I know I’m a little behind on my February Favorites but I’m going to try to catch up. The video I’m going to share with you is a Pixar SparkShort titled Purl. While it is very adorable, it does highlight an important part of American society - the difficulty women have fitting into a male-dominated workforce. The short was both directed and produced by women. (Kristen Lester and Gillian Libbert-Duncan, respectively.) While it sucks that work inequality is a thing, I’m glad that Pixar put this out there to, hopefully, start discussions about it.
February Favorite #6: The Masked Singer
In case you have been living under a rock, there is a new show on Fox called The Masked Singer. It is the Americanized version of the Korean show, King of Mask Singer. And it is AMAZING. (Both of them are amazing but not everyone is insane enough to watch a show in a language they don’t speak.)
Here’s the basics: Celebrities of varying degrees dress up in elaborate costumes to hide their identities. Then they sing. It is up to us and the judges to figure out who is behind the mask.
The show started out with 12 celebrities. As of right now, five have been unmasked. (Another will be unmasked tonight.) I’m not going to give any spoilers. If you want to know who the unmasked celebrities are, you can look it up.
While the premise sounds a little dumb, it really is amazing. I have some ideas who some of the celebrities are but I’ve only been right once so far. You end up having to rely more on the clues that are given than the actual voice. I think that makes it more enjoyable to watch. It would suck if the identities were easy to guess!
If you haven’t watched the show yet, you need to get on board. A new episode airs tonight!
February Favorite #5: Ulta Beauty
Ulta is one of my favorite stores. Not because I’m super into makeup but because I can buy almost everything beauty related that I want. I can get bar soap for the shower, products for my hair (I use DevaCurl), and face masks all in one place. Then I can use their points program to buy my favorite makeup, Urban Decay. And there are four different stores within driving distance of my home and work, which is helpful when I am looking for something specific.
I mentioned their points program. Do you know about it? Basically, you earn points every time you buy something at an Ulta store. Those points get turned into dollars that you can use to purchase more products. There are ways to earn extra points. If you sign up for the Ulta credit card, you get bonus points when you use it. (I use mine to book hotels/AirBnBs when we travel.) You also get double points during your birthday month. I’ve bought a lot of high end makeup with points. It’s my favorite part of Ulta.
Now, I know that some people prefer Sephora over Ulta. However, there isn’t a Sephora particularly close to my house. There is one near my work but it isn’t convenient to go to the mall it is in. And I don’t think their rewards program is as good as Ulta’s. But that is just my opinion. Where do you buy your favorite beauty products?
February Favorite #4: Dog Instagram!
6,419 Likes, 8 Comments - Charles A. VanGogh the tripawd (@charlesavocado) on Instagram: "I heard something about it warming up this weekend? Probs means more baths. You see, when you're a..."
I don’t think it’s any secret that I love dogs. Of course, that means I follow a LOT of dogs on social media. Today’s February Favorite will be the dogs I follow on Instagram. These are the dogs that always bring a smile to my face, no matter how awful my day has been. I hope they will bring you some happiness as well.
The dog above is Charles A. VanGogh. He is a 7-year old corgi with quite a few health problems. But that doesn’t stop him from being awesome. He’s probably most well known as the winner of season two of the Try Guy’s Barkchsler series. My daughter and I were ecstatic that he won. And now you can love him too.
32.2k Likes, 604 Comments - Maple and Morty (@mapleandmortycorgi) on Instagram: "🔊Corgi Politics"
This is Maple and Morty. They are corgis and who doesn’t freaking love corgis? They tend to post more videos than pictures, which makes me very happy. Corgis have GIANT personalities that need sound to really get the point across. I love them a lot.
7,608 Likes, 35 Comments - The Golden Ratio (@thegoldenratio4) on Instagram: "#occupykitchen"
It’s The Golden Ratio! Yes, there are FIVE golden retrievers in this house. We have Venkman (Team Chaos), Jasmine (the nihilist), Queso (who has the best face-o), Hopper T Dog (in love with GR Dad and a rock), and Maggie (the schmiegy one). The Golden Ratio mom is very active on all of the social media platforms so you will see the gang pop up again later this month. If you are looking for some dog accounts to follow, you can’t go wrong with them.
4,952 Likes, 32 Comments - Blanche Shlesinger (@blanchewaits) on Instagram: "To hit on the pool boy, #shewaits"
The last one I want to share with you is Blanche Shlesinger. Her owner is Iliza Schlesinger, a super funny comedian. (We saw her - and Blanche! - when she came to Philly.) Iliza has a separate Instagram account for herself where Blanche will appear occasionally, but Blanche’s Instagram is the place to be. I mean, she is literally waiting for you…to feed her chickies but she’s still waiting. Get on that.
OK. Because they are all good dogs, I’m going to throw some more links at you:
Peppers The Corgi
Atlas
Teddy
February Favorite #3: DC Bombshells
DC Bombshells is a line of DC figurines and comics that give the female DC characters a 1940s-era look. While I haven’t read the comics, I am a huge fan of the figurines. My personal favorites are the blind box versions.
There are “Lil DC Bombshells” vinyl figurines, like the Catwoman pictured above and the Batgirl pictured below, that come in round tin cans. As far as I know, there are currently three series of them available. Unfortunately, the latest series includes Batman, Superman, and Joker. The fact that they have added men to the female-oriented line takes away from the awesomeness of the brand. There are thousands of other toys featuring the men but there isn’t a lot of merchandise featuring Black Canary, Zatanna, or Hawkgirl, to name a few.
In addition to the vinyl figures, you can also find DC Bombshell keychain blind boxes. (Sorry, they call them ‘backpack clips.’) I think there is, currently, only one season of these. They are basically smaller versions of the figures with a ball chain attached. I hope that, like the vinyl figures, they come out with more series of them. Just make sure you leave the boys behind.
February Favorite #2: Happy Color
Happy Color is a color by number game available on both Android and iPhone. I spend a lot of time waiting around. For my daughter to finish dance class, for my husband to finish his video game, etc. Instead of spending that time wasting away on social media, I’ve been spending a lot of time playing Happy Color. Some of the pictures are super easy but some are really difficult. Either way, it fills the time without feeding my anxiety. If you enjoy coloring, this is a great way to be creative when you are on the go.
February Favorite #1: Citizen Queen
Pentatonix is kinda the big name in acapella these days. Well, Citizen Queen is a new all female acapella group created by some of the creatives behind Pentatonix: Scott Hoying, Ben Bram, and Shams Ahmed . The group has only released a few videos so far but they are AMAZING. Definitely a group you should get behind.
February Favorites
Since February is the month of love, I’ve decided to take on another monthly challenge. This time I will be sharing things that bring me joy. No, this wasn’t inspired by the Marie Kondo craze. I just like sharing things that make me happy. Every day for the entire month of February, I will share something I enjoy. It may be something new; it may be something old. The only rule is that it makes me smile.
I’d love to see the things that make you smile too! You can comment with your February Favorites or post them over on Twitter and Instagram with the hashtag #FebFave2019
Opening The ColourPop Mystery Bag
On January 21, cosmetic company ColourPop advertised a mystery bag called Let’s Get Wild. For a mere $25, you would receive $55 worth of product. I am a sucker for mystery bags so I leapt at the chance. I’m going to share what I got in the bag but I’m not going to swatch the products or review them. I already know I like a lot of ColourPop’s products. I do, however, want to see if I did get $55 worth of product for only $25. So let’s rip open the bag:
First up, the eyeshadows. I received three - two super shock shadows and one pressed powder shadow. The shades are Sequin on the top right, Party of Five on the top left, and Come And Get It on the bottom. All of ColourPop’s eyeshadows are $5.00. Total: $15.00
I only received one cheek product. This is the super shock highlighter in Counting Sheep. ColourPop’s highlighters are $8.00 each. Total: $23.00
Next up are the lip products. There were four in total. These two are the liquid lipsticks. On the right is the ultra glossy lip in Flying Horses. On the left is the ultra blotted lip in Doozy. The liquid lipsticks do vary a little in price. Both of these were $6.00 each, though some liquid lipsticks are $6.50. Total: $35.00
In addition to the liquid lipsticks, there was one lux lipstick. This shade is Sphynx. The lux lipsticks are $7.00 each. Total: $42.00
The last lip product I received was one of ColourPop’s lippie stix in Ziggie. Lippie Stix costs $5.50 each. Total: $47.50
Finally, the last product in the bag is one of ColourPop’s new mascaras. This color is Black On Black. These are $8.00 each. Total: $55.50
Yes! ColourPop did sent $55.00 worth of products! Granted, most of these are shades that I wouldn’t have picked for myself. I tend to go with more colorful shades but if I don’t use these, my daughter will. I also appreciate that ColourPop included one of their new mascaras. (I’m pretty sure this bag was intended to market the mascara, which I think is pretty cool.) I would have preferred one of the colored mascaras but it’s not like black mascara is useless. It’s just basic.
As a whole, I am happy with the products I received. If ColourPop ever does this again, I would recommend grabbing one. You can’t go wrong with their makeup and it is a really great deal. Thank you, ColourPop!
How To: Ruin An Internet Community
Back on January 8, the world of dog Twitter was rocked. (OK, maybe it wasn’t that dramatic.) The Twitter account Thoughts of Dog blocked another dog account, Theo-sophy. Why? Because Theo frequently commented on the Thoughts’ posts in the voice of Theo the dog. I don’t really understand the reasoning behind The Block but I’m going to try to figure it out and explain why I think Matt (the guy behind both Thoughts of Dog and We Rate Dogs) made a terrible mistake when he did it.
First, I’d like to link to a blog post from Theo’s owner, Nancy, with her perspective on the whole kerfuffle. It’s over here: https://notquiteold.com/2019/01/18/overdone/ Now onto my thoughts:
My husband and I have been big supporters of Matt and all of his dog-related business ventures. We have shirts and calendars and my husband literally has the back of his car COVERED in stickers, Yes, we followed all of Matt’s accounts across social media and shared them frequently. One of the things I got a kick out of was the responses on Thoughts of Dog’s posts from “your fren Theo.” They were adorable. I’m sorry but anyone who thinks that a couple of dogs having a conversation about their inner thoughts isn’t cute doesn’t have a heart. So I was stunned when I saw Matt complain on his personal Twitter about people commenting on his dog posts as dogs. The stun was doubled when I saw Theo say that Matt blocked him (her? Theo is a boy dog so I’m going with him….I’m saying that’s Theo’s Twitter account!) on the Thoughts of Dog account with no notice. WTF, indeed.
Before people start coming at me: Yes, Matt can do whatever he wants with his accounts. I’m not saying he can’t. I’m saying this was a terrible decision, especially considering this is his main source of income.
Twitter, as a social media platform, is built for conversations. It’s not a place where you drop some knowledge and hope nothing happens. It’s a place to build a community of people. When you have an account where you are role playing as someone else (yes, Thoughts of Dog is basically an RP account), the last thing you should do is cut out other people role playing in a similar world. That is the opposite of community. The people in your community are the people that are going to support you the most. These are the people buying your merch and going to meetups.
I’m not going to pretend I know what is going on in Matt’s head. I know that his personal Twitter post said he was annoyed with people responding to Tweets in dog voices. I know that he not only blocked Theo, he also blocked people who spoke out in support of Theo - complete with an “I’m glad these people are gone” response. In my mind, what Matt was basically saying to everyone is “This is my playground. I want you to give me your money but I don’t want you to play with my account.”
How should this have been handled? Matt should have just played along and let everyone interact with each other. There is enough internet for everyone. As example of how this works well is all of the various Twitter accounts based on the The Dresden Files novels by Jim Butcher. Not only does Harry Dresden, himself, have a Twitter account but a ton of the other characters have accounts as well. And those are actual characters in actual books with actual copyrights. Another example is the Green brothers (otherwise known as Hank and John Green - authors and YouTubers extraordinaire). They decided early in their careers that they wanted their fans to be able to make art based on their famous saying “Don’t Forget To Be Awesome” that they actively decided not to trademark the phrase. They chose their community over the mighty dollar.
Another option would have been to just have a private conversation with Nancy about how the Twitter responses made him uncomfortable (for some reason) and he would like them to stop. Of course, this would mean that he would either have to make a public statement asking people to not use dog accounts/voices to interact with his accounts, which might not go over well considering almost all of his posts on We Rate Dogs are pictures of other people’s dogs (Those same pictures that he puts in calendars and sells to people for money.), or he would have to message every single user he has a problem with asking them to stop, which could take up a lot of time.
But he didn’t do either of those. He went straight for the Block User option. Multiple times.
While I’m sure this has all blown over by now and everyone has forgotten about the doggie drama, it has put a bad taste in some people’s mouths, including my own. Personally, I have unfollowed Matt’s personal Twitter as well as Thoughts of Dog because now all I can see is Matt’s selfishness. Even We Rate Dogs has been tainted a bit for me but I haven’t given into unfollowing that account because I like looking at the pictures of the good boys and girls. And I can definitely say that I don’t plan on spending any more money on his merchandise. I’d rather give my money to someone who appreciates the people who support them.
What are your thoughts on the situation?