The Thing That Goes Doink

Today's BPAL scent is Twenty One from their Bewitching Brews collection. In the bottle it smells like a martini. On me it smells really sour. REALLY SOUR. Twenty One will now be banished to the bottom of the bag, hopefully never to resurface. As a general rule I have never hated a scent from BPAL before, but now I can honestly say that I hate one.

Plugging away at NaNo, and I have no idea if you can see the widget I have tacked between entries on my blog, but it's a running word counter that's linked directly to the NaNoWriMo website. Every time I update my word count on the official NaNo site, it automatically up dates it here. Pretty awesome.

Welp, time to really get going on dinner. It's Caribbean Rice and Shrimp, but done in the slow cooker. Hooray for easy food!

I know I said I didn't have a lot of material for real entries this month, but I decided that it wouldn't kill me to share that I got some new BPAL last week and the result is that I have more Imps Ears to test out.

Today's scent is Aelophile from the Steamworks collection. The perfume is infused with amber and citrus, labdanum, verbena, cedar, and oud, and on me smells like a cross between the industrial hand soap in public restrooms and incense. We'll see how it ages, because despite the odd images it conjures in my mind, the scent itself I find quite pleasant and soothing.

The scents I actually ordered for myself were Havana and Alice's Evidence. I had waffled about buying Havana at Sakura-Con, and I finally decided to bite the bullet and get some when I ordered the Tintagel for travellyr. Havana is a masculine scent - leather, date plam, snake root oil and tobacco, but when I put it on it becomes sweet and musky. It smells ridiculously good on me, which is good because I was going to be pissed if I couldn't wear it. Alice's Evidence still smells fantastic on me as well, so all is good in the world of perfume.

In other news, I'm going through my Imps Ears and figuring out which ones I want to give to my sister to try out. Since I bought a bottle of Alice's Evidence, I'll let her take my Imps Ear of that to try out. I asked her what kind of scents she prefers, and once I get a response I'll sort through them accordingly, though a few are off limits, especially the ones that have a more sexually oriented nature, like O, Golden Pariapus, or The Sacred Whore of Babylon. I can't imagine that my parents would like that I gave her perfume with those names. However, if she likes roses, I'll give her Marie and Versailles and I may be going through the "BPAL" tag to find the other scents I didn't care much for and see if maybe my sister can wear them.

She's turning sixteen, of course I'm going to spoil her. Which reminds me, I need to go and find some funky nail polish...

Today's BPAL scent is Against Idleness & Mischief from the Mad Tea Party collection. Based on the poem by the same name, the scent smells like pollen-dusted honey, tonka, chamomile, and hyssop. It's a bit sweet for me, and a bit too floral for my likes. Not bad, but just not me.

Anyway, it's been raining like crazy where I live. Yesterday my parking lot was almost completely flooded, and the street right in front of my complex was probably under a foot of water. Apparently the drainage system here can't keep up with the kind of rain we've been getting. Even as I write this, there's a downpour outside. I was wondering if I would need to water the plants today, as it turns out, nature is taking care of that for me. I just hope they don't drown because they're getting TOO much water. :/

I'm looking forward to a nice, relaxing weekend, though we'll see if that actually happens. In the mean time, I have some time to kill and the Wii is calling my name.

"Well, they might have added a Magdalene to it."

"Wow, biblical insults. This is an advanced school."

Todays BPAL scent is Magdalene from the Sin and Salvation collection. It's a light scent of white roses, labdanum, and wild orchid. Touted as, "A stirring yet gentle perfume. The scent of love and devotion mingled with an undercurrent of heart-rending sorrow," on me it smells like talcum powder. I don't know how the last several scents have all come to smell like talcum powder on me, but they do. Kind of irritating because I love how Magdalene smells in the bottle - soft, feminine, without screaming, "Hi! I'm a helpless female!"

In other news, yesterday I played the Copypasta game from various back-up CDs to the HTPC. I transferred all of Tales of Symphonia: The Animation to the HTPC, all but three episodes of Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon and all of Zettai Kareshi. The only reason three episodes of PGSM wouldn't transfer is apparently due to the way that the files were written onto the data discs. I can still play them from the CD - so it's not like I can never watch those episodes again.

I'm still chugging along on DotNW New Game Plus. I'm glad that I'm up to level 30 already - as it will mean that fighting Decus won't be just a pain in the ass and won't take fifty bazillion tries. >_< And since I've finally figured out how to use Zelos' mystic arte (though I can't say I've ever used Marta's...hmm, I should probably give that a try) I can now bring the pain. Heh. Well, at any rate I should probably find some lunch and then clean off the grill so that my husband and I can do dinner tonight (since we're probably going to end up doing burgers).

Today's BPAL scent is Sacred Whore of Babylon, touted as, "And upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth. An ancient formula that inspires unrepentant decadence, lechery and debauch." It smells musky, with incense and oils, probably what ancient brothels smelled like (I'm guessing, I can't honestly say that I know for sure). Honestly, closing my eyes and taking a whiff reminds me of sex. Go figure.

Yesterday I started my New Game Plus in DotNW, and I opted to keep all of my monsters. That has turned into something as a Game Breaker, as Titan, the wolf I caught in the beginning of my first play through, is almost level 90 and basically can one hit kill any opponent. This includes bosses. So while I'll probably make sure that Titan is in my ranks when I face off against Alice and Decus the first couple of times (and probably Richter, by default), the rest of the time he'll be hanging out with the Katz Guild while I level up my other monsters. Like Zanatu, who I used until I got better monsters. Poor widdle imp. X3

Anyway, I really should do my cleaning...I just haven't felt like it. ;_;

Today's BPAL scent is The Light of Men's Lives, inspired the Grimm's Fairytale "Godfather Death." I don't really know how to describe the scent - bittersweet, I suppose, with a hint of wax and musk. And the vague scent of something burning, as well. I think it's supposed to be reminiscent of a burning candle. It's okay, but it's not a favorite.

Anyway, I'm gearing up to face the final bosses in DotNW - so I'm currently revisiting past temples and dungeons to pick some fights and gain some experience points to boost Emil and Marta's stats. I want to try and get through the final bosses without using a bazillion items. And see if I can't get at least two of Marta's speed cast abilities. Unlike the original, side quests are a long running affair and about the only way you're going to get them is if you instigate them in previous chapters. Well, I suppose it's something to keep in mind for later play throughs.

I thought I would have most of this weekend to sit around and play, get my bearings, see if I could totally beat all dungeons, etc., because my husband was supposed to be going out of town this weekend with his dad. They were supposed to do some pest control in back woods Idaho, but the weather is teh suck there, so now they're not going. >_< There goes my nice, relaxing, weekend.

Bleugh....I have to clean out the fridge now. The left-overs are starting to reach critical mass.

When my sister was in college, one of the dorms she lived in was called Orton. They actually put on their dorm shirts, "It's all about the O. How loud is yours?" (Compared to the ones that my husband's dorm wanted to put on theirs ("Engineers do their best work on their backs"), this was relatively tame.)

Today's BPAL scent is simply "O," from their Ars Amatoria collection. They describe it as, "The scent of sexual obsession, slavery to sensual pleasure, and the undercurrent of innocence defiled utterly." The scent itself is of amber and honey with a touch of vanilla. As a general rule, I can't stand vanilla as a scent. It's often too heavy for me and gives me a headache. However, blended in with the amber and honey, and being as light as it is, means that I smell sweet - and debauched. ^^ I like it, but I don't know if I actually want to buy it. More thought is required...

In other news, in DotNW I'm up to the Temple of Darkness, retrieving Tenebrae's core after he went from Deadpan Snarker to core state due to cute-but-evil-sadist-bitch Alice being, well, sociopathic. I actually tried to beat the damn thing last night but died. Part of it is that even though you're revisiting a lot of locations from the first game, they've changed things up, drawing you in DEEPER. It's not necessarily a The Developers Though of Everything sort of moment, it's more, "Let's put a lot of ambiguous doors that you can go through into the temples." And the enemies. And the frakking battle system. And oh yeah, the enemies certainly don't believe in the trope of If You Want To Fight Me, Get In Line. They will all gang up on you and PWN your ass and you have to do everything in your frakking power to get away long enough to have Marta heal you, or use a recovery item.

Oh, have I mentioned how annoying it is when you use too many "artes" or items? The characters actually yell at each other. "You're using too many items!" or "Don't just use artes!" Of course, then there's a snarky reply to each statement ("It's to win!" for the former, "But it's more fun this way!" for the latter), but you still get the feeling that you should 1) be better so you don't have to use a bazillion items just to stay alive, or B) learn how to properly combo attacks. As it stands, half the time I forget to use Emil's artes so the latter statements are almost never directed at me. I am guilty of using too many items. I kind of like being alive, you know. Makes it easier to win battles that way.

I suppose this afternoon I'll try to beat the Temple of Darkness. I have to remember that I can't just rely on what I already know about the temple (even if I found that "hidden" treasure chest because of it).

Today's lovely BPAL scent is Marie from the Diabolus collection. It's violets and tea rose, the favorite scent of one very spoiled Austrian teenaged princess whose husband was most likely...gay. (The fact that they had children was probably a direct result of thinking about other people and a duty to the family line.) Anyway, it's an old lady scent again, and on me it smells a bit sour. Oh yeah, I won't be buying this one.

In other news, I wrapped up Tales of Symphonia last night and officially started Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World. Part of me wants to slap Emil, however, he is the Woobie Destroyer of Worlds and I know part of the reason for his timidness is the fact that he's basically starting from scratch - he has the look of one person, the name of another, and absolutely no memories of either. (See, "Sucks to be Me.") Functioning well in society isn't something he does.

So far it's a little weird - new voices for a good chunk of the cast (only Kratos (the narrator), Colette and Presea have the same voices) and it's going to take some adjusting. But I'm sure I'll make the adjustment. I do enjoy that I can still navigate around towns based on previous experience, though. ^^ On the flip side, battle systems are going to take some adjusting (see, "Damn You Muscle Memory").

At any rate I'll be playing some more this afternoon, so hopefully I'll have a better grip on the game play by then.

Hubby and I had a "Date Day." We went to lunch at Famous Dave's for BBQ (mmmm...smoked pork...) before heading to see Iron Man 2. I liked it, but I'm a total dork and I love superhero movies (and Marvel comics in general, heh). I'm excited for Thor and of course, The Avengers. \o/

Today's BPAL scent is Cordelia from the Illyria collection - based on the works of William Shakespeare. It has notes of lilac, lemon, green tea, wisteria, osmanthus, white cedar, and Chinese musk, and I like it, and I do like how it smells on me, but I'm not sure that I want to buy a bottle. Jury is still out on that one and I'll have to wear it a few more times to truly gauge if I want to buy it.

Anyway, off to play some vidya games. Ta!

You know how I was so proud of myself for getting back on to skates and NOT falling?

Oh yeah...I wiped out twice today. Thank God I had the brains to buy knee pads, elbow pads and wrist pads or else I would be in a lot more pain than I am right now. As it stands my arm (which was uncovered because I was wearing a tank top) has a lovely road rash on it. Hurt like a mofo when I showered, but at least I know there's no grit in it.

Today's daily dose of BPAL is Alice's Evidence from the Mad Tea Party collection. I smell like baked goods and spicy tea. Or that potpourri that my mother always makes around Christmas. Either way, I smell good. (Chase, buddy, I'm sorry if I'm making your feel bad. Honestly, most of the blogging about the perfume is to give me a written record of what I liked and what I didn't. Because, you know, writing it down in a .txt or a .docx file would have been easy.) I may have to get a bottle of this some day. At any rate, it beats smelling like an old lady!!