After the foul taste that the last BAM Box put in our mouths, this Loot Crate was a welcome pallet cleanser, and the second Loot Crate in a row that contained a Q-Fig! Awesome!
Tag: subscription boxes
The BAM! Box Unboxing – “Revenge: Bad Blood”
We’re finally moving on from BAM! Box, but we had one last box from them to open up, and…well…just watch the video. 😛
Geek Fuel February 2017 (The Legend Returns!)
Only a week after our incredibly late January Geek Fuel arrived…our February Geek Fuel arrived. That’s the Post for you! But at least this one was closer to being on time! lol
Things I’m Addicted to Right Now
I actually have a surprisingly addictive personality, but not for things like drugs or alcohol. No, I get addicted to games, gadgets, TV shows, products, services, and any other number of awesome things. So I thought I’d share! Here are a couple of things that I am ridiculously addicted to right now.
Subscription Boxes
As though you hadn’t noticed, right? When I first found out that these things existed it was like a whole new world opened up to me, and as a result I went a little overboard at first. I’ve therefore spent the past few months trying out different boxes to see what they’re like and what I want to continue getting. Currently my favorites are Loot Crate and Horror Block, which have both been sending me some pretty fun, awesome goodies, and I’m also in love with Ipsy’s Glam Bag as an affordable, value-packed beauty subscription. There’s a ton more options that I’d love to try, but at this point I can’t really justify spending any more money than I already am.
Once Upon a Time
I’ll be the first person to admit that the plotline of this show does not instill a lot of confidence in its quality: the evil queen casts a spell that rips all the fairy tale characters you’ve ever known out of their world and into ours, where none of them remember who they are and no one gets their happy ending. I mean, come on…that sounds more like a crappy cartoon than a show meant for adults, right? But I gave it a try, and even though it was hard to sit through the opening every time (the narrator says basically what I just did at the beginning of every episode), I soon found myself falling in love with it. The show actually has a pretty intricately-woven plot that incorporates a ton of characters, and it’s not as fluffy and cute as you might imagine…people even die, on a fairly regular basis even. Long story short, if you like fantasy and fun characters, this show might be worth a try. I devoured the entire second season just over the past six days.
Silent Hill (a la Guillermo del Toro)
Okay, okay, I can’t really be obsessed with a game that wont’ be out for, like, two years. But I’m very excited about it. The hubby and I recently played the teaser game, P.T. that was created as a way to show that the staff behind the new Silent Hill are capable of making a truly frightening horror game. More precisely, I played and he watched, because he wanted to see me almost have a heart attack. The mini-game certainly proved its point; I nearly threw the controller through the TV screen more than once. And having played it, I am super-hyped for this new game, because what’s more fun that being scared silly from the safety of your own living room?
Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Nail Polish
Call me girly if you must, but I absolutely love this stuff. I’ve always liked nail polish because it’s a cute, easy way to look a little more feminine (plus it keeps me from biting my nails), but I never applied it often because it drives me foolish how quickly it wears and chips. Cue Miracle Gel. There are other gel polishes out there that are quite good as well, I’m sure, but this is the one I decided to try and I’m so glad I did. It comes in tons of super-cute colors, goes on really smooth, finishes bright and shiny and lovely-looking, and really, truly lasts. I am currently wearing the “Hunger Flames” color (it’s a kind of pinkish-purple) and after almost a week only the very tips of my nails are starting to wear a bit. I’m more than happy with the product and I hope that Ipsy sends me another color or two sometime in the future!
Final Fantasy X-2
Hear me out! I know that X-2 is widely regarded as one of the stupidest Final Fantasy games ever (the “garment grid” might have something to do with that, I’ll admit) but I always thought it was actually pretty cute and fun, with the story being an interesting addition to the FFX one. A little while ago my hubby picked me up the remastered PS Vita version of FFX, which came with a download code for X-2, and just recently I began playing it. Color me hooked. It’s so silly, but it’s fun, and isn’t that what games are supposed to be? Fun? Yeah. You know I’m right.
David’s Tea: Cotton Candy flavor
Last but not least on my list for today, one of the most delicious teas I’ve tried from David’s Tea yet. I wound up with a packet of this particular flavor when I decided to try their Summer “Carnival” box, and I’m so glad I did. It’s a delicious blend of green rooibos, mango, brittle, flavoring, and sprinkles (just…because), and really truly does smell and taste like cotton candy. I demolished the entire bag in about a week and had to go get some more! And the topping on the cake is that it’s caffiene free, so I can enjoy it all day long without having to worry about keeping myself up half the night.
So there you have it: my obsessions for now. Will they last? Will they change? I don’t know…give me a few months and ask me again. ^_~
Nerd Block Jr (for Girls) Unboxing and Review July 2014
An extra post for you today so that I can share my third unboxing of the month: Nerd Block Jr (for Girls). As always, please check out my unboxing video first:
If you didn’t watch the video, you’re missing the disappointment on my face during the second half of the box. To help accentuate that disappointment, here’s a cost analysis of the box:
Ty Beanie Baby “Prickles”: $5
Hello Kitty blind bag: $4
ChickaDEE kid’s magazine: I couldn’t find the price of a single magazine, but if you were to buy a subscription the total cost would be approximately $3 per magazine, so I’m going with that
Pin-Art Toy: as I mentioned when I received this same exact toy in last month’s Nerd Block original, these can be found at the Dollar Store for about $2, so that’s all I’m assigning to it
Total approximate value of box: $14
Total cost to me: $22
So right off the bat, you can see why I’m less than impressed. Last month’s Nerd Block Jr was weak, but this month’s was absolutely pathetic in that it didn’t even reach a value that covers the cost of the damn subscription. Aside from that, I find it extremely lame and insulting that they included the pin art toy that had been included in last month’s original box. One can’t help but assume that they found themselves with a ton of pin art leftovers and thought, “Screw it…give them to the kids.”
All in all, I was just very, very disappointed, and pretty much immediately decided to cancel the Nerd Block Jr subscription. After all, if I’m not even getting enough of a value out of the box to cover the cost of the box, what is the point? As it stands, I could have gone out and purchased each of the items out of the past two boxes and it would have cost me about $5 less than what I paid for two months of Nerd Block Jr subscription. Does that seem like a deal to you? (Hint: if it does, you really need to go back and retake grade school math.)
So, in conclusion, extreme disappointment in Nerd Block Jr leads to my cancelling the subscription. Unfortunately by the time I get home from work and get the box open it’s already past the cutoff date to do a cancellation, so I’m stuck with one more box before the account is actually closed. Maybe Nerd Block will make it up to me by packing said box with about $100 worth of merch, but somehow I really doubt it.
Accountability Wednesdays: Week 24
Before we get down to the accountability today, I have a few things to talk about. The first is a bit of an excuse for why this week’s post is going to be a little doomy and gloomy. As I’ve mentioned previously, I recently started a new job. Something about that new job that I didn’t know until less than a week ago is tht the camp (where I live while I’m on shift) is an hour’s bus ride away from the site. Another thing that I didn’t know right away is that said bus ride does not overlap at all with any of my 12-hour shift. And yet another thing that I actually didn’t find out until I got here is that we don’t get paid for our lunch break, so my 12-hour day is actually a 12-and-a-half-hour day. When you work in the bus rides plus the time it takes to gather my gear and lunch in the morning, that means that for the 14 straight days of my shift I’m working 15-hour days. That leaves nine hours a day in camp to have dinner, shower, do anything that might need doing (like laundry), and sleep. To make a long story short: unless I plan to give up a great deal of sleep, I’m not going to be getting a whole lot of anything done during the time that I’m out here. So go easy on me, will you? I wrote a large chunk of this very post on my iPhone during lunch break. -_-
On a lighter note, I have recently discovered the world of “subscription boxes”. In case you don’t know, a subscription box is a service where you pay a fee each month, and each month the company you’re dealing with sends you a mystery box full of goodies that (presumably) has a retail value that is significantly higher than what you paid. I kinda knew that these things existed, but I never realized how many of them there really are, or how many of them would actually appeal to me. Believe me when I say that it has taken a great exercise of willpower to keep myself from signing up for about a dozen of them. The one that I did decide to take a chance on is Nerd Block. This particular subscription is aimed at nerds, and is all about geeky merchandise and collectibles. There is an “adult” block, two kid blocks (one for girls, one for boys), and a “horror” block for nerds who love stuff like zombies and horror movies. The adult and horror blocks always include a t-shirt and several collectibles, all foro $19.99 plus shipping and handling (for myself in Nova Scotia it comes out to about $32). The kids’ blocks are all toys and collectibles, at a cost of $13.99 plus shipping and handling (for me, about $21). At first I was a bit iffy about whether the price after shipping (goddamn it costs a fortune to ship anything to Nova Scotia) wouldn’t be worth it, but then I started watching review videos and I was impressed with the amount (and quality) of items that came in each box. So I thought, hell…I’ll give it a try. I ordered a girls’ box for my daughter, and an original adult box which will – depending on the items – be divided between myself, my husband, and my daughter. But don’t tell either of them…I’ll probably hold on to the items until their birthdays or Christmas…shhhhh….(my husband totally doesn’t read these accountability posts and this is how I’m going to prove it).
The reason i’m explaining all this is because I plan to do an unboxing/review of the blocks when I recieve them, and I wanted to get my readers’ opinions on something. Should I write the reviews and just include pictures, or should I do a video? I have to admit that I thoroughly enjoyed watching other peoples’ unboxing videos and I thought it might be fun to do my own. But then again, my skill has always been in the written word, not the spoken one. So I’m going to leave it up to you guys: would you rather see a well-worded written review with photos, or an unboxing video in which I’ll probably stumble over myself and say, “Ummm…” a lot?
Okay, now on to the accountability….*gulp*
Goal #1. Lose ten pounds and become healthier overall.
This, just…yeah. As I explained, my new schedule pretty much allows me no time to do anything besides work, eat, and sleep. In fact, I’m losing sleep in order to finish writing this post, and I’m probably going to be very mad about it in the morning. I did manage to get one run and one strength exercise session in before I came out here, but now that I’m here it’s pretty much all over. There is literally no way that I can fit in exercise without giving up sleep, and since I already require more sleep than it is possible to get out here, that’s not going to happen any time soon. I am extremely POed about it, I don’t mind telling you. But that’s all there is to it.
On the eating side of things, I’m not really sure what to say yet. I do tend to eat more while I’m living on camp, just because there’s so much food to be had, but I also tend to eat more better things like fruit and boiled eggs and the like. I guess the tell will be whether I end up gaining or losing weight while I am completely and utterly unable to exercise.
On the upside of things, I think the meds my doctor gave me for my stomach issues may be helping. I’ve been having a hard time remembering to take them, because it’s a three-times-a-day kind of thing that I’m not used to, but I think I have a system down now and I’ve actually been feeling pretty good. More to come on that after I’ve had another week or so to test the waters.
Goal #2. Be more active on social media and work hard on my author platform.
I’m a bit up in the air about whether this was a good week or not. It kinda feels like it was, but that may be because I spent so much time conversing with a coworker on Facebook. Something that I can comment on is that I’ve been getting lots of random shares, comments, and retweets, so that’s pretty awesome.
Also awesome? Remember that silly picture I made up for 9gag about Robert Downey Jr’s inception-like role in Tropic Thunder?
That totally wound up on RDJ’s Facebook page. I was totally stoked. I mean, I’m not silly enough to think that RDJ himself found the picture and was like, “This is so cool! I’m going to post it on my Facebook!”, but the fact that it wound up there in any way is pretty cool. Go me for actually doing something humourous that people enjoyed. 😀
Goal #3: COMPLETE my zombie apocalypse novel, Nowhere to Hide.
I’m certain you know where I’m going to go with this one. Right off the bat, I don’t have my manuscript files with me because (as I’ve mentioned before) I don’t take my laptop out West with me and it’s impossible to work on those files via my tablet. Second, even if I did take my laptop or could use my tablet, I wouldn’t have the time. Again: losing sleep just to write this post.
Goal #4: Write 500,000 words.
I made a boo-boo pertaining to this goal: I forgot to make a copy of the file where I keep track of my word count to bring out West with me. Thus, I have no idea what my total is for this week. I’m almost positive that I had about 4000 words written before I left, and I’ve somehow managed to scribble out something like 3000 words in between orientation courses and bumpy bus rides, so we’ll just go ahead and say that it’s about 7000. I expect that number to go down significantly by next week since, again…no goddamn time.
And now, with all that said, I’m going to prove how desperate I really am for sleep and go to bed. -.-zzzzzZZZZZZZ
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