GnG is Retiring?! Pt.1

Hello, hello.

Long time no see! We know, shame on us.

I just wanted to reach out to all of our followers to let everyone know that Geeky ‘n Girly will be retiring here within the next few months. Kelly and I have decided after much thought that we’d like to branch out on our own! So technically, we’re not really leaving the blogosphere! (Don’t be sad! Or mad!)

I have only just recently set up a new blog for myself and I would abso-freaking-lutely love it if everyone who enjoyed Geeky ‘n Girly would continue to follow me on my new blog! It’s called One-Sixth Geek, and is currently hosted via WordPress.com, but will be moving to my own domain sometime this year.

So please, clicky click and subscribe because I would hate to lose touch with some of the nicest coolest people I’ve met in the blogging world!

Much love and see everyone on One-Sixth Geek!

– Britney

Alice and Cheshire Cat Makeup

These are photos straight from my instagram it isn’t a tutorial I just wanted to share with you guys 🙂 I saw a youtube video for makeup like this by Lucyxx84 and I think her makeup is so beautiful and it inspired me to create this look. I have been wanting to do more cosplay/costume makeup for a while now and decided to practice with this today.

I didn’t do the same colors as the Tim Burton Cheshire cat I wanted to stick with the colors of the animated Alice and I am very pleased with how it turned out. I have many different brands and types of makeup on but the main product I use when doing costume makeup is my NYX jumbo pencil in milk. I have very sensitive skin so I don’t want to use face paint so I love that the NYX pencil is so creamy so I can use it on my entire face as I’ve done in the past with my sugar skull makeup or as a base for my eye makeup. It’s also good to put on your lips on top of your lipstick to add dimension and just blend it out. For all of the lines I make I use a thin tipped liquid liner pen and go back over with pencil and black shadow. For my hair I just pin curled it and let it set while I did my makeup.

Please let me know your thoughts on this look and if you would like to see more cosplay/costume makeup looks with in depth tutorials and if you would what are some characters you would like to see. I am always open to suggestions. 🙂

Kelly

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

“No wizarding household is complete without a copy of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.”

– Albus Dumbledore

Last Christmas, a friend of mine bought me a gift that I now rank in my top 10 favorite gifts of all time. He bought me, “The Hogwarts Library” book set! This is a high quality hardcover set of extra books written by J.K. Rowling that emulate the books used by Harry and his friends in the H.P. series.

The set includes:

• Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
• Quidditch Through the Ages
• The Tales of Beedle the Bard

After reading them, it was easy for me to decide that Fantastic Beasts was my favorite of the three. Why? I love animals, creature, and beasties whether they are of this Earth or reside within fiction.

The “author” is the magical beast fanatic and overall eccentric, Newt Scamander.

“Newton (‘Newt’) Artemis Fido Scamander was born in 1897. His interest in fabulous beasts was encouraged by his mother, who was an enthusiastic breeder of fancy Hippogriffs.”

It also features a Foreword by Albus Dumbledore as well as notes scribbled by Harry and his friends. I found these notes very amusing. They turned what would be a mundane glossary section of the book into an entertaining one!

Notice the word “section”. While the majority of this book is a glossary of magical beasts, it isn’t everything. See below for the contents listing.

CONTENTS

Foreword by Albus Dumbledore

Introduction by Newt Scamander

About This Book

What Is a Beast?

A Brief History of Muggle Awareness of Fantasy Beasts

Magical Beasts in Hiding

Why Magizoology Matters

Ministry of Magic Classifications

An A-Z of Fantastic Beasts

About the Author

Now I can honestly say that I enjoyed this book, but I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that I was physically holding the same book that Hogwarts’ students held. This book as an e-book just wouldn’t do it for me. So do yourself a favor and buy this bad boy and the others paperback or (especially) hardback. You’ll thank me later. 😉

On to the fun stuff! I wanted to briefly mention that I love the names of the beasts exclusive to the H.P. world. They tickle me. Like, I genuinely giggle at some of the names. So here is a short list of some of the names I find amusing.

• Billywig
• Chizpurfle
• Crup
• Dugbog
• Erkling
• Fwooper
• Lobalug
• Murtlap
• Niffler
• Plimpy
• Snidget

I took the time to write a list of the beasts that interested me and narrowed it down to one favorite (because I’m a super geek) to give everyone an example of what sort of information you might find.

// Drumroll //

Antipodean Opaleye

“The Opaleye is a native of New Zealand, though it has been known to migrate to Australia when territory becomes scarce in its native land. Unusually for a dragon, it dwells in valleys rather than mountains. It is of medium size (between two and three tonnes). Perhaps the most beautiful type of dragon; it has iridescent, pearly scales and glittering, multi-coloured, pupil-less eyes, hence its name. This dragon produces a very vivid scarlet flame, though by dragon standards it is not particularly aggressive and will rarely kill unless hungry. Its favourite food is sheep, though it has been known to attack larger prey. A spate of kangaroo killings in the late 1970’s were attributed to a male Opaleye ousted from his homeland by a dominant female. Opaleye eggs are pale grey and may be mistaken for fossils by unwary Muggles.”

 

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Film

On September 12 2013, Warner Bros and Rowling announced they will be producing a film inspired by the book, being the first in a new trilogy. Rowling herself will be the screenwriter. She came up with a plan for a movie after Warner Bros. suggested the idea. Here is the statement released by J.K. Rowling.

“Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is neither a prequel nor a sequel to the Harry Potter series, but an extension of the wizarding world. The laws and customs of the hidden magical society will be familiar to anyone who has read the Harry Potter books or seen the films, but Newt’s story will start in New York, 70 years before Harry’s gets underway.”

Rowling will make her screen writing debut with this film. David Heyman, who produced the Harry Potter films, will be returning as producer for Fantastic Beasts.

• October 2013, Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe stated he would likely not be a part of the film.
• March 2014, Warner Bros. confirmed that the story would be released as a trilogy.
• May 2014, no director or cast member has been confirmed.
• May 2014, according to entertainment reporter Nikki Finke, Alfonso Cuarón, who directed Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, is in talks to direct the film, but Cuarón denied about directing the film.
• July 2014, Warner Bros. announced that J.K. Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is set to shoot at the Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden in the U.K., which also happens to house the Harry Potter Studio Tour: The Making of Harry Potter.

 

Needless to say, I am super excited about this movie! I always found the magical beasts of the H.P. world to be really odd and fascinating so let’s see which of them they decide to include. Maybe I’ll get to see an Antipodean Opaleye or a cute Kneazle!

Britney

Current K-Drama: Trot Lovers

This is the first post I’ve done on a Kdrama before and I think that is absolutely crazy because these shows are my primary form of entertainment. Sometime last year I did a post on kpop well I also love to watch dramas and Trot Lovers is the one I am currently watching. This is just a quick post with my thoughts on the show.

First this is my favorite type of drama. It has the dramatics of course but it is hilarious and also has romance. The cast I love them all and I am so surprisingly happy with Shin Sung-roc as Jo Geun-woo. The only other thing I had seen him in was My Love from Another Star and I hated him because you know he was the bad guy and did terrible things but in Trot Lovers he is one of the funniest actors in a drama I’ve seen in a while. Just his personality, how blunt he is and I think mainly how different in a good way he is from My Love from Another Star. I haven’t decided who I ship yet it is going to be a very tough choice between the two male leads. I will probably end up torn like with Boys Over Flowers.

I like that it has music. I loved Dream High 1 and 2. Monstar was also a great drama that centered around music. Since I love kpop so much when I know it is musically based I’m going to want to watch and this doesn’t disappoint whatsoever. The voices are very good.

From the loan sharks and how funny they are to the way Jang Joon-hyun is with Choi Choon-hee’s younger sister it makes me laugh and touches my heart. If you’ve never watched a Kdrama or are searching for a new one I highly recommend this one. It’s feel good and has such a happy vibe. If you’re also watching let me know your thoughts on the show and the cast!

Kelly

5 Really Good Reasons Why It’s Fine For Women To Be Underrepresented In Video Games

5 Really Good Reasons Why It’s Fine For Women To Be Underrepresented In Video Games

Ok, when I first read the title for this article I immediately geared up to be flaming pissed off by the end of it. As I read through it, the room was getting hot and the walls closing in. I was starting to see red. I couldn’t believe what I was reading! It wasn’t until a couple statements way too unrealistic to even be written that I realized that it was satirical. Oh, and to be noted as a tag at the end as well.

Haha, very funny. But really, after our last blog about female bullying in geekdom it sort of fit the bill. It’s a good representation of the bias against women in a lot of geeky realms. Why? The bias is just plain ridiculous! I’m seriously awaiting the day that geeky men realize that women are in the realm of geekdom, have been in it, and will continue to exist in it whether they like it or not.

And hey, shouldn’t they be damn happy that they have all these fine ladies enjoying the same things they do? The same type of ladies that would be willing to accept that their guy might want to chill at home one night to play a video game than go out and party it up. Mhm. Better just accept it and be grateful, my dear geeky men.

Bam!

– Britney

Beauty on a Budget

I decided last week that I would break my habit of purchasing the more expensive make-up brands for the smaller tools of my make-up routine. After browsing the web and asking my fellow co-bloggers for advice, I stopped by Walgreens to try the following make-up.

Revlon

I’m using Revlon’s Photoready Concealer per Kelly’s suggestion, and I love it. The container, as you can see, lets you apply it like lipstick. You don’t need to use a lot, nor do you use too much since it’s not liquid. All you need to do to finish is use your finger to even it out. The coverage is smooth enough so that it doesn’t gather in your crinkles (not wrinkles!), but it does last all day and evening without having to reapply.

I was on the prowl for new liquid eyeliner too. I did use Estee Lauder’s in the past, but in order to save a few bucks I decided to test Revlon’s Skinny Liquid Liner. I haven’t had good experiences with other inexpensive liners, but this one wins my stamp of approval. It has a super thin applicator tip that allows for very fine lines, and after the first full day and night it stayed in place. It will smear if you get it wet and then rub it, but it won’t run simply from being wet. It lasted through a full day’s worth of my worst allergies, so it’s good stuff.

Retail Prices (Walgreens):

Revlon Photoready Concealer:  $10.79

Revlon Colorstay Skinny Liquid Liner:  $7.99

 

Milani

For as long as I can remember, I’ve felt the need the fill out my brows. I’m a natural dark blonde and so my eyebrows are sparse and fairly light. I think that nicely shaped full brows are what make a face, so to speak. Now I’ve always used a fine tipped pencil, but I’ve heard a lot of women say they use brow powder and/or gel.

Hence my recent purchase of Milani’s Brow Fix Kit and Brow Tint Pen. First I’d like to say that Milani’s Brow Fix Kit is a little bundle of awesome. It has three hues of powder. One hue is for highlighting, and the other two fill the brows. A magnified mirror and three tools come within as well: Angled brush, sponge tip, and teeny tweezers. You might think this is overkill, and normally I never use the miniature tools in these silly little kits. With this one, I do! I tweeze away the randoms, highlight with sponge tip, and fill with the angled brush all while using that nifty built in mirror. As for quality of the make-up, the powders really cling to the skin well and I don’t have to reapply during the day.

For a really defined look, I also purchased Milani’s Brow Tint Pen. This pen has a super tiny tip that allows you to get a more defined yet natural look. It really helps with the areas of my brow that are sparse as the tiny marks it leaves looks just like tiny hairs. The gel also helps the powder stick better and helps the whole look last longer. Good for a night out on the town!

Retail Prices (Walgreens):

Milani Brow Fix Brow Kit:  $6.79

Milani Brow Tint Pen:  $6.49

 

Let me know if you have any suggestions for good quality inexpensive make-up products!

– Britney

Prejudice in Geekdom

“I’ve been a fan before anyone even knew what/who  _____ was. I’ve been listening to, playing it, doing it longer than you have. So you’re not a true fan because you only starting liking it after it got popular!”

Has anyone else heard or read this before? Yeah, thought so.

We are so quick to judge other people, to categorize them, to stomp on their delicate budding intrigue before it has a chance to bloom. Why? Because we don’t think they deserve to be interested.

Too many times I hear that if you haven’t been fan since the beginning, then you’re not really a fan. If you haven’t been reading the books, playing the games, listening to the music since the origin of time then you’re not qualified to be a true fan of said subject. I’m calling it.. Bullshit! Loads of it, in fact.

“Oh, you’re a Mario fan because you occasionally play Mario on the Wii? Pfft, then you’re not a real fan. I’ve been playing Mario since the original on NES. “ It’s as if that simple fact makes them more of a fan than the person who occasionally plays newer Mario’s? No, it doesn’t! Just because that person does not know as much or hasn’t played as many games, does not mean that they don’t enjoy Mario just as much as the old school gamers do!

It’s that thought process that causes long time fans to bully the newer or more casual fans, and sometimes it bullies them right out of being fans. Shame on them! Seriously. They want to isolate themselves with the others they deem worthy when all they’re truly doing is shutting people off from enjoying, liking, even loving the subjects they love. And why wouldn’t they want others to love the things that they love? That means having more people to talk to it about, more people to relate to, more people to fuel purchasing around that subject.

Mull it over with me.. The more popular a subject is, the more profitable, and the more you see it. You see more of that product, more of its merchandise, and more things similar to it.

I.E.: Star Wars – Do you really think that if Star Wars hadn’t gotten the ever evolving and constantly growing fandom that it’s had and has that they would still be producing Star Wars movies? NO. They wouldn’t.  It’s thanks to old and new fans that you will continue to see Star Wars movies, t-shirts, video games, ect.

What is my advice to those that continue to look down on the new or casual fans? Quit it. Not only are you bullying people, but you’re doing a disservice to yourself and an injustice to your passions. You should be relating to these new and casual fans; encouraging them even. If not for their involvement in your interests, you may see less and less of the things you love.

Instead of glaring at the girl who wears the Pikachu shirt simply for the fact that she thinks it’s cute, you should compliment her on having an awesome shirt. Who cares if she didn’t/doesn’t really play Pokemon? Who cares as to what level of extremity her interest in Pokemon is? She is a fan. You are a fan. It’s time to accept that simply as it is.

Of course, this doesn’t just apply to the subjects that are considered geeky like video games and books. Simply put: Someone isn’t more deserving of being a fan than someone else!

Just because I didn’t read the Harry Potter books as they were being released from the beginning doesn’t mean that I don’t love them as much as the people that did. It took me years to finally pick up the series. Why can’t a fan be a new fan?

Just because I don’t play video games every day doesn’t mean that I’m not a gamer girl. I love video games. Always have, always will. Why can’t a fan be a casual fan?

Just because I can’t explain to you the founding of the FC Barcelona team and I don’t watch each and every game doesn’t mean that I’m not a FCB fan! Why can’t a fan be both casual and new?

I think it’s due time that we as geeks stop categorizing fandom and just be a fan who respects other fans. Sure, I might be 100% more obsessed with Final Fantasy than the young guy who’s only played the newest game, but we are both fans. And hey, I’m down with that!

 

PS: Part 2 coming soon!

 

~ Britney

 

Geeks & Fitness

Most people who tend to identify themselves as geeks are usually one or more of the following:

Video Gamers, Readers, Card/Table Top Gamers, Movie/Show Junkies, Artists

Anyone else notice how sedentary these hobbies are? Is anyone else frustrated with the choice of enjoying your favorite hobbies vs. going to exercise? Well, I am!

I grew up running around like a wild child, but as video games caught my interest I became more sedentary and gained weight. I was chubby through middle school, but started to slim down in high school due to marching band. Exit high school and enter the real world of bills, work, cheap fast food, a slowing metabolism, and stress. Suddenly my hobbies became my enemy. I sit to play video games, I sit to browse the web, and I sit to read.

So despite being on my feet all day with my past and current job, it’s been really difficult to maintain a healthy weight. It’s a balancing act to decide how to utilize the time and energy that I have after work. Cleaning, laundry, hobbies, exercise, ect.

And not only is it a matter of balancing, but then there is a conflict of motivation. If I just bought a new book, why in the world would I want to leave it inside while I go outside to exercise?!

Alas, I’ve come up with an experiment that may resolve this. What if we rewire our brain to think of our sedentary hobbies as the reward for going out to exercise? The idea itself is a great one, and I’ve recently been working on said rewiring. It isn’t the easiest thing, however, but I will continue to try and let everyone know how I progress.

 

Any ideas? Suggestions? Opinions? – I’d definitely love some input!

 

PS: I WILL have that Jigglypuff/Wigglytuff tank! ❤

~ Britney

M.I.A. Apologies & More

Ok, so I am posting this to apologize and apologize again for my inactivity and the overall inactivity of our blog. Life has a tendency to grab hold of you and not allow for the other things that you do in you spare time. Blogging was one of those things.

On a more revealing note, Kelly and I sort of jumped into the deep end when we first created the blog and we drowned in our own exuberance. We put too much on our shoulders, and even with two of us we couldn’t meet the goals we set for ourselves. That pretty much put the flame out for us. It turned blogging into a chore and we never really intended it to be that way.

But.. We’re back!

We’re excited to get back into the blogging groove, and we’ve set reasonable expectations for ourselves and each other so look forward to seeing a steady flow of posts from now on.

With that being said,

Kelly and I would like to formally welcome Whitney to Geeky ‘n Girly. We recently invited her to write with us, and we feel like she has her own unique angle on the world of being feminine and geeky. So look forward to an introductory post from her in the near future as well as her own section on our About page.

 

~ Britney

Recent Novel Reads

I haven’t read actual books in awhile as I’ve been reading mostly manga as of late but as fate would have it I’ve been having extra time in the morning before work so I decided to make two purchases one being The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky and the second being Looking for Alaska by John Green. I’m going to discuss The Perks of Being a Wallflower first.

I had been meaning to read this book for some time now I just never got around to it I kept seeing the previews for the movie and it seemed to have that “independent” feel to it that I love so much. I wanted to read the novel first before watching the movie so that I could truly experience it. I have only watched a movie before reading the book one time and that was back in high school my boyfriend took me to go see The Golden Compass and I fell in absolute love with it and had to have the book and was ecstatic when I found out it was a trilogy. So I got the books for Christmas that year and I was so upset when I read the book because of how marvelous and wondrous it was that I couldn’t believe how much the movie had been “disney-ed” up. I love the His Dark Materials trilogy it is one of my very favorites but I told myself I would never watch a movie before the novel again.

Sorry for that tangent. This is one of those books that you feel different after reading. That gives you hope for tomorrow. I related to Charlie in the sense of crying. I cry very easily and it’s something I used to hate about myself. You always know that one dad or grandfather that you’ve never seen cry except maybe once when something really happens. Something worth crying for. I wanted to be like that it seemed so beautiful to me. But I’m not that type of person and I’m alright with that now. I look at it that maybe I just feel things more that I love everything and everyone so much. So much that it overflows.

Everything about Charlie is beautiful. From just the way he feels walking home taking in the wind on your face and leaves falling and the way the air smells. It makes me happy that even though this is a novel that there are people who feel. I’m not saying that most people don’t feel because everyone does but this is different. These are the feelings that make you float that make your soul smile and choke you up. To quote American Beauty ” Sometimes there’s so much beauty in the world I feel like I can’t take it and my heart is just going to cave in.” Now I don’t know who he was writing to or that he was writing to anyone at all (as my boyfriend suggested) and I don’t think that it matters we all need to feel connected to someone or something and tell our hearts greatest wants and our story.

I feel this is relateable in the sense that we all have our Sam and Patrick at some point and time. That just like that you can meet extraordinary people.

You have to live with your soul wide open and love like you’ve never been hurt and trust like you’ve never been betrayed. There are bad people in this world don’t let them stifle you. At least you know that you’ve done what you can and that you’re a good person. This isn’t an in depth review. Just my feelings.

I read this novel directly after reading The Perks of Being a Wallflower so I was already quite emotional and then this hit me like a ton of bricks. It’s one of those you kind of want to chuck across the room and scream WHYYY but it’s real. These things happen and you can’t stop them. You have to pick up the pieces of what was your life and keep going remembering their smile the way they talked and carried themselves. I don’t have much to say on this one except that it made me feel. It made me feel alive.

I drew this for Alaska right after I read one of my favorite of many quotes.

” I wanted so badly to lie down next to her on the couch, to wrap my arms around her and sleep. Not fuck, like in those movies. Not even have sex. Just sleep together in the most innocent sense of the phrase. But I lacked the courage and she had a boyfriend and I was gawky and she was gorgeous and I was hopelessly boring and she was endlessly fascinating. So I walked back to my room and collapsed on the bottom bunk, thinking that if people were rain, I was drizzle and she was hurricane.”

Thank you for reading-Kelly