 months before I could get a new game, and that was my little ritual. It was the only thing I spent my money on, even though it always meant that I had nothing left afterwards.

Now I'm an adult, my stream of incoming games is a lot less regular. There are less games I want to play, for one. I no longer have so much disposable income and I have bills to pay. I can never afford to get a game when it is released, I always have to wait for the price to come down.

The main way I get to play new games is by getting  pre-owned games, and trading in my old games for shop credit. It saves me a lot of money. However, there is a problem.

Rob was explaining to me that game developers and publishers are worried about the pre-owned games market killing the development of new games.

The problem is that when companies like GAME buy your old games, then sell them on for a profit (less than a new game but more than what they paid you for it) the only people making the profit are the ones at GAME. You're not making a profit, because you're getting substantially less than you paid for it originally, and the people that made the game - the game that GAME are now making just as much, if not more profit from reselling pre-owned as they did when they sold it new - are getting nothing.

When a brand new game is sold, the profits from the sale go to the shop you bought it from. To get the game on their shelves, the shop had to buy it from the distributor. (If you've done film studies it's a lot like the Hollywood Model - I think that's what it was called, I covered it almost 10 years ago!) The money from the sale of each game is split between the distributors, the publishers, and the producers. These are the people who developed the game, the people who burned all the discs and made all the packaging, and the people who sold it to the shops through advertising and sales pitches. This is a very simplified version of the model, there are a lot of people involved from start to finish in getting these games on the shelves, and that £40 split between them probably works out to less than a penny each per unit sold.

The really big worry is that the less brand new games are bought, the less the game designers will earn, and they will just stop making games because they can't afford to keep doing it.

I find this to be a bit arsey, as games were originally made as a hobby, and passed around for free. Any profits made were the icing on the cake. I also find these fears to be a bit unfounded because there will always be a demand for brand new games. There would be no 2nd hand games if nobody bought them first hand. There is also the fact that games don't last forever, especially now that they're all on DVD and Blu Ray discs, so people will always need to buy replacements for really good games.

Some companies have been trying to figure out ways to stop this market, saying it's as damaging to them as piracy - probably more so, seeing as it's legal. EA in particular have been giving out single-use codes in new games for exclusive and free DLC. Fair enough. I've heard some disturbing rumblings that companies are trying to "lock" discs to machines, like SIM cards in mobile phones. This is not the answer. This is why:

1. I feel that if I buy a game that looked really good but was actually awful, I should be able to get my money back (This is a massive gripe I have with PSN and XBLA) even if it is only part of the money I paid for it.
2. I live in a one bed flat. I don't have the space to keep every game I ever bought, even if I wanted to. Some games I enjoyed, but I'll never play again. I can either trade them in and make some use of them, or I can put them in the bin.
3. The Pre-owned games market is a way of recycling games and saving the world!
4. So many games would never have been played - and loved - if it weren't for trade ins. I missed Mass Effect when it first came out, I hadn't heard of it, and then I saw it, after Mass Effect 2 was released, pre-owned, for £6.99. I got it, loved it, and bought ME2 soon after.

There is a solution staring everyone in the face. The people who make the games should get a cut of the profits. How best to do this? Set up your own trade in scheme. Offer an incentive to use it.

If it is really that big a problem, there's your fix. and you can always contact me if you need more help.

Considering how much DLC is available for every game released these days, some of it costing as much as a brand new game and with none of the costs incurred making discs and packaging, I think the companies are making more than enough to compensate for the amount lost through the sale of pre-owned games.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, I hope that you've found it interesting, particularly those of you into games. I won't be doing any game reviews until I find a game worth spending my money on(!) but until then I will provide you with some writings about games in general.

TTFN

Hell Thirteen

PS: Comment question. Do you buy pre-owned games? Or do you always buy brand new?

Mother's Day

Tomorrow is Mother's Day, and I know it can be a bit of an ordeal. Especially if your family doesn't do well in enclosed spaces. Together. I wish you all luck.

My mother is gone. She died nearly three years ago from Ovarian Cancer. I see my friends stressing about Mother's Day and I feel both relieved that I no longer have to worry about Mother's Day, and saddened that I won't be able to tell my own mother how very much I love her, miss her, and still need her every day.

Mother's Day is a good time to talk about Ovarian Cancer, because March was Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month, and mothers are the women we need to worry about in our lives.

Diagnosis can be difficult because symptoms are often similar to those caused by more common, less serious conditions. If you have any of the following symptoms, it is unlikely that they are caused by a serious problem, but it is important that you discuss them with your doctor and ask if they have considered ovarian cancer. In particular, you should ask your GP whether ovarian cancer should be considered if you experience any of these three symptoms on most days:

• Persistent pelvic and stomach pain
• Increased abdominal size / persistent bloating - not bloating that comes and goes
• Difficulty eating and feeling full quickly

Occasionally other symptoms such as urinary symptoms, changes in bowel habit, extreme fatigue or back pain may also be experienced on their own or at the same time as those listed above.

(Taken from www.ovarian.org.uk)

My mum had a hysterectomy ten years before she was diagnosed, and the symptoms often present as Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), so she wasn't correctly diagnosed for over five years. She could have been saved if we had known enough about the disease. We might have realised what the doctors didn't. The awful truth is that you simply can't rely on doctors to figure out what's wrong with you. GPs just don't know enough, and they rarely send you to specialists. The real world of medicine isn't like House.
It wasn't until mum could no longer eat or drink that the hospital took her seriously, and I had to be there with her, forcing them to put an IV in her arm so she wouldn't die of dehydration.

The way the NHS treated her was abysmal, they significantly shortened her life, by months if not years.

The stress was so much that it caused me to miscarry, losing both my mother and my baby within a year. I was only 23 when mum died. She was only 59, three months away from a free buss pass.

So, for mother's day, I have set up a tribute fund in her name, with the money going to Ovarian Cancer Action. If you would like to donate anything, this is the link: http://lovewomen.tributefunds.com/fund/Wendy+Marie+Ann+Chapple

Spare a thought for the motherless on Mother's Day.

Thank you.

Blogging for pay/freebies: My take

I've been reading quite a few articles on US regulations on Word Of Mouth Marketing and Paid Opinions. I'm aware that such things are regulated in the US but not, to my knowledge, in the UK; however I would like to make my own stance on the subject clear, as I now blog and review products.

None of the products that I've reviewed have been sent to me for free so far, I'm not affiliated with e.l.f. but I am an Eyeko Ambassador, and have been since before I was a blogger. I signed up with Eyeko because I liked the products. I have no problem with anyone sending me freebies (such as Sigma and their brushes) to try out and review, so long as it is clear that this will not guarantee a positive review. If I don't like something, I don't care if it was free. I am glad of any freebies sent my way because quite frankly, I won't be able to review new products otherwise. The reason I have talked about e.l.f. and Eyeko fairly often is that they are the only products I can afford right now! I will be writing about older products in my make up collection soon though, to give some more variety to my posts.

I am signed up with google adsense, which means that when anyone clicks one of the google ads on my blog I will earn a small amount of money for it. They are meant to be relevant to what I'm writing about, but I am not writing about stuff in the ads, so if I write about a certain brand and the adverts are for the same company or product, it's just a coincidence.

I would love to earn enough from blogging to at least make it self-perpetuating, in that I would earn enough to keep on buying stuff to review and offer as give-aways, and I would love to earn a little extra cash as well; but I am not and will never be just doing this for the money.

So there you go. Just to make it clear.

<3

My E.L.F. Cosmetics Haul/Review part 2

Hello!


I'd like to start by saying thank you to my new subscribers, it's all very exciting here in my little world to start a blog and have so many people reading it so quickly. I really hope that this continues to grow at this pace, because writing, games and make up are all things that I love to do. I'm almost up to 10 subscribers (last count was 8) and my Sigma brush give-away! Leave a comment and let me know if you'd rather wait until I get my brush in the post and do a review before I give one away, or if you think I should just get on with it and start the give-away once I reach 10 subscribers.


As promised, I made use of the EyesLipsFace.co.uk 20% discount on Monday and bought a load of new products to try out. Here's my 2nd E.L.F. haul review.

Elf Studio Tinted Moisturiser SPF 20 in Porcelain, £3.50


I did promise to get the tinted moisturiser from the studio line after reviewing the one from the basic line, so here it is. As @Ida Pie said in the comments for my last elf review, the porcelain is even more yellow than the basic ivory colour, but it is very light, doesn't smell as weird and with the studio line you get so much more product! The packaging is much nicer, too.


It didn't seem to use as much product to cover my face and the consistency was a lot nicer too - a little more liquidy, less sticky feeling, and you can feel it's a lot better for your skin than the basic line. Still has parabens in it though, and before I applied it the texture looked really lumpy - didn't effect the application or finish though.
Once it was on, I didn't notice the yellowness of it - as you'll see from the following pictures!

Elf Studio Angled Foundation brush, £3.50


This is a really lovely brush, made from Taklon bristles and cruelty free. It's so soft, and a decent size compared to the basic line foundation brush. It's also angled to help you get into the nooks and crannies around your eyes and nose. I really like this brush <3
The use of Taklon synthetic bristles means that not only are the brushes anti-bacterial, they can also be used with any product, be it wet or dry.

Elf Studio Powder Brush, £3.50


This is another wonderful brush, again, made from Taklon bristles. I've never owned brushes so soft as these. Great for buffing blusher and bronzer into the cheeks, and the flat top makes for precise application, even if it does make a right mess of pressed powder containers! I decided to use this brush to apply my new bronzer.

Elf healthy glow bronzing powder in Luminance, £1.50


Ah-ha! Now this is much more the right shade of bronzer for my pasty face!
In fact, in this picture, it looks a little lighter than my pasty face... However, I love this bronzer, and I think it will be my new favourite. It's just so subtle, which is how I like my contours to be!

Elf studio Blush in Gotta Glow, £3.50

This... isn't quite what I expected, and I'm not sure it's a blush so much as a highlighter, in this particular shade. From the website's photo, I expected a very pale pink. What I got was a very pale, shimmery gold. I'm in love with it, it's just the oddest thing to have a blusher that's basically yellow!

Elf Studio Complexion Perfection, £3.50

This is an awesome product. Get it. Basically it's four different pressed powders put together - a green, a yellow, a pink and a purple - that mix together to look like a skin tone powder. The green balances out redness in the skin, be it from spots or rosacea, the purple helps with bruising such as under-eye dark circles, and the pink and yellow even out the skin tone. The powder is formulated to remove excess oil and give a matte finish, great for my oily skin.






Elf Studio Kabuki face brush, £5.00

This was the most expensive item I bought from Elf, and at a fiver that says a lot for the prices at Elf! Of all the new lovely studio brushes I bought this week, this kabuki brush is by far the softest. It is so beautiful! The two-tone bristles make it look a bit like a badger brush, but this brush is made from synthetic Taklon, so again, it's cruelty free, and it's anti-bacterial. This brush is #WINNING. In the non-sarcastic sense. And it's the only brush that comes in a box.

Elf eyebrow stencils, £1.50

This set gives you several different brow shapes to choose from. Good luck getting them symmetrical!

Elf Studio Eyebrow Treat and Tame in Ash, £3.50

One one end, you get a hair-growing conditioning gel; on the other, you get a fibrous brow mascara. It made my eyebrows look fuller and kept them in place all day, and when I tried using a powder underneath it gave me really strong looking eyebrows, Elizabeth Taylor style.

Elf feather-proof moisturising lip liner in Spice, £1.50

This liner didn't go on as smoothly as I'd liked, but it is a pretty colour and they do send a free pencil sharpener with each one, so I'm happy. Elf UK are out of stock of most of their liner shades at the moment, which is the main reason I picked Spice.

Elf basic lipstick in Fantasy and Voodoo, £1.50 each

I think I made a mistake getting fantasy. Brown lipsticks just don't seem to suit me. Perhaps I need to try again, using a very light hand for a sheer colour. Voodoo is quite a dark shade, but when applied sparingly I think it looks quite beautiful. The texture is nothing to write home about, and the appearance of the product is a little too "my first make up" for my tastes.

Elf Studio Eye crease brush, £3.50


This is basically a small blending brush, for your socket bone. It's good, but not particularly special, just another addition to my brush collection.


Elf basic eyeliner brush, £1.50

I was a teeny bit miffed because this brush showed up with one extra long hair sticking out of it, but after grabbing my tweezers and removing it, the brush was fine. It did what I needed it for, and I prefer a flat liner brush to an angled or thin brush because there is a lot more control over your lines. It worked really well with my cream eyeliner, much better than the brush supplied with it!


Thanks for reading! I hope that helped some of you who are thinking of trying E.l.f. cosmetics. I'll leave you with a few pictures of me messing about with my camera. Don't forget to subscribe for my Sigma brush give-away!
TTFN!

evil smile

retro nails

I heart my subscribers

Peace!

Bye!