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Because this week has been absolutely insane, I am going to give you some Favorite Friday videos today. This is a band that actually really exists. For reals. You will wonder when I went insane then you will fall madly in love with them. Today I give you - BABYMETAL
And, as a bonus, here is a recent Fine Brothers production - YouTubers react to BABYMETAL
Since the new relaunch of The Geek Within, I have been struggling to figure out what I should talk about here. There will always be reviews of movies and TV shows and whatnot. And I am going to talk about the various subscription boxes that will be arriving on my doorstep. But are you interested in the other stuff? Last year, I started a tumblr account where I planned on posting reviews of random things I purchased. Then I kinda forgot about tumblr. Would you like to see those reviews posted here? What other sort of things would you like me to talk about? Should I go back to posting individual episode reviews instead of just a series?
Help! Post your wants and needs in the comments!
Paper Towns is John Green's third novel. It tells the story of Quentin Jacobsen and Margo Roth Spiegelman. Quentin and Margo have been neighbors for their entire lives. When they were children, they came upon a dead body in the park. The story flashes forward to their senior high school year. Quentin, called "Q" by his friends, is in her geeky clique while Margo, generally referred to by her entire name, is the queen of the school. As such, their friendship had fallen to the wayside long ago.
One night, Margo randomly shows up at Quentin's window dressed as a ninja. She convinces him to sneak out and the two go on a bit of a revenge rampage. The next day, Margo doesn't show up to school. Three days later, she is declared missing. Quentin and his friends, Ben and Radar, spend the end of their senior year following the clues that Margo left behind.
I have found that I love Green's style of writing. Maybe it's because I am rather nerdy myself, but I find myself relating to his main characters a little too well. Quentin is a strongly loyal friend and he often thinks too much for his own good. Margo Roth Spiegelman is the popular girl who puts on a fake facade so people don't understand who she really is. As a result, people end up thinking that she is quirky and unusual. The two make an interesting friendship and I do kinda wish there was more of it in the book.
It took me awhile to read Paper Towns. Not because it wasn't interesting but because it doesn't quite match up to The Fault in Our Stars. (Sidenote: I feel like I should have read TFiOS last. It is so good that it sort of ruins other books.) Once I really got into Q's journey to find Margo, I was hooked. The discoveries that Quentin makes about himself and his friends are awesome. There aren't very many people that get to really understand their friends the way that Q does. And I liked that the three of them stick together, even when they don't like each other very much.
In the end, I did enjoy the book. I was a little disappointed in the ending but the ending did make sense. Maybe I've watched too many romantic comedies where...well, you know how those usually end. I don't want to spoil Paper Towns for you. Much like the rest of John Green's books, I do recommend that you read it. Especially if you like solving puzzles. It will force you to see things in a slightly different light.
I've recently decided to start trying out subscription boxes. Subscription boxes are a (generally) monthly box of goods sent from a company for a monthly fee. The first box I'm going to review is Julep Maven.
Julep is a company that specialized in beauty products. Normally, this isn't my "thing" but I've seen a few unboxing videos and it was enough to talk me into trying their monthly subscription box called Maven.
When you first open the purple box, you'll find the obligatory advertisements that come in pretty much every order you've ever made. One of the differences between Maven and other subscription boxes is that you can customize Maven to your own style. When you sign up, you can take a beauty profile quiz that will help direct you toward which type of box you'd like sent to you. While I would have gone with the "Classic" style, I chose the "It Girl" style for my daughter. The "Classic" box would have come with two nail polishes and one beauty product. The "It Girl" comes with three nail polishes, perfect for my brand new nail polish fiend. Other options include "Boho Glam," "Bombshell," and "Modern Beauty."
Here are the three nail polish colors we received. While they were not labeled, I believe the orange squares are nail buffer/file/things. I'm not sure they will get used much. From left to right, the three colors we received are: Angela (a glittery blue-green shade), Hope (a white satin color), and Catrina (a bright yellow polish). My personal favorite is Angela. However, I can see the three of them coming together to make a cute nail design. Keep an eye on my Instagram for upcoming photos of the colors in action!
If you really like nail polish, this is definitely the box for you. Since my daughter loves painting her nails, I will most likely keep the subscription for a few more months. Click the link here to sign up for your own box.
To finish off my 30 Days, here is a list of historical figures I'd like to meet:
I feel my best when I am not at work. (Seriously, this place drives me absolutely insane.)
I feel my best when I am snuggling with my family, including the dogs.
I feel my best when I am listening to some really good music.
I feel my best when I am surrounded by love. <3
My husband makes chocolate chip cookie dough cupcakes. Basically, these are cupcakes with a chunk of chocolate chip cookie dough in the center. He makes these for almost every event. Now. You can make these with any type of cupcake you want. However, we have found that the best combination is vanilla cupcake with the chocolate chip cookie dough center and a buttercream chocolate frosting. We did try a chocolate cupcake but it didn't taste nearly as good.
Please note that you will be making chocolate chip cookie dough and then freezing it for two hours before you make the cupcakes. Take this into account when you are deciding if you want to make them.
Here are the directions:
Ingredients: 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1/4 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon sea salt 1/2 cup butter, softened 1/4 cup white sugar 1/2 cup brown sugar 1 egg 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 1 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips 1 (18.25 ounce) box yellow cake mix 1 1/3 cups water 1/3 cup canola oil 3 eggs
Directions: 1. Whisk together the flour, baking soda, and sea salt; set aside. Beat the butter, white sugar, and brown sugar with an electric mixer in a large bowl until smooth. Add 1 egg and the vanilla extract and beat until smooth. Mix in the flour mixture until just incorporated. Fold in the chocolate chips; mixing just enough to evenly combine. Form the dough into tablespoon-sized balls; place onto a baking sheet, and freeze until solid, about 2 hours. 2. Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line 24 muffin cups with paper liners. 3. Beat 3 eggs in a large bowl with an electric mixer to break up. Add the cake mix, water, and canola oil; continue beating for 2 minutes on medium speed. Spoon into the prepared cupcake liners, filling each 2/3 full. Place a frozen cookie dough ball on the top center of each cupcake. 4. Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the cake portion of the cupcake (not the cookie dough ball) comes clean, about 20 minutes. Cool in the pans for 10 minutes before removing to cool completely on a wire rack.
Enjoy!
What other holidays would be good? There should be a National Nap Day. It doesn't necessarily mean you get the day off from work but you have to at least be able to take a nap during the day.
Maybe we can make Tabletop Day, a day of playing board and card games, more well-known. There are tons of people that love playing games but they don't even know Tabletop Day exists. (For the record, it's Saturday, April 5 this year.) It should definitely be a real holiday.
Finally, there should be a National Pet Adoption Day. You don't have to go adopt a pet but this would be aimed at getting people to stop buying puppy mill animals and showing them that adopting from shelters would be better. There wouldn't be a lame Sarah McLaughlin commercial or anything like that. It would be a fun family day. People shouldn't be guilted into adopting pets from shelters. It's an awful form of advertising. Oh, and the adoption agencies would also be a little more lenient on their policies. (When my family moved into our house, we had trouble adopting a dog because we had a cat. We ended up having to buy Bella from a breeder before we were able to adopt from a shelter.) It's a day to make pet adoption easier, not more difficult.
My daughter chose to purchase Crest's Mint Chocolate toothpaste when her regular fruit-flavored toothpaste ran out. We were skeptical about a chocolate toothpaste but we gave it a try.
Be Adventurous! The toothpaste itself is tinted green and contains tiny brown flecks. Considering the toothpaste ended up tasting like mint chocolate chip ice cream, I am assuming those brown flecks are the chocolate part. I was really quite surprised at how tasty the toothpaste was. Admittedly, it was strange brushing with mint chocolate chip flavored paste as opposed to peppermint or even cinnamon. However, once you get over the weirdness, it is rather awesome.
I'm not sure why society has decided that toothpaste must be minty (even the cinnamon flavors can be difficult to find sometimes) but this was a very welcome change. Children's toothpastes tend to be fruit or bubblegum flavored. There's no reason that adults can't have the same indulgence in their hygiene routine. After all, there is some mintiness there. It's just swirled with chocolate goodness. I'm looking forward to trying the other two flavors in the line - Lime Spearmint and Vanilla Mint. I can only hope those are as good as the mint chocolate one.