New celebrity hairstyles

Celebrity women are always giving us great examples of different hairstyles. There have been some recent trends in hairstyles that are worth noting.

1. Katie Holmes is wearing a medium length layered hairstyle that features side swept bangs. She has been seen wearing it with retro curls.

2. Jenna Elfman has been going shorter and shorter with her style. She now has a short/almost medium length bob hairstyle that features side swept bangs and a deep side part.

3. Rihanna is wearing a short hairstyle with lots of heavy layering in the crown are. Different colors of highlights/lowlights are mixed in throughout the bang area.

Check out all the new looks at http://hairstyles4.onsugar.com

Book Review: "Highborn" by Yvonne Navarro

I noticed last year that angels and demons seem to be a trend that's gaining traction in the paranormal fiction genre. Sure enough, I've been getting more than a few books in this style added to my TBR list and I'm so intrigued with the various interpretations of the theme that I can't help but dig in.



Highborn by Yvonne Navarro is the story of Brynna, a fallen angel who begins to wonder if redemption is possible even for a depraved soul that chose to leave service in Heaven for power in Hell. Acting on her desire to return to Heaven, Brynna escapes Hell and starts her journey in the human world. Brynna discovers that hiding from demons sent to bring her back to Hell are the least of her problems as she quickly becomes entangled in an investigation into a series of high profile murders-- and the detective in charge of the investigation.



The Good: There are many things I like about Navarro's style as a writer. She's not afraid to go for it when it comes to violent encounters or gruesome descriptions of Hell. Violent encounters might not be everyone's cup of tea, but if the story goes in a direction that calls for it, I like an author that doesn't hold back-- and Navarro doesn't. I also appreciate the integrity she brings to the character of Brynna. "Highborn" is the kind of book that could be a typical fish-out-of-water story littered with cute malapropisms, but that would get old really fast. In Navarro's hands Brynna never loses her sense of being different. There's no attempt to smooth out the feeling that Brynna is alien to this world. No rapid adaptations to modern slang or anything else that fits the character into a cookie-cutter mold of any kind. There are some really nice character interactions in "Highborn" too. Brynna, for all her strangeness, forges connections with others through her protective nature and the people she takes under her wing add a lot to the story.



Needs Work: I need to know where a character comes from before I can appreciate where they are; so the back-story is key to my enjoyment of a book. We know Brynna is a fallen angel whose real name is Astarte, but there isn't a whole lot more to her background. She was a favorite of Lucifer and, as the title suggests, a highborn one at that. But after a tantalizing glimpse into Hell at the very beginning of the book, we're not really shown any more of her previous life. And that killed me because I really wanted more. Navarro seemed like just the author to deliver an honest-to-goodness hellish vision of Hell. I've read so many books that fall short of letting their view of Hell be as dark as it should and I was sure Navarro would give us that but, to my disappointment, it never came. Unfortunately the character development follows the same basic pattern throughout; an enticing tidbit here and there, but not enough to really satisfy the reader.



"Highborn" is an interesting book for me. In some respects I think it's much better than your standard paranormal fare because the personality of Brynna stays true throughout. It's great that there isn't some stereotypical shift in her perspective that puts her in-sync with everyone else. I liked that she stood out from beginning to end. At the same time it's the elements I liked that highlighted the elements I felt were lacking. I wanted the book to live up to its potential, but I never quite felt that it got there. I kept reading, waiting for the payoff-- some kind of big reveal-- but was left with feeling that the story was incomplete. I will, however, definitely read the next book Navarro writes in this series. I like the overall story, the characters and the author's style-- so I'll be back. But if the next book doesn't prove to be more fleshed-out, I wouldn't be encouraged to continue further than that.



3 1/2 out of 5 stars.

Uh Oh-- Have Zombies Jumped the Shark?

I saw this over at SF Signal and John DeNardo asks if Zombies have jumped the shark now that they're featured in a Sears ad.



And who let that cat in there?

11/25

So I was talking to Victoria a while ago, for the first time in way too long, and she said that it doesn't matter if I can't figure out what I want, because I'm either going to continue doing what I'm doing, or something is going to snap, and then I'll know.

Funnily enough, the title of this post doesn't refer to the date of Thanksgiving this year. IT WAS MY MIDTERM GRADE OMG PATHETIC.

And funnily enough, that 11/25 didn't sent me running from computer science, because I went to lab the next morning wearing this, knowing full well that I was about to be handed back the lowest exam score I have ever received in my life, after which I went back to my apartment to read about asymptotic analysis and hash tables.

(For the record, the class average was ~50%, so it wasn't that awful, but I mean, don't try to convince me that an F feels good.)

I could say that this skirt is a metaphor for how many points I earned on the midterm, what with it being the shortest skirt I have ever worn without tights, but the truth is, it was just really hot that day and I like the ratty lacy hem.

Above, Cal t-shirt: Cal Student Store. Corduroy skirt: American Eagle, secondhand, gift. Boots: Steven by Steve Madden.

To be honest, I'm not sure where exactly the tipping point was, but, well - about a week after that 11/25, something snapped. It was like... one day I woke up and everyone else shut up and the only voice I heard was my own. It said "Stop eating cookies they will go straight to your hips! Also, stop pretending to be a computer science student or your life will continue to be graygraygray."

So for once, I took heed.

Ben Kenobi: Private Jedeye

Yeah, I giggled when the dialog went like this --Greyson: what about before you were a dick? Ben: I've always been one... It's great having a childish sense of humor-- everything seems funny.







Hat tip to Patrick St-Denis

22 October 10

One more for good measure.

21 October 10

Because fake polaroid is the new greyscale.