The Liebster Award

Posted by Varina
Hi Everybody!
The lovely Phantom Cat gave me the "Liebster Award", which, in addition to being incredibly sweet, also gave me something convenient to blog about.

The Rules.


  • Each person must post 11 things about themselves
  • Answer the questions the tagger has set for you
  • Create 11 questions for the people you have tagged to answer
  • Choose 11 people and link them in your post
  • Go to their page and tell them
  • No tag backs
As per usual I am going to be a rebel, sort of.  I am so late in posting this and have seen this award going around and have not kept tabs on who has gotten it, so, if you are reading this consider yourself tagged! (that is, um, if you don't mind)


11 Things about Me!
  1. I technically own and regularly use three different e-readers
  2. Despite this I usually buy physical copies of all the books I really like (generally used though), because I worry about the longevity of e-books, the fact that I own a license to the content when I own an e-book, not the content itself, and whether or not I will be able to read them during the zombie apocalypse or wevs
  3. Yes, I think that during the zombie apocalypse my primary concern will be whether or not I have something to read, thankyouverymuch.
  4. I have black nail polish in every conceivable format (crackle, glitter, magnetic, nail art pen, transparent glaze), but regular nail polish.
  5. I am nearly 27, but did not realize until a few weeks ago when I started working on some videos that I have a slight lisp.  I do not know what this particular lack of self-awareness says about me.
  6. I'm going to go ahead and answer one of my questions (see below) and say I like the internet, and given a choice between having a jet-pack vs the internet I want the internet.
  7. Actually given the choice between most things in golden age sci-fi and the internet I want the internet.  I mean, who wants sentient robots (I'm having a hard enough time getting a job as it is without having to compete with someone who can be programmed to do my job perfectly and 24/7) or to go to Mars (it's super-cold there), and I don't know anyone I would trust with a time machine.
  8. I may not be the target demographic for golden age scifi.
  9. To shift directions radically, my current life goals legitimately involve living in a yurt.
  10. There are a lot of reasons for this, but the main thing that I keep coming back to is that, with some curved shelving, I could have 360 degrees of books! (well, like 352, minus the section needed for the door).
  11. I am currently working on a novel that is a re-telling of "The Twelve Dancing Princesses" where instead of sneaking out every night to go to dance parties they are plotting a rebellion, and I am finding the hardest part is coming up with a decent title so the working title is just Dance, Dance, Revolution.  I am kind of sad there is no chance of keeping that
Answers to Phantom Cat's Questions


  1. Your first goth band? I actually started to listen to a bunch of goth music all at the same time, but the first band I got really into was probably Dead Can Dance
  2.  New or early batman movies? I love the new ones.  I am a little trepidatious about Anne Hathaway as Catwoman, but I am going to hold off judgement until I actually see it.  I am really excited about seeing The Dark Knight Rises since I saw bits and pieces of the filming last summer (several scenes were filmed in and around my office building). Pittsburgh is Gotham now!
  3. The longest you have ever gone without sleep? There were a few times in college when I stayed up all night (never for a good reason either), but I think probably no more than 24 hours.  I have never been super into not sleeping, and actually sleep a good eight hours through most of college and all of grad school.
  4.  What are your phobias? I am very afraid of heights and somewhat of dogs.  I used to be very afraid of dogs because when I was very young a nasty neighbor dog just bit me when I was in the middle of petting it, but now am really only afraid when they are barking at me.
  5. Tea or coffee? Tea, I have a whole cupboard of different kinds.
  6. The one country in the world you would love to visit?  currently I think Iceland tops the list but I kind of want to go to ALL THE PLACES!
  7. Is you hair natural or dyed? Dyed, naturally *wink*
  8.  Any body modifications you would never consider getting done? Loads, scarification freaks me way out as does tongue splitting.  I think I am to lazy to commit to the process of ear-stretching.
  9.  Your most hated tv show. I don't know.  Since I don't have a TV I don't randomly come across shows, so I only watch things I like.  My most hated TV plot-line is the now standard detective drama thing where the main male character and female character start out hating each other then fall in love then spend like five seasons not dealing with it.  It worked (up to a point) for Mulder and Scully because their characters and plots were reasonably well constructed to explain why they didn't just kiss already, but it is officially played out.
  10. What book are you reading at the moment? The Books of Lost Things by John Connolly 
  11. What do you do to chill out after a long day? Mostly I dick around on the internet...
11 Questions for y'all (I am mostly re-using questions from a similar meme on tumblr) sure to peer into your very soul!:

  1. You can only choose one book to take with you to go live on a deserted island, what is that book? (It can be an anthology, and it can also be a book on how to survive on a desert island but I am going to suspect that no one will pick that because then you’d be bored — with ceviche) 
  2. While I am at it, what is the best kind of nail polish and why?
  3. Since I already went there, which MLP are you?
  4.  Would you rather be respected or generally enjoyed? 
  5. Which is the most useless Pokemon?
  6.  Cake or Death?
  7.  Golden age science fiction predicted that by now we would have jet-packs, but not the internet, is this a good trade or do you want jet-packs? 
  8. Speaking of, pretend you are James Tiberius Kirk, which alien species or hybrid is the most fun in bed (feel free to use species from TNT, DS9, or Voyager as well)?
  9.  What is the proper way to brew/serve tea? 
  10. The “Nevermind” baby is old enough to buy booze legally in the US, does this make you think: a)shit I’m old, or b) what is a nevermind baby?
  11.  Best Disney heroine (including but not exclusively princesses)?
PS: I am working on my video shooting and editing skills for a project, so I made a thing! It is a hair tutorial for side braids and a fancy bun, so check it out if you want:
It has some annotations that don't seem to survive the embedding process so you may wish to watch it on youtube.

Category: 3 comments

Clikcy-Links on Styles for Long Hair

Posted by Varina
Currently I am in a phase where I am bored with all my normal hairstyles and want to learn more new ones.  It happens periodically, but I thought I should turn this impulse into something useful and share some of my favorite resources with all of you.

I am a very visual learner, especially for things I need to do, like hairstyles or crafts, so I have been spending a lot of time on youtube.  Here are some of my favorite channels, in order, from shortest to longest, of how long your hair has to be to do the average style on the channel.  For me a good channel for hair videos is one with clear instructions, decent image quality, interesting an varied styles, with styles that can be done on yourself and don't require a lot of product or heat styling, and that shows what the finished style looks at the beginning so you don't have to watch a nine-minute video and then discover you don't actually like how it looks.

Dolly-Tube: She creates beautiful unique styles, often incorporating interesting braids, and gives clear easy to follow instructions. I also find it charming how she calls her styles "hair ideas" which I think sort of demystifies the whole process of inventing your own hair styles "oh, this was just idea I had and so I messed around with it". I am actually currently wearing this style:
Loepsie: this channel features a good mix of contemporary/currently popular styles with historical or film-inspired looks.  She has also recently started a series of historical makeup tutorials.  The first one is about Ancient Egypt and if you can get over the lols of her describing what I would call weekday eyeliner "extreme" it's interesting and informative:
Arrow Oden is my favorite for styles that are more suited for everyday wear that are attractive but easy to learn and do.  I also find her speaking manner charming (although how much of that is my typically american tendency to think most non-chavvy English accents make a person seem more pleasant I don't know).
Finaly 4ypn0tica, has much, much longer hair than mine so I can't make a few of the styles she does (or they just look completely different), but when I can these are really my favorites.  They are clear and easy to follow, and generally have great music.  So mostly it is my more "aspirational" pick.

As far as non-Youtube resources
Rapunzel's Resource has lots of good, relatively easy styles and good instructions.
Ups and Downs is another favorite hair blog, focusing on historical styles.  She doesn't seem to be updating any more, but there is a pretty good sized archive to browse.
When you have a lot of time for browsing you can go through this ridiculously long list of hairstyle links.

I hope that is useful for some of y'all.  This is kind of a drive-by post, but I will be posting more soon.  I have been working on a major project that hopefully some of you will enjoy, but it will be under wraps until August, probably.



Category: 3 comments