Book Review: Matched

Are any of you on GoodReads? I just joined. I like seeing what my friends are reading and also being able to share what I have and haven't liked as well.

Anyway, here's my latest review... I'll try to link any others I may write as well. Enjoy!

*******

Matched by Ally Condie

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Alright, I gotta be honest, I almost flounced this one. I just didn't find it that interesting or compelling. I think I would have rated this a lot higher if I had read this *before* I read The Hunger Games trilogy. Sure, they are totally different stories but there are just too many similarities to ignore (dystopian society, suffocating government, love triangle, rumored rebellion, etc) and to be quite honest, Matched to me read like a watered-down version of The Hunger Games.

Granted The Hunger Games trilogy is a super intense, brutal, disturbing story that I practically whined through while reading (thanks for consoling me, Jeannie!) and I often questioned its classification as a young adult novel. On the other hand, Matched very much read as a YA story and I think after just reading Anna & the French Kiss, I was ready for something a little meatier.

In general, this story was pretty much "meh" to me. As an example, the long-awaited exchange of I love you's left me with a ho-hum feeling. Or when a male character lightly brushed the hand of a female character, the author described it with off-the-charts sparks. But I never felt the chemistry, never felt the *swoon*.

I will say that I did like seeing the transformation of the main character, Cassia. Her passive behavior (aka i do whatever the society tells me to do) in the beginning was driving me nuts :P

Anyway, if you've never read a dystopian story, I'd recommend it (always fun to discover new worlds). Otherwise, I'd skip. I'm not even planning to read any potential sequels to this story.



View all my reviews

Playing with Polyvore

Experimenting with Polyvore... have seen this used on a lot of blogs and wanted to try it myself!

Here I made an image set of the everyday makeup products I use. Want to know more details on them? Click the image and get more info on each individual item! Handy!

Everyday Makeup by audgepodge1 on Polyvore.com

I've seen this tool used more often to show fashion ideas - like "must have items" or "wish list" etc...

I think this would also be a great tool to pass along to some of my photographer friends who do fashion shoots. Instead of scouring the web for magazine fashion images, they can use this tool to quickly compile some inspiration looks for use as a "concept board" with their wardrobe stylists!

Give the tool a try... very easy to use!

In Case You Missed It...

If you're following me on Facebook or Twitter, you've seen these already, but just in case...

My friend Karen from Makeup and Beauty Blog asked me to provide some guest posts while she vacationed in Hawaii (ah, jealous!) and I was thrilled to help out!

Here are all of my posts from the last couple of weeks - enjoy :)

• Three Fun Makeup Sets to Add to Your Christmas Wish List
• Black Friday Deals: Have You Tried These Makeup Brands Before?
• My Favorite Travel Makeup Bag May Come as a Surprise
• 6 Fast Fixes for Makeup Boo Boos
• Going Behind the Scenes: A Makeup Artist’s Take on a Magazine Fashion Shoot

TV Tuesday: Season Premiere of Dancing with the Stars

(Well, it's Tuesday on the east coast, anyway.)

It's fall TV premiere week! Tons of my fave shows are back and Monday night was packed with them.

Tonight I gave priority to the season 11 debut of Dancing with the Stars. Here are my quick thoughts:

• Audrina Partridge (w/ Tony Dovolani): I have to say, she wasn't bad! I thought she would be like Kim Kardashian and just sort of stand there, but she shook her stuff in the cha cha cha pretty decently especially for being the first one out in the first episode of the season.  She kind of kept staring at Tony like he was her lifeline but I think once she chillaxes and enjoys herself, she'll improve a lot. Another thing going for her? Her amazingly hawt body that is perfect for the ballroom!
• Kurt Warner (w/ Anna Trebunskya): I think he's the only contestant that I didn't already know (hello - sports star, of course). He wasn't bad in the Viennese Waltz - pleasant enough to watch.
• Kyle Massey (w/ Lacey Schwimmer): Good ole Kyle from That's So Raven (I used to be addicted to the Disney Channel - not as a kid, as in a few years ago.) OK, I'll be honest - I totally had a smile on my face while watching him do the cha cha cha. I mean, you've got this slightly huggable kid with a babyface that's gonna do a sultry dance with sexpot Lacey??? It could have easily been laughable, but he totally rocked it! Definitely one to watch.
• Rick Fox (w/ Cheryl Burke): Man - he's tall!!! He's also a very elegant and handsome man - did a really nice waltz. I wonder if Eliza Dushku will be in the audience every week. BTW - when I first heard about them, I thought - what a weird combination! But you know, they obviously make each other happy so good for them!
• Margaret Cho (w/ Louis Van Amstel): I think we can count on her for some funny interviews - especially if she keeps up the mom imitations, I always love those. I agreed with the judges and thought the comedic portion of their waltz should have been left out, she was doing so well on her own. But with the gold fabric and her angry facial expressions, I kept thinking they were going to leap into the paso doble or something. And how cute were her parents in the audience??? 
• Brandy (w/ Maksim Chmerkovskiy - wow that is a crazy last name to spell): Just like the other pop stars that have come before her, she is a natural and very polished on the dance floor.
• Bristol Palin (w/ Mark Ballas): My initial response to her casting? WTF. But alright, let's go with it. Her cha cha cha was just OK but not horrible by any means, just a little stiff. I was so worried she would be another Kate Gosselin and I just couldn't handle that. And in a weird way, doesn't she kind of look like a less fit, less tanned Audrina?
• Florence Henderson (w/ Corky Ballas): After getting over the inital shock of Flo flashing us on national TV, I have to say - she is looking pretty good for her age! And she is a sassy one, that's for sure! Her cha cha cha was a little goofy (she kinda looked a lil drunk, haha) but she was having fun.
• Michael Bolton (w/ Chelsie Hightower): Nice job with the Viennese waltz. Although to be honest, it's hard to differentiate the performances between him, Kurt, and Rick - they all seemed to do the waltz pretty much the same to me.
• "The Situation" (w/ Karina Smirnoff): Oh this guy cracks me up. Already making inappropriate comments in his first interview ("I learned to dance in the clubs... with your girlfriend.") I feel bad for Karina - she only had five days to train him while everyone else had three weeks. It showed but it wasn't horrible... definitely better than say, Master P. Mike definitely has a big cheesy factor going on so props to Carrie Ann for calling him out on it by telling him to shake off the 80s. Haha.
• Jennifer Grey (w/ Derek Hough): Baby did not disappoint. So sad to see her breakdown after first hearing her song, one from Dirty Dancing. [On a related note: I once wrote a fan letter to Patrick Swayze and got a very nice response from his fan club him.] Her Viennese waltz was quite lovely. She definitely has the talent and a little bit of the sympathy factor but I'm not sure she has the personality to win the fan vote week after week.
• David Hasselhoff (w/ Kym Johnson): OK, this guy is clearly a kook. And his cha cha cha was a hot mess in my book. Were he and Florence doing keg stands backstage or something? Len had the best comment, "It's never too early to panic." I'm sure he'll get the audience vote.

Overall, my ones to watch for actual skills are Kyle, Jennifer, Brandy. But for pure entertainment, I also like Margaret and Situation.

Emmy Red Carpet Report

I enjoyed the Emmys... thought Jimmy Fallon did a great job hosting. All his musical bits really made me laugh. My favorite one was the opening number that filled my heart with "Glee"! :)



Loved the Modern Family wins and was so bummed that Lost did not win for best drama - so robbed!

Moving on to fashions... I didn't really feel like there were any clear winners and losers but here are what I thought were the best and the worst. These pics were from Yahoo since I haven't had a chance to watch the red carpet special yet.

BEST DRESSED

Kim Kardashian

Julia Louis Dreyfuss

Elizabeth Moss

Kelly Osbourne

Julie Benz

Claire Danes

Heather Morris (Glee)

WORST DRESSED

January Jones (Mad Men)
I mean, there are so many things wrong with this dress... for example, why would you pick a dress that has built-in headlights!!!???

Mindy Kaling (The Office)

Lauren Graham

Anna Paquin

What were your thoughts about the show and fashions???

Things I Love Thursday: Twitter Speak

I am a big fan of Twitter. Why? Because it's quick to digest and there's almost always new content (unlike Facebook).

If you're not familiar with Twitter, it's similar to Facebook in terms of their status updates, but you can only post updates in 140 characters or less at a time. So as a result, people get really creative in abbreviating things. And often times, we're just commenting on each other's tweets... so it's easy to shorten the more popular phrases.

So with all the hours I've spent on Twitter (follow me! audgepodge1), I almost feel like I've learned another language! Below are some of my favorite abbreviations...

BB: baby (as in an affectionate term)
BRB: Be right back
DNW: Do not want
FFS: For f*ck's sake
FML: F*ck my life
FHL: F*ck his/her life
FTMFW: For the mother f*cking win
FTW: For the win
GTFO: Get the f*ck out
HDU: How dare you
IDC: I don't care
IDGAF: I don't give a f*ck
IDGI: I don't get it
IDK: I don't know
IKR: I know, right?
ILU: I love you
IRL: In real life
ITA: I totally agree
JFC: Jesus f*cking christ
JK: Just kidding
JS: Just saying
JSYK/JSUK: Just so you know
LOL: Laugh out loud
LMAO: Laugh my *ss off
LMFAO: Laugh my f*cking *ss off
MTE: My thoughts exactly
NBD: No big deal
NEGL: Not even gonna lie
NGL: Not gonna lie
NM: Never mind
OIC: Oh I see
OICU: Oh I see you
OMG: Oh my god
OMFG: Oh my f*cking god
ORLY: Oh really
ROFL / ROTFL: Rolling on floor laughing
RT: Re-tweet
SFM: So f*ckin' much
SMDH: Shaking my d*mn head
SMH: Shaking my head
STFU: Shut the f*ck up
STFD: Sit the f*ck down
TBH: To be honest
TJ: Tweetjack (i.e. to chime in on someone else's conversation)
Totes: Totally
TY: Thank you
WTF: What the f*ck
WTH: What the hell

Need an example of how these would be used?

audgepodge1: IDGAF about Spencer Pratt
audgepodge1: Miley Cyrus has another movie coming out? DNW
audgepodge1: NEGL, I still hope Britney reunites with Justin
audgepodge1: Hey Taylor Momsen, STFU!

[OK, to be honest, or um, TBH, I really wouldn't use most of these since I don't really use the F word that much, even in the abbreviated form. Unless it's for comedic value. LOL.]

So what am I missing? What are your favorite ones to use?

Who greenlit this crap?

Remember how cute it was when Reese Witherspoon and Jake Gyllenhaal started dating? I was so sad when they broke up. Well, they both have new romantic comedies coming out and I caught both trailers today. Now I'm a girl that loves her chick flicks but these two... bleh! Maybe because the jokes were lame, maybe because I'm not buying the chemistry... whatever it is, I don't plan on catching these in the theaters.

But hey, you guys can decide for yourself!

First up, Reese Witherspoon's film, How Do You Know?, also starring Owen Wilson and Paul Rudd.

The film, out in theaters this Christmas, puts Lisa Jorgenson, a professional softball player (Witherspoon), into a love triangle with a corporate executive (Paul Rudd) and a major league pitcher (Owen Wilson).

Then we've got Love and Other Drugs which stars Gyllenhaal along with Anne Hathaway (and her crazy hair!)

Hathaway portrays Maggie, an alluring free spirit who won’t let anyone - or anything - tie her down. But she meets her match in Jamie (Gyllenhaal), whose relentless and nearly infallible charm serve him well with the ladies and in the cutthroat world of pharmaceutical sales. Maggie and Jamie’s evolving relationship takes them both by surprise, as they find themselves under the influence of the ultimate drug: love.

Things I Love Thursday: Funny Animal Gifs

These are just some of the little treasures I stumble upon with all the time I spend on Twitter. Enjoy!

*******

Sometimes it's just one of those days...







*******

The cat always rules the roost. People (and pups) just need to accept that.

What other funny animated gifs have you seen?

TV Tuesday: Pretty Little Liars Finale

I decided to try out a new show, Pretty Little Liars, this season. I see it as Gossip Girl meets Twin Peaks. Also kind of reminds me of the Christopher Pike mystery books I read in high school. I guess the series itself is based on a series of teen novels.

This high school drama is always trying to spook me out but it's a little too over the top for me. Regardless, I kept tuning in because I wanted the answer to their "Who Killed Laura Palmer?" question - i.e. "Who the heck is A?"

If you're not in the know... the show follows four friends whose fifth friend, Allison, disappeared a year ago. They were the last to see her. Well, Allison's body is discovered in the beginning of the season while at the same time, a mysterious "A" keeps sending the girls cryptic messages about how she knows what they did (whatever that may be).

And after an entire season (which granted, might have only been six episodes for its debut season), we still don't know the answer!!! ARGH! I am almost ready to bribe a teenager who's read the books to fill me in but I heard the show is doing something different than the books.

Who knows if I'll still catch it when it returns... maybe I'll just catch online episode recaps to get my answers.

I will say this... the cast is pretty good. What's more interesting is all the familiar faces they have in the roles of the parents such as: Nia Peeples (Fame!!!), Chad Lowe, Holly Marie Combs (Charmed), and Laura Leighton (Melrose Place).

Did anyone else watch this? What is your favorite summer show?

Flashback Friday: Jack dances like the pop stars

Back in the day, I once thought being a back up dancer in a Britney Spears video would be the coolest thing ever. Ok, I still think that. But that dream was never meant to be.

I wish I could pick up choreo from the videos but all that pause, rewind, play is just way too much effort for me. I once had an old buddy teach me some of the moves from Oops I Did It Again although I never really mastered it.

Luckily, Jack and Grace break it down for us!



And Jack has got some moves! Who could forget his version of this N Sync bit?