And also, all of those look like I'd also have to buy brushes and whatnot. This is complicated! And expensive!

Which is why I'd go for the first if you are truly starting from scratch and experimenting. It has everything and you never really know what is going to click.

And, no, you do not need that lipstick, Jilli. The packaging, however, is STUNNING.

But it's so preeeety!

You're right, I don't need it.

Poor Pix! You've been working really hard.

Wow that's a lot of make-up talk. I've been making notes as I'm just starting (at the age of twenty seven) to wear make-up. Like twice a year. But still!

I think if you don't start wearing it when you're a teenager, it's pretty difficult to get into the habit when you're older. I sort of tried when I was a teenager, but I had awful acne and generally thought that wearing make-up just made me look like a person with terrible acne with a load of make-up crusted on top, and if everyone could see how spotty I was anyway, what was the point in aggravating my skin by wearing it.

So far I have a mascara and an eyeshadow and a powder dealie type thing. This is a big deal!

The reviews say it's smaller in size than the picture looks. It's advertised as travel size. But yeah, it's definitely big in quantity. Does it come with references so that I could buy full sizes of what I like, I wonder?

It could be fun if you really are experimenting, and it's not a bad price for that.

What really grabs me is the packaging. They need to make a travel case like that that you can toss your own stuff into. Cute!

Timelies all!

Need to shower and dress so I can go get my errands done. Not feeling motivated at the moment.

Which is why I'd go for the first if you are truly starting from scratch and experimenting. It has everything and you never really know what is going to click.

I agree with Cass on this one.

Liese, you are of Japanese ancestry, yes? Judging just from pix I've seen , I would say the all colors in the Smashbox set would be more flattering and versatile for your skin tone than the majority of the colors in the bigger sets.

Blushes should be in the peachy-mauvey family, not pink, something like Smashbox Bare: [link]

Same with lippies, something like SB's Pixel or Afterglow gloss. You'll prolly be happier if you try blushes and lippies on. Of all the color makeups though, I splurge on shadows.

It's raining here, after 3 weeks of no rain, and yesterday, i FINALLY got D's ex to go through most of the stuff in the garage and basement, so I can finally start tossing. Which, yay, but fer fuck's sake, I'm tired of cleaning up her messes.

Damn, I want to play with makeup for Buffistas!!

Thank you all very much, I just bought a blue nail polish (I've never worn anything outside the pinky-rose color family on my nails!) and two new lipsticks that are perfect colors for me and so far haven't dried my lips. And a black body crayon, which I'm currently wearing as eyeliner. I don't know what possessed me. The spirit of Jilli, perhaps.

Leise, how about this: [link] less expensive, yes?

Douglas Coupland's depressing next ten years

Douglas Coupland's "Radical pessimist's guide to the next 10 years," from this weekend's Globe and Mail is a thought-provoking (and somewhat depressing) exercise in linear predictions based on peak oil, rampant financialist malfeasance and climate change:

1) It's going to get worse
No silver linings and no lemonade. The elevator only goes down. The bright note is that the elevator will, at some point, stop.

2) The future isn't going to feel futuristic
It's simply going to feel weird and out-of-control-ish, the way it does now, because too many things are changing too quickly. The reason the future feels odd is because of its unpredictability. If the future didn't feel weirdly unexpected, then something would be wrong.

3) The future is going to happen no matter what we do. The future will feel even faster than it does now
The next sets of triumphing technologies are going to happen, no matter who invents them or where or how. Not that technology alone dictates the future, but in the end it always leaves its mark. The only unknown factor is the pace at which new technologies will appear. This technological determinism, with its sense of constantly awaiting a new era-changing technology every day, is one of the hallmarks of the next decade...

6) The middle class is over. It's not coming back
Remember travel agents? Remember how they just kind of vanished one day? That's where all the other jobs that once made us middle-class are going - to that same, magical, class-killing, job-sucking wormhole into which travel-agency jobs vanished, never to return. However, this won't stop people from self-identifying as middle-class, and as the years pass we'll be entering a replay of the antebellum South, when people defined themselves by the social status of their ancestors three generations back. Enjoy the new monoclass!

8) Try to live near a subway entrance
In a world of crazy-expensive oil, it's the only real estate that will hold its value, if not increase.

Ha! - I have #8 handled.

The full article: [link]