I'm going to England tomorrow!! (and my new notebook)

Finalllly! We are going tomorrow (more likely then not) and I have managed to pack a suitcase, and two other bags as well as bringing along another bag for my onesie and Coke cans in case I can't get any there. I know, I know. I'm only staying for about a week and a half so it's a bit much but in my defence, the suitcase is not as big as it looks.

So, shortly after finishing this post, I will try and find the place with the best lighting and take some crappy photos with my IPad 2 so you can all see what's in my carry on bag. The third bag is just filled with food but I would have had to have taken it with me anyway because some girls use handbags, but I use a backpack everywhere I go. It just wasn't big enough for what I needed it to carry.

I am more exited about the car journey then anything else, at this point, but I know I will get bored about the one hour mark and by the time we get to England, I will be too exhausted to do much but of course, I'll try my best to keep you updated, first time I've seen my grandma in so long, this is so exiting for me!!

Today was pay day so me, my mother and my little brother all went out shopping to get a few things (I got some florally leggings, black tights, animal printed Zebra pens, some new black earphones in case mine break, a blue cup and two notebooks...one of which I am so oddly exited about, I just really wanted to share it with you here) and so here it is, my brand new notebook from the kids' section of the stationary area -

                 

Yeah, I know, the trend of this notebook is clearly social media but hey, I'm clearly not against social media if one of my hobbies is blogging. I got this awesome project book from Wilkinson's for £2.95, I doubt you're interested as an adult but hey...maybe a child in your family might like it? Anyway, I realllllly love the black and white pokka dot pattern on the front and back of this notebook and the unique way the tabs are done on the side of the notebook which is really what drew me into it in the first place...I just love it so much, and the purple by the spiral is just quite the nice touch, don't you think? 

                 

                 

                      

                  

Isn't it awesome? Each section is different from the last! It contains about twenty double sided sheets per section and it's not clear to see, but the lines are a two different colours in each section too - isn't that just a really cool touch?

The first section is cat with glasses themed - the divider is a black and white pokka dot, same as the front cover, and the pages are white and black dotted around the edges of the pages too. The lines are just plain dark black but I think it's probably my favourite part. The second part is pink and white diagonally striped, which I also really like because it just looks just as good as candy canes! The pages have a little teenage girl at the side of the pages and colours are just pink and blue.

The third section is light grey, the pages are edged with candy pink and a really cool design of cameras, with grey and pink paired up for the coloured lines. Last but not least, the divider is purple and the lines of the page is yellow and purple!

So yes I hope you liked this blog post, I know I went into way too much detail about the notebook but I am just SO exited to own this notebook - I get very exited about notebooks, as I'm sure you'll see in my future journals posts. Anyway, thank you for reading and I'll see you as soon as I can!

Story Night: My Job

What's all this? This is a horror tale, that's what. It started out really innocently, like usual, but to get into this story, I need to explain my situation. I have recently in the past two months taken a job working at a home with three autistic people. I generally help with day to day things, making food, cleaning up the house, shopping, giving their medicine (they're resistant at times), and generally just helping out when they need it! 

Now, there have been many people in and out of this house, but I never heard of them, I've only dealt with these three I saw when I first started, and I saw the one who just moved out, not even one day prior, and he lives down the street now. Anyways, I joined the job under the assumption that I would get to work night shifts as well, but first I had to do day shifts to get trained by the other people working there. My training has gone by well enough, several people tell me I'm doing decently good at it. Now, I normally work starting at 3:15pm, for the day shifts. When I get there, there is already one person there. That person gets there at 2:00 to get one of the clients off of the bus when he gets home. And they stay at the home until the rest of us arrive.

Well, I didn't think it'd be difficult or anything, so when I had my first 2:00pm shift, I didn't think anything of it, and wouldn't you guess it? It went by smoothly. I was there for the hour, and people showed up. And I had a few 2pm shifts after that as well, and it all went down the same. Get him off the bus, bring him in, get him a snack, watch some TV, simple and easy. 

However, one day I got there a bit earlier than usual, just to finish some things earlier than I would normally get them done. I wanted the day to go by smoothly. One thing about the client I get off of the bus at 2:15. He cannot speak. He only makes noises, and does gestures to communicate, and that's if you're LUCKY. He laughs too, but that's rarer. Anyways, I get there, and all throughout my time there, I'm hearing noises. Footsteps from upstairs, doors creaking, some VERY quiet giggling, but it sounded close. I am in the house alone. It's 1:50, and the client doesn't get there until 2:10 at the earliest. These noises make no sense, and nobody is home for CERTAIN. I start checking around out of curiosity. Turns out, a broken door that couldn't close, somehow WAS closed, and when I stepped near it, it suddenly decides it wants to open. No windows are open to do this, and the door and hinges are heavy, it NEVER opens on it's own. 

Next, when I went to go do laundry downstairs, I opened the door to the basement, and the light I turned off was turned on again. Didn't think anything of it until all this started happening, but on my way to go downstairs, the phone rings. I answer, and it's just a stupid advertisement. I hang up, and then the client gets home. This is where it really picks up.

I run outside, greet him, and bring him right back inside. Show him his snack and drink, and decide, hey, he's tired, I'll go do laundry finally. As soon as I go down ALL the stairs, my foot leaves the last step, and suddenly, RING RING RING. I run upstairs as quickly as possible, pick it up and say "Hello, (House name), Austin speaking". Nothing but silence for a solid thirty seconds, and I hear near the end of the call, an abrupt breath, and out of fear I hang the phone up. As SOON as I do this, there is loud thumping upstairs, I think that it's the client running upstairs, and I go to get him, but notice he is laying on the couch, just relaxing. My body freezes with fear, while I hear the thumping and then sudden laughing from upstairs. Right when this laugh happens, the client starts laughing. Quietly and in a laugh that sounds NOTHING like his, and then he suddenly says something, and he CANNOT speak, he says something that sounds like "Sasshssa" Then right when this all starts happening, I sit down in a recliner, as I don't know what to do. I can't run away, the client NEEDS me there, I can't even go check the noise, it's too far away from the client. I just sit there, for 15 minutes, all while the noises slowly quiet down. Five minutes of silence, then the rest of my co-workers show up. I tell one of them all about what happened, and he simply laughed and said, "Oh, nobody told you about the weird things here? Think nothing of it, nothing bad comes of it. The guy that used to live in the room of the client that just moved out? A guy lived there around twenty years ago named "Sasha".

And there it was, the word that the client had spoken, at least, as it sounded to me. I wanted to think I imagined all of this, but after hearing him say that, I'm not so sure of that anymore. And I was hoping that would be the end of it, but it certainly wasn't. A few days later, I was doing the night shift, and I was woken up by the sounds of yet more laughter. One of our DEAF clients was upstairs, by himself laughing. And a second voice was laughing with him. There are only three clients in this house, and two staff during overnights. I look, and see my fellow staff member, look to my right and see one of the clients sleeping on the couch, and the second client is in his room on the bottom floor. The deaf client was ALONE. Yet, someone was clearly laughing with him. I went to check on him, and he was in his bed, looked at me, then went back to bed, as if I had ruined what was happening. I went downstairs, and went back to sleep, which took a while out of my fear...


I hope you at least got some interest out of reading this, I now know that noises are rather common at my place of work, and I'm gonna hope they're just that... noises, and that everything else was just coincidence. Thank you for reading!

-Austin

The Life of the Autistic - Depression, Anxiety and Stress.

Really stupid things bother and stress me out, make me anxious and depress me. Although I am aware of this, it doesn't make it go away, it doesn't change anything. There's only a few things right now that are bothering me, on top of the normal teenage hormones that every teenager has.

I have huge anxiety problems, one of the biggest is change in routine and being unable to build a routine. As I have mentioned several times, I'm going to England to see my family on Tuesday/Wednesday. That right there is one thing that stresses me out, not knowing whether we are going on Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday morning. My mother has already come to explain to me that she can't give me the exact day and has told me the reasons why that is, but it doesn't change anything. I feel extremely nauseated over this, I haven't been breathing properly over the past few days, anxiety attacks are going back to being common and boy...the chest pain is probably the worst right now. 

I can't pack everything right now and yes, I am fully aware it's a week away and packing right now isn't needed but I like to be ready for things, I like to know what's happening. It seems simple but all the clothes need washing and I need some clothes to wear for this week and it's bringing on so much anxiety, and I just want to go to a corner, shut the door and scream while pulling my hair out (yes, caused by the autism) which I have a feeling might happen sooner rather then later at a really bad time, as usual. 

My phone bill isn't paid and if we don't have the money to pay it by the time England comes around, it's going to make things so much harder - my boyfriend Austin lives in Ohio, quite the while away from the UK and if there's anything wrong with the Internet and something happens, I always use my phone and will go to Austin to help myself calm down because he always knows exactly what to say and gives the most useful advice for how I can fix what's wrong or how I can make things better and without having that little safety net, it's a huge anxiety trigger for me. I know, I know, another teenager obsessed with her phone but honestly, I don't care what other people think about that (obviously, otherwise I wouldn't be making this post), it's something that I need to help me. 

Along with the above, I am not in the best home situation. To put it nicely, I have a very bratty younger sister who likes to make things harder on all of us. She's putting a lot of pressure and worry and anxiety on top of me, and all of the anxiety I already had is just making me super depressed. I am not diagnosed with severe depression, so just putting it out there that my main problem is and always has been anxiety, especially socially. My mother is also very very busy and most of my life, I am not ashamed to admit that I have relied on her for most things so during times like this when I need her to be consistent and to know things, she can't do that for me and it's probably driving her as well as me crazy.

My exam is in a month and as you probably already know, autistic kids have a lot of problems with revision/studying and everytime I try to do it, I can't remember anything and I freak out and get too anxious and angry to continue - then the fact I will probably fail the exam if this continues just makes me want to cry because if I try to tell anyone about this, they tell me things like "All you have to do is work hard. You get what you deserve!" but I am trying hard, I really am. I'm not getting anywhere. 

There's also a few personal problems going on with me, too, that I haven't even told Austin about so I'm obviously going to leave that out of here...

Basically, I won't be blogging for a little bit. I might be a couple of days, a couple of weeks, a couple of months, I don't know. It won't be until I have a steady routine going on, and I'm in a situation where I can come up with ideas. I will still be writing a lot of drafts on here as I always do because I do love writing, but they have bad spelling and they're not structured, I just don't have the energy to fix them so they're worthy of being published. I hope you can understand. I will see you when I can.

Amazon Book Wish-List - Part Two

Hello and welcome to yet another way-too-long blog post on my Amazon book wish-list. I realize now as I go through all the books I am going to talk about in this and future posts that there's an awful lot of books I haven't added that I have really wanted to read - for example, if it has anything to do with the holocaust, I will want to read it. I've been meaning to look for more books on the paranormal but until a future post, have some of the more creepy books on my wish-list! 

Doll Bones by Holly Black. 

Zach, Poppy and Alice have been friends forever. They love playing with their action figure dolls, imagining a magical world of adventure and heroism. But disaster strikes when, without warning, Zach's father throws out all his toys, declaring he's too old for them. Zach is furious, confused and embarrassed, deciding that the only way to cope is to stop playing ... and stop being friends with Poppy and Alice. But one day the girls pay Zach a visit, and tell him about mysterious occurrences. poppy swears that she is now being haunted by a china doll - who claims it is made of the ground up bones of a murdered girl. They must return the doll to where the girl lives, and bury it. Otherwise the three children will be cursed for eternity...

This usually wouldn't be my style because a) male narrator and b) china dolls (*coughs* talking to you, Annebelle movie) and therefore there's a huge chance that not only will I not like it and be uncomfortable, but it would be a pretty bad book, anyway - what changed my mind was a favourite booktuber of mine saying she really loved it, despite being a children's book. So, on my wish list it goes with an anxious me waiting in anticipation for the day I finally get it.

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. 

The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called "Le Cirque des Reves," and it is only open at night.

But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway--a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love - a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands.

True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus per-formers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead.

 

One of my friends (hi, Dani, if you're reading this) recommended this to me quite the while ago but me being me had completely forgotten about it, and I don't really know how I feel about this book anyway. I'm not one for romance and I absolutely hate sex (the question of asexuality is for another post) and so therefore I want to take caution before I proceed with reading this - the cover also makes it look like it was from a less fortunate time period and I have a lot of empathy, goodness knows if I will actually be okay with that. 

Carrie by Stephen King. 

Ew, movie cover

The story of misfit high-school girl, Carrie White, who gradually discovers that she has telekinetic powers. Repressed by a domineering, ultra-religious mother and tormented by her peers at school, her efforts to fit in lead to a dramatic confrontation during the senior prom

Unpopular opinion alert, but I'm not a huge fan of Stephen King. Despite that, I absolutely loved "Carrie"...I have of course watched all three of the movies and for some reason, have never actually got around to reading the book, probably because it's Stephen King (oddly, I do own several of his books so I'm still going to give him a try regardless)...I never, ever say this but...I hope the book lives up to the expectations I have from the movies. I also usually hate anything to do with high-school, this whole thing is just pushing boundaries for me.

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. 

On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne's fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick's clever and beautiful wife disappears from their rented McMansion on the Mississippi River. Husband-of-the-Year Nick isn't doing himself any favors with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife's head, but passages from Amy's diary reveal the alpha-girl perfectionist could have put anyone dangerously on edge. Under mounting pressure from the police and the media--as well as Amy's fiercely doting parents--the town golden boy parades an endless series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behavior. Nick is oddly evasive, and he's definitely bitter--but is he really a killer?
As the cops close in, every couple in town is soon wondering how well they know the one that they love. With his twin sister, Margo, at his side, Nick stands by his innocence. Trouble is, if Nick didn't do it, where is that beautiful wife? And what was in that silvery gift box hidden in the back of her bedroom closet?

I wasn't going to read this book because again, male narrators (although I think this might just be on the overview of Nick and not straight from his head but I feel uncomfortable with that too, also yes I did forget what person means what) but decided "Hey, what the hell!". The description of 'beautiful wife' makes me feel a bit annoyed, too, simply because (sorry) I much prefer it when a woman is talked about for what she has done and who she is more then what she looks like, and especially compared to Nick's description on the back of the book who's looks aren't even mentioned, I feel like that theme is going to continue throughout the novel and as an angry feminist, I am not looking forward to doing that. 

So today I'm keeping this post four books long instead of five like I had usually planned because I feel like this post is a bit longer then the last already, and also because as I had mentioned at the top, I am all sorts of stressed, anxious and depressed so I don't really feel like pushing myself just to add that one last book, which I hope you can understand. I'll be adding another post after this one explaining a little about my situation and how I'm going to take a small break from blogging (totally contradicting what I originally said, huh?) but more about that when that post gets published. Thank you for taking the time in reading this, and I'll see you next time.

Travelling: My Make-Up Bag

Hey guys!

So, not long ago I said I was going to England soon and it's only a week away, so I assume it isn't going to be cancelled this time and I've already packed up my make-up bag. I'm not too fond of make-up and really, I only wear it when I'm going out, taking a photo with other people where if I can't decide what I look like I can at least make myself the best version of me, and...I think those are the only two reasons really...plus, I don't want my dad picking on me about spots or anything like that and I am rambling, let's just start with the post, shall we? Yes...

This is also going to be a really long post. I'm writing this after I have finished and just before I post. You may want to get a snack. 

I don't own high-end make-up, this is all high street (or, drugstore for American readers) so if that's the kind of thing you're looking for, don't look here!

                

1. My moisturizer by Simple, I think it's called the Simple Face Moisturizer but I stupidly long-ago tore the label from it. It comes in a box and can be found anywhere that sells Simple, usually! It's pretty cheap, I think it's about £5.

2. ELF Kabuki Brush, bought from the website for £6.99, I do believe.

3. MUA mosaic bronzer in "Natural Glow: Shade 1". It's much too dark for me, I made a bad choice in buying it, but it was only £2 so it's not a huge waste!

4. Kate Middleton lipstick in Shade 19, I bought it on sale a long time ago for £3.99 and along with others, I'll show the lipstick colour down below (getting naughty there).

5.  ELF Conditioning Lip Balm SPF 15, in a shade that has rose in it, but again, the tag has seen been torn of. It's lovely, I like it a lot and it smells like suncream. Even though I hate the sun and summer and the feel of suncream, the smell is delightful. It was about £2 from the studio range on the UK website.

6. Garnier BB Cream Miracle Skin Perfector for Sensitive Skin in "Light". I bought this for half price at Superdrug, £4.99, and it's only been in that bag for a week! I have just written a first impression blog post on this, though, which should have been up a short while before this post, so if you're curious on my thoughts about that, the link will be here - Hey, I'm the link!

7. ELF Tone Correcting Concealer in "Light beige" and, yes, it's too dark for me and it smells really funky, like peppermint and plastic. It also doesn't do too well at being tone correcting or being a concealer but it evens my skin tone pretty well, which is why I still carry it around and I also really want to use it up and never purchase it again. £1 from the cheapest range on the UK website.

8. ELF (yes, more ELF...I never make small purchases seeing as I'm from the UK and I always spend £30 for the free shipping) lip stain in "lucky lady". I really like this now. I never used to use it but it's actually pretty amazing, even if it doesn't do the most amazing lip stain job...I would love to buy some more in different shades once I have money to spare and I'm all out of this one. It was £1 from the studio range on the UK website.

9. MUA (also a really cheap brand I often purchase from, I'm not hugely into make-up like I said and I mostly just want to experiment) Professional Extreme Volume Mascara, £2 from Superdrug. Not an amazing mascara, but much better then the one I was currently using (number sixteen) so it'll do until I can get myself a better one.

10. MUA Undress Your Skin illuminating foundation in "porcelain", originally £5 from Superdrug, but I got it for £3. It matches my skin tone perfectly, makes my face glow faintly so I don't look dead, and lasts decently long with my powder, so for the price, I'll probably buy it again...it's also on sale quite often!

11. The photo is very reflecting and I'm sorry about that, but this is the Rimmel Stay Matte pressed powder in "001 transparent" and I absolutely adore this powder. It's £5.99 (I think, I got it for £4.99 at Savers, though), and it's very thick so you can't really use it for touch ups, but ... I would still buy it again, it's wonderful.

12. ELF Complete Coverage Concealer in "light", and I don't think any of these shades perfectly match my skin tone, but they're creamy and they blend in very well, they do the job...I like them. I think this was £3 from the UK studio section on the website, correct me if I am wrong.

13. Often named a dupe for the first Naked palette, this is MUA's "heaven and earth" eyeshadow palette, and it's much cheaper too at £4 from Superdrug. Despite none of the shades being matte, it's beautiful and I highly recommend it.

14. ELF zit zapper, a pound from the website, and it's amazing! Basically just alcohol, though, so probably not the healthiest thing to use on your skin.

15. Wilko's double ended eye brush, £3 from Wilkinson's. They're highly fluffy, the bristles don't fall out, it's cheap...I love it.

16. Collection Super Size Fat Lash Mascara, £3.99 from Superdrug. It's okay...it doesn't really do anything, and it's kind of clumpy, but it's very black so I like to use it with my other mascara just to make them look more interesting, really.

Thank you for reading this post, from here on it's just going to be close up photos of some of the above mentioned products and the actual make-up bag itself, but this is the point where the blog technically finishes. Haha...I feel awkward. See ya!

          

My mother a very long time ago (at least a year or two now) bought a perfume clearly by Jimmy Choo and with that, she received this bag...which I made clear I really liked and by some coincidence, she gave it to me! ;) I have this weird love for the texture of this bag, very smooth on the outside but it's also really floppy and not stiff at all, which I love, it's a great make-up bag and really small which is what I want for travelling. It's also got way more room inside then what it looks like it has so there's that!

                    

Number 13 on the list, this was MUA's "Heaven and Earth" eyeshadow palette and £4 for ten different shades is a pretty cool deal, right? As I have already said, I'm just new with the whole make-up thing and I figured starting out with neutral shades might be the way to go. My favourite is the lighter shade in the bottom left of the second picture just because I can use it as a base and also just on it's own to give my eyes a shimmer without anything being noticeable and it's pretty!

            

               

As you can see, this is VERY shimmery! Which is great for summer but because my summer foundation is shimmery, my blush is shimmery, my eyeshadow is shimmery...starting to think all that shimmer might be a bit too much, so adding a shimmery bronzer on top is not needed, and it's too dark on my skin anyway, but I will keep it until I can find a way to make it work as something else or as a bronzer! It's pretty nice packaging too.

             

As clear, I've experimented and used all four of these quite a lot. My favourite is the far right one, I don't know why...I guess it's because it does the best job at hiding those bright red spots. The pink one (second to the left) is also really nice for hiding spots on my cheeks because I feel like it gives me a little extra flush as the pink doesn't really cancel out any shade on my skin, but still shows up as faintly pink. The other two shades are my least used just because they just don't seem as good at the other two so no point in using them yet, although they help hide the veins in my eyelids, so I can appreciate that!

                     

I absolutely love this and it shows up way darker then what it actually is...it's more of a dark nude colour, in real life. It's super moisturizing, it smells of sun cream, it gives my lips colour on days where they have none but something I am not too fond of is the bulky packaging. It's really hard to fit into places like my pocket or the small pockets of my bag and just...yeah. I don't like it.

                     

This is one of the first (actually, it is the first) lipsticks I've ever owned. It's a good colour and it lasts quite a long time, but it's really drying on me and it's quite expensive for someone like me...who has no job and therefore no money, hence all the very cheap drugstore products! I love the black packaging though.

                      

 

     Although very small, it's beautiful! I don't like the shimmery aspect but for the price, it's really lovely, lasts a long time and...yeah, nothing really to say about this. I also love the name "lolly" for this.

     

OKAAAAY, now I am officially done with this really long blog post! Do you have any of these products, do you like them, do you not? I would also like any drugstore recommendations (UK, of course) for people who are like me and are a complete noob at make-up. If you got this far, thank you for reading and I'll see you next time, which will hopefully be my travelling toiletries bag.

First Impressions: Garnier BB Cream Miracle Skin Perfector for Sensitive Skin.

Yay for the messy background and guest star, Chocolate Wrapper!

                                 

     

I have wanted this cream for so, so long and on payday, I did a stupid thing, went out a spent all of it. £4.99 of it went on this. It was half price, how could I resist? Obviously, this is just a first impression so I can't say for sure if this is worth it.

So, what this BB cream claims to do on the box (I think it's awesome that it comes in a box by the way, or I might just be really new to the whole make-up thing...which I am, but getting off topic!) is reduce the appearance of redness (a huge attracting point to me, I hate my red cheeks and spots), hydrates for twenty-four hours and soothes, evens skin tone, boosts glow and gives SPF 25 UV protection. It also states it's hypoallergenic, fragrance-free and contains calming allantoin and mineral pigments. Cool, huh?

It says the recommended ages of use are between twenty and sixty five years old, but eighteen is close enough to twenty, I doubt that matters anyway but in case I am a total noob and it actually is important, I thought I would mention it anyway.

I've only used this a couple of times since purchased and I have noticed it's darker then I thought it would. "Light" is the lightest shade I could have gotten, but after a bit (a lot) of blending, it seemed to match...okay. I teamed it up with MUA's Undress Your Skin in porcelain and it went pretty well together, I think.

It's also one of those creams where a very small amount goes a long way. I layer it so that it covers more because one layer doesn't seem to cover anything - which I was expecting for a BB cream, it's supposed to be low coverage. After putting it on, it felt just like a moisturizer and was a little oily (which is fine, I have dry skin) and my overall impression, really, is I quite like it. It doesn't last long, though. I think it was almost gone after about four hours of use. Again, no problem for me, I don't leave the house for very long periods of time.

For now, I will give this a 4/5 and once the bottle is all gone, I will give one full blown review!

So what did you think? Did you like it, did you hate it? I'd love to hear them!

What our blog is about.

I realize this blog is far from organized, it doesn't even have a steady schedule, so I thought it would be a wise idea for me to just...tell you, really, about what I'm interested in so you'll know what kind of things you can expect from this blog.

My main interests are books but I'm not the biggest book worm ever...so if I kept this blog only for the purpose of books, this would be an inactive blog. My other interests are make-up, the paranormal, movies (but I have another blog for that. If you want the link, just go ahead and ask), animals/pets, the environment, wildlife, random tags, personal posts (which might not happen very often, I like to be private usually), gaming and other random posts like stories, "What's in my...", and OOTD's (although everything I wear, you won't be able to get which I will state at the start of all of them, they're just for fun and won't have a point). It's basically going to be an incredibly random blog.

The personal posts will be on autism, past relationships, friendships, bullying, long distance relationships, fake friends, etc. It will also include things like just random posts maybe once a week/month of what's happened lately and what I am expecting (kind of like Day In The Life's of YouTubers, where they vlog what happens...but obviously edited so it would be helpful in a blog).

I'm sure you know I'm the main author of this blog (Loz) but of course Austin is my co-author and he's mostly going to do gaming reviews, etc. He's also obsessed with space.

SO if this sounds like your kind of thing, I hope you stick around! Currently in the process of writing a BB cream first impressions post and I just need to finish up taking the photos for my "What's in my" make-up bag and my toiletries bag for my trip to England in a week's time! Annnnd my boyfriend is writing a post on his experience with something spooky at his job :3 We're doing things, we promise, see you soon!



Amazon Book Wish-List - Part One

As promised, the post that I would write and publish shortly after I introduced it (not that I needed to introduce it, but it sort of happened) and I'm not going to spend forever talking this time, but I'm just going to jump right into it. 

365 Days of Wonder 

 If you know me at all, you will know that I love quotes but I also loved the original "Wonder" book- which took me by surprise, because if there's anything I hate in books, it's high school, drama, and sugar sweet endings. I saw this ages ago, it's a book filled with quotes (that I believe aren't from the books, but I might be wrong on that one) for everyday of the year. It'll be a book that'll be pretty useful. 

The Twenty-One Balloons. 

This also has a probably quite boring backstory, but as everyone knows, I'm a fan of Stacy from StacyPlays on YouTube and she recently made a new Minecraft series on her channel called Bookcraft. One of the first builds that she did was from this book - so, although I already know a good portion of what happens in this book, I was still really interested to give it a try and especially since it's a kids' book (I love kids' books), it interests me even more. It might just be one of those books that I never read, though. 

Alice in Zombieland. 

From now on in this post, it's all about Alice in Wonderland. Which is why I want this book, Alice in Wonderland is my favorite book (because it's just so weird) and I also quite like zombies, although they are never very well represented in books and are just so much better in the movie world, I still really want to give this book a go, although I am always welcome to hearing opinions about what their thoughts on this book are. 

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Barnes and Noble Edition)

 

I think this one might be self-explanatory, but I already have the slim version of this book from the Barnes and Noble collection on Amazon, and it's only natural I should want my Alice in Wonderland collection to grow...right? Well, keep that it mind for this next book. 

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Puffin Books). 

I mean just look at that cover, right?

 Thank you for reading, and I hope I can keep this series going, I am really bad at staying on task.

My Amazon Book Wish-List Series

So today I thought I would share five books from my Amazon Wish-list, and right not there will only be eight posts because I have forty books on my list, but as more will be added, when it gets to ten new ones, I can make a whole new Amazon post. Also, this gives me even more posts I can make for when I buy a few and I can tell you the books I bought from my wish-list. I hope that makes sense, I feel rather frazzled this morning. They'll probably be posted every Friday, because on our schedule, today is a free day to post what I want. If Austin picks something he wants to post, it'll be alongside whatever he wants to post on Friday, too.

This is also the Amazon wish-list where some are the first book of a series I want to try, or stand alone's. I'm going to do a seperete series on here for the one's that complete series I already have, which is only going to be four posts long, because I have twenty books on there. Right now, this is the first post, but every post I'm pre-writing because I can't always get onto a computer so on the rare times I can, I write as much as I can and publish them on a different day. Tempting just to post them all on one day though, sometimes.

Also, bare in mind, I'm not a huge "This book just came out, I must read it right away!" type of person, I just hear a book from my friends, or get recommended one on Goodreads, or something and if I like it I will check it out and that's kinda how my Wish-Lists develop, or if I want a specific book cover for a book I already own. 

 

This was just going to be a small introduction at the start of my first post, but it turned out to be long enough to be a post all on it's own, so hello! The first post for this new series will follow shortly after this is published whenever. Probably later on today. 

(also, in the UK today, it was the solar eclipse this morning and my friend did a cool trick using two paper plates so we could see the shadow of the moon, seeing as we couldn't see the sun itself, awesome right?)

The Bookalicious Tag!

I found this tag where I found all the other book tags I have either published or am soon to publish. Unfortunately I am using a computer where Wattpad is blocked, but if I can link her soon, I will. 

1) What percent of books do you get from the library and what percent do you get from elsewhere?

 I get 0% from the library and most of my books from Amazon (both new and used section), bookstores like The Works, Waterstones and WHSmith, and sometimes charity shops - I prefer to own the book then borrow.

2) What charecter would you want to be and why?

Hermione Granger -  because she's smart, a bad-ass, and most people are scared of her.
 

3) What is your favourite book from your childhood?

 Hmm. This one is hard. Probably The Witches by Roald Dahl.

4) What is your favourite book?

I don't have one, there's too many to choose from. 

5) Which series do you have the most books for?

 Probably the House of Night books. I think I have about eight of them. If not, then Game of Thrones (which I still haven't read yet)

6) Do you buy used books?

 Of course. Unless it's a book I really want to buy new, which can be quite often.

7) Who is your favourite/hottest boy or girl?

 I think it's probably ... huh, I don't really know. It used to be Simon from "City of Bones" by Cassandra Claire until he did that "I'm going to date a girl that looks like a model!" that so many people tend to do and he really lose his appeal then.

8) What is your favourite book cover?

 "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" by...someone who I can't remember right now, but I have spoken about this book so many times before that hopefully you remember it!

9) What is your favourite type of book cover?

 Where it just has artwork and pictures or just a cool colour scheme, the title of the book, who wrote it and that's it. No other words.

10) What was the first book you read?

 I honestly can't remember, it was probably a book by Michael Murpurgo.

11) What is your favourite book to movie adaptation?

 "Harry Potter and the prisoner of Azkaban" and also "Hugo", the movie from "The Invention of Hugo Cabret"

12) If you could only read three books for the rest of your life, what would they be?

 Probably the first three books from the Harry Potter series, honestly, or maybe one childhood book.

13) What is the longest book you have read?

 "The Passage" by Justin Cronin and "IT" by Stephen King - they were both around 1000 pages each.

14) If you were to write a book, what would you title it and why?

 "The Missing Puzzle Pieces" - because it would be about autism, and that's just what I would like to title it, or something similar.

15) How many books did you read last month?

 Not very many. I think it was only two, both of which I have reviewed somewhere.

16) What is the last book you read?

 "The miniaturist" by Jessie Burton.

17) Do you fantasize yourself in books you like?

 Hell yes. Most commonly, in "The Maze Runner" series.

18) What is your favourite book store?

 Waterstones, but it's too expensive, so I prefer The Works - accept most books, they don't sell there, but you can get five or six not very well known books for £5 (I guess that would be ten dollars). Some of them have proved to be really good!

19) Hardback or paperback?

 Paperback, no competition.

20) Do you have more then one copy of the same book?

 Hell yes. I have three different versions of "Alice in Wonderland", for example.

21) Would you rather read about vampires or werewolves?

 Werewolves. I'm not that interested in either, really, but werewolves because of Professor Lupin.

22) Do you own more then 150 books? If not, would you? 

The last time I checked, I had almost 200 and it's still rising. I hope to fill a whole room with books eventually.

Thank you for reading! Feel free to link your blog.

The Reading Challenge Book Tag!

I have no idea what the actual challenge of this book tag was supposed to be - do I read a book a day for thirty days? I don't know, but I thought I would answer the questions anyway and if anyone reading this has any idea on what the thirty day book challenge is, please let me know.

I'll be joining in on this challenge too! Some of my answers may be games though, as I cannot think of many books, though I have read plenty. I just have a bad memory when it comes to books.

-Austin

1) Best book you read last year. 

Loz- "Hollow City" by Ransom Riggs.
Austin- "Knights of the Old Republic" by Dark Horse? Honestly, this one has a bunch of writers, so crediting is kinda difficult for this book.

2) A book you've read more then 3 times. 

Loz- "Marked" by Kristen Cast.
Austin- "The Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle

3) Your favorite series. 

Loz- The Harry Potter series, of course.
Austin- Darth Bane series! Gotta love that evilness.

4) A guilty pleasure book. 

Loz - Any book by Jacqueline Wilson/Cathy Cassidy, my childhood favourites.
Austin-  Any historical novel, and reading history school text books...

5) A book that makes you happy. 

Loz - Most of them, really? To pick a random one, "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" by Selznick.
Austin- An old WW2 diary I read of a guy who couldn't wait to get back home to his wife to hear her play on the piano.

6) A book that makes you sad. 

Loz - I feel like Harry Potter can answer pretty much every single one of these questions but probably "Running Wild" by Michael Murpurgo but if you haven't read the book, I suggest you do, it brings awareness over deforestation and the welfare of animals.
Austin- That exact same WW2 diary, because he died a week before he went home.

7) Most under-rated book. 

Loz - "Dodger" by Terry Pratchett...although I have a feeling that might change soon, R.I.P Terry, you will be missed!
Austin- The Han Solo Trilogy!

8) Most over-rated book. 

Loz- The Infernal Devices series by Cassandra Claire, but if I could pick one I haven't read, FSOG.
Austin- "The Fault in Our Stars" S O R R Y

9) A book you thought you wouldn't like but ended up loving. 

Loz - This one is a really hard one to answer. Hmm. "The Maze Runner" by James Dashner, I think, I really love that series.
Austin- Ah uh... Harry... Potter...

10) Favourite classic book.

Loz - "Alice in Wonderland" by Lewis Caroll.
Austin- Save the Kahn! I love that book to death.

11) A book you hated. 

Loz - "It's kind of a funny story" by Ned Vizzini. I apprechiate the ways in which depression can be helped, but I did not apprechiate the sexualization of every single female, including his own mother. Some may see this as something normal for a teenage boy, but I personally disagreed with it strongly so for that reason, I hated this book.
Austin- I HATED To Kill a Mocking Bird. I just did, eugh.

12) The first novel you remember reading. 

Loz - "The Butterfly Lion" by Michael Murpurgo (beautiful book, by the way)
 Austin- The Cassocks! That was a depressing story for a kid.

13) Your favourite writer. 

Loz - Ramsom Riggs, right now. Or J.K.Rowling because not only did she contibute a lot to my childhood, but "The Casual Vancany" was an amazing book too, proving to me her writing skills expand to more then what I was used to.
Austin- Drew Karpyshyn. He writes the BEST Star Wars novels.

14) Favourite book of your favourite writer. 

Loz - "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" by J.K.Rowling.
Austin- Darth Bane: Path of Darkness!

15)  Book that should be on HS/college reading list. 

Loz - well a lot, but the book I'm reading right now is called "The Hourglass Factory" by Lucy Ribchester, which really shows the brutality of the Women's Rights Movement back in the early 1900's, mostly towards women's rights to vote at this point, and how many people were agaisnt them and what they did for us. It should be on the reading list just so feminism in history is apprechiated, whether or not you agree if it's needed currently anymore in first world counties.
Austin- Anything by HP Lovecraft or Issac Asimov!

16) A book you would reccomend to an ignorant/close-minded/racist person. 

Loz - Hmm. "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" by John Boyne. Simply because it shows that racism doesn't exst in the mind of a child, hatred is taught.
Austin- The original I-Robot. Maybe they'd see why treating people horribly is actually BAD for once.

17) Favourite quote from your favourite book. 

Loz - "Happiness can be found in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to switch on the light"
Austin- "Perhaps you were expecting some surprise, for me to reveal a secret that had eluded you, something that would change your perspective of events, shatter you to your core. There is no great revelation, no great secret. There is only you."

18) A book that dissapointed you. 

Loz - "Marina" by Carlos Ruiz Zafron. The review I wrote for that is on here somewhere!
Austin- Ender's Game. It was just... yeah man, for angsty teens.

19) Favourite book that turned into a movie. 

Loz - "Hugo" from "The Invention of Hugo Cabret", I preach about it quite a lot because I think it was done perfectly. Also, the TV series by the BBC from "The Diary of Anne Frank" was perfect, too.
Austin- Gonna use a game here... Max Payne. For the love of all that is holy, do not subject yourself to that mess.

20) Book turning into a movie and completely desecrated. 

Loz - Most book to movie, honestly.
Austin- SEE ABOVE.

21) Favourite book from your childhood. 

Loz - "Charlotte's Web" by E.B.White.
Austin- The Very Hungry Caterpillar!

22) The book that made you fall in love with reading. 

Loz - I can't really think of one from the top of my head but honestly, an awful lot of books, really.
Austin- Under a Killing Moon! Just, hot damn, MYSTERY DONE RIGHT.

23) A book that you have wanted to read for a long time but still haven't?

Loz - "The Bell Jar" by Sylthia Plath, I honestly don't know why it's taking me so long to get round to that book, probably from lack of money, honestly.
Austin- The rest of Harry Potter, and Discworld.

24) A book you wish more people have read. 

Loz - "Ready Player One" by Ernest Cline. It raises awareness on autism/Asperger's, gives more information on Star Wars and gives the pro's of gaming instead of all the negatives you hear in the media so often. They're making a movie, too, I hear. I hope it's as good as the book was.
Austin- Literally anything Star Wars.

25) A charecter you can relate to the most. 

Loz - any sort of misunderstood, chubby and anti-social person I could probably relate to.
Austin- Zayne from the KOTOR books. He's an idiot, gets everything blamed on him, and is clumsy as all hell. It's me.

26) A book that changed your opinion about something. 

Loz - Oh, ooh, wow. A lot of books changed my perspective on things. Harry Potter changed my perspective, though, on abused chilrdren. When I was younger, I thought kids who grew up with an abused childhood would be unable to be kind, caring and loving people. Harry proved me wrong.
Austin- The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy! Boy was that a journey alright

27) The most surprising plot twist or ending. 

Loz- The change of events halfway though the House of Night - the first three books.
Austin- Calling to the Night got me pretty good. Won't say why.

28) Favourite title. 

Loz - I searched through all my read list in my Goodreads profile and I'm a bit far away from my room to go rummaging in there, so for this one, I'm stumped. If I ever remember, I will edit and come back to this.
Austin- Foundation! The name just sounds so grandiose! 

29) A book that made you cry. 

Loz - Every single book by Michael Murpurgo.
Austin- Gonna have to use a game here for this one. Metal Gear Solid and Red Dead Redemption. CHARACTERS WHO JUST DIDN'T DESERVE IT!

30) Your favourite book of all time.  

Loz - "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban"
Austin- It's a short story written by Issac Asimov, and it's about a robot who felt and didn't want to be shut down. I forgot the game, sadly...

Review Tuesday: X-Rebirth

X-Rebirth; Post Release Review

Well hey there, friends, and welcome to Review Tuesday! Whoa! Wow! Anyways, today's review is gonna be on the fantastic "X" series of games. Well, fantastic to a point it seems. I am a big fan on the previous "X" games, with "X-3 Albion Prelude" being my favorite in the series. The whole vast galaxy set before you! Do what you wanted, make ships, buy ships, trade resources, be a pirate or a military officer, build space stations, advance science, raid traders, the choices were insane. And X-Rebirth was looking like it was going to be more of the same, but with a huge expanse on it!

That is, until it actually came out. Riddled with bugs, lacking content, laggy as hell for most people, systems missing, promises not held. It was a MESS to say the least. If I were reviewing the game when it first came out, I can promise you right now, this would be a 3/10. Below average. By the way, on the subject of ratings, a 5/10 is average. It does not mean it's a terrible game, it means it's a AVERAGE game. Average in the bad way? Yeah. Still average though, it's not an imminent dismissal to me, though. Now that I've gotten that out of the way, I'd like to talk about X-Rebirth in it's CURRENT state.

All those game breaking bugs seem to be MOSTLY mopped up. There was free content added, and a really cheap DLC came out that really expanded on that and added even MORE content. The lag, of course remains, but not nearly as badly as it originally was. That lag isn't going away until you get yourself a next-gen computer build up, sorry to say. The lag is worth it though, because the visuals are STUNNING!

I love coasting around and seeing the sights

Quite honestly, the game is worth the price of admission just to fly around and look at the gorgeous universe they've created. All the random space battles looks like a light show. A deadly one, though. Anyways, onto the systems, they all appear to be back in place, and any of them still missing are easily mopped up with the new (and desperately needed) workshop system, that lets you slap a mod into the game with a click of a button. They've even added in tons of in-game options to make all the tedious stuff MUCH quicker. Tired of going through eight menus and buying an auto-pilot module just to get a ship to follow you at 1/4th human intelligence? Just hire a captain for your ship, and tell them to follow you! Problem solved. The game is filled with simple fixes giving a breath of life to a series that desperately needed it.

I give the reworked X-Rebirth a 8.5/10

Get out there and make some money, captain!

Dating a Person with (High Functioning) Autism

For Autism Awareness day, I would like to take this time to talk about something a little more personal to me, the idea itself was given to me by Loz, and I agreed that it'd be a great idea and a chance to talk about something a little more serious than my personality usually allows me. Now, starting off with how we met, she always seemed a little different to me, but it was just perfectly part of her charm. It was several months I believe, before she told be she had Aspergers. My reaction? Something along the lines of "Oh, well I guess that'd make sense, alright then". And she told me that had been the best response that she'd gotten from having told someone.

Why, why is that the best response? It's because I didn't make such a big deal about it, because that's all people want. To not have their differences highlighted. Do you like it when someone points out a mark on your face? No? Then why would an autistic person like it when you point out things about them? Don't do it. Just do. Not. They aren't wild beasts, they're people. You don't need to make them feel like they'll never be relateable, or that they HAVE to do something great to be important to someone. Why is it when someone is autistic, people only care when they do something great? Why can't we just appreciate people as people?

Now, dating a person with autism has it's challenges, and do you know why? That's because DATING has it challenges. Dating a person with autism just has DIFFERENT challenges. And in retrospect, it is no different than dating a person you just random met in a mall. I love Loz every bit in the wide open space, and no, it isn't any harder just because she has differences. And honestly, it's most likely harder for her having to deal with my odd likes of things such as planes and tanks. Those are her challenges though. ;)

Sorry I have to cut this one short, I have work shortly though, but I may add an edit later on! Thank you for reading.

The British Tag

Austin can't really join in with this, seeing as he's American and I'm the British one...well, he could, but it would make no sense. Why is there not an American tag? Is it because America sucks? ;) 

1. How many cups of tea do you have a day? + How many sugars?
 
I fail my British buddies by hardly drinking tea, I usually only drink tea when I've ran out of my favourite drink, Coke, but when I do, it's five to six cups per day (I know, I know...) with a tablespoon of sugar, and a little milk. Sometimes, no milk, depending on how I feel that day. 

 2. Favourite part of your roast

 The meat, if it's chicken, and Yorkshire puddings! Not too fond of roasts, either,  as those are the only two things I eat from the plate. Oops.

3. Favourite dunking biscuit

Shortbread, always. Although I do like malt milk sometimes. I don't know what else to call it, but I think that's their actual name.

4. Favourite quintessentially British pastime?
 
 I used to really like watching the soaps, but at some point (among with everything else), I just stopped caring about it. Yes, I promise I'm British.

5. Favourite word?

Hmm..."Make", probably. I know it's not really a British word, obviously, but still.

6. Cockney rhyme slang?

Stuff like "Innit?", right? I've never really spoken like that, and I'm not fond of the idea of speaking like that, either. I'm not judging people who do talk like that, or who like it themselves, it's just not my thing!

7. Favourite sweet
 
Dolly Mixtures (I have no idea how to explain them), or Flying Saucers (which are just sweet paper filled with sherbert). 

8. What would your pub be called?
 
 Ooh, um...maybe something like the Black Cat, and it would have cat decorations inside and cat-themed events. I might even let my cat wander in and out occasionally. Sorry, people who are allergic to cats!

9. No.1 British person
 
 My one and only friend, or if you mean celebrity, Emma Watson.

10. Favourite shop / restaurant
 
My favourite shop is a discount book store called The Works, or the other two bookstores, Waterstones and WHSmith's...I also really like Peacocks and Wilkinson's. My favourite restraunt is Weatherspoon's, it's like a pub, it's awesome. 

11. What british song pops into your head?
 
The theme song to Gavin and Stacy. 

12. Marmite.

No. I just hate marmite, it's disgusting.

Thank you for reading! I don't have anyone in particular that I want to tag so if you want to do it, go ahead.