Styling Your Hair With A Headband

I remember the days of wearing headbands as a kid in the early 90’s. I used to love them. Any pretty color I saw, I begged my mom to get it for me. When headbands became the hair accessory trend for livening up your hair into the 2000’s…I was more reluctant to embrace this particular hair accessory trend again.

Headbands feel like an accessory you need the right type of hair or face shape to pull off. I came to the conclusion as I got much older that I had neither the hair or face shape to ever wear a headband again after sifting through old childhood photos. It became one of those moments of, “What was I thinking?” Then again, the early 90’s is rife with poor fashion choices and bad hair as we transitioned out of the 80’s.

Leighton Meester as Blair Waldorf from Gossip Girl

Depending on the headband, it can conjure the image of a Catholic or private school attending girl or it can be socialite chic. Earlier seasons of Gossip Girl embraced the explosion of headbands into the fashion accessories market quite often.

The headbands I grew up wearing as a kid weren’t as fun as the ones you see in stores now. The headband got a huge makeover where you have them embellished in feathers, big flowers, or jewels. Headbands in my day only had plain colors, patterns like plaid, and maybe a bow. I’ll admit, the headband look is cute to play with, but my hair and face shape doesn’t quite agree with it. Wearing a headband now only makes my face terribly bigger than it should be. My hair is also very thick and curly, and doesn’t really allow a headband to sit properly on my head.

I’m not entirely sure if headbands are still in style for hair, but whenever I walk into an accessories store, it’s all I ever see. I miss the days when I could walk into an accessories store and see more claw clips, jewel clips, or any other regular clip aside from headbands. It just makes shopping for hair accessories much trickier.

Headbands aren’t my cup of tea, but what do you think? Do you own a different headband for every occasion? Or are you like me and can’t wear one no matter how cute and tempting it looks on a store hook?

Anime Blogger Interrogation Game

A bit of randomness and fun for this week’s blog update. Marina over at Anime B&B has tagged me to take part in the “anime blogger interrogation game.” This is another opportunity for my readers and fellow bloggers to get to know me. Here are the rules:

Rules
(copy/pasted from the original)

  • Each person is supposed to follow the rule of fives.You are allowed to ask 5 questions, after which you can tag up to 5 bloggers by hyper-linking to their blog; 5 questions because it’s not too many to flood another blogger and occupy too much of his/her time, but yet a large enough number to ask your most important questions, and 5 bloggers to avoid spamming. Hence, prioritize your questions, and who you wish to ask!
  • Those tagged are obliged to answer the questions in a blog post, and after which, they are entitled to create their own 5 questions and tag 5 other bloggers, so on and so fourth. You are allowed to tag the person that tagged you in the first place. Also, copy and paste this section on your blog so others can understand how the game goes.
  • In the case where a blogger strongly refuses to answer a question, he/she must instead post a nice anime image, wallpaper or cosplay picture, et cetera in response to that question.
  • To make things interesting, a blogger can include wildcards in his/her 5 questions by placing an asterisk, (*), after which those tagged are obliged to reveal something interesting about themselves that others did not previously know. There is no limit to the number of asterisks one can place (which means there can be up to 5 wildcard questions).
  • Anyone can feel free to start the game; you don’t necessarily need someone to tag you. Just create your 5 questions and tag your 5 people of choice. However, the catch is that you must answer your own 5 questions as well.
  • To potentially prevent an endless game, this round of games will end on the 8th September 2012, 12pm JST (GMT +9). After which, no more bloggers can tag others to answer their questions.

Here are my answers to Marina’s questions:

1. If you had to cosplay as one anime character at the largest anime convention closest to you, who would you be, and why?

A: If I were actually brave enough to do it, I would cosplay as one of the Sailor Scouts from Sailor Moon. It’s mainly because it’s my all time favorite series growing up.

2. What is your favorite post on Anime B&B? If possible, explain.

A: I enjoyed your recent post about your reflections on animanga blogs. I thought it was really informative and it was a great discussion about what everyone’s own personal preferences are for wanting to follow certain blogs.

3. You’ve just been informed that you have one more day to live.  What last meal would you like to eat?

A: This is tough. I suppose Chinese food would be my last meal. I would go for General Tsao’s chicken with a side of fried dumplings.

4. Looking at Hunter x Hunter‘s Nen chart and role descriptions, where do you most likely fit? Is that what you would wish for, or would you like to have a different ability?

    1. Enhancers are determined and simple. Most of them never lie and hide nothing. Their words and actions are often dominated by their feelings. They are generally very selfish and focused on their goals.
    2. Emitters are impatient and not detail-oriented. Many of them quick-tempered and hot-blooded. They resemble the users in building their impulsivity, but the difference with them, they probably tend to calm down and forget more easily.
    3. Manipulators are logical people who advance at their own pace. They are all for arguments and tend to want to keep their families and loved ones safe. On the other hand, when it comes to pursuing their own goals, they do not listen to what others might have to say about it.
    4. Transmuters are whimsical liars. Transmutation users have unique attitudes, and many are regarded as weirdos or cheaters. They rarely reveal their true intentions.
    5. Conjurers are typically high-strung.They are often on guard as to be overly cautious. They are very observant and rarely fall into the traps. Being able to analyze things calmly is the strength of the materialization of users.
    6. Specialists are individualistic and charismatic.They will tell you anything important on them, and refrain from being close friends. But, because of their natural charisma that draws others, they are always surrounded by many people.

A: These are really interesting. I would say I’m most like the Enhancer. I am very determined, and I try to be honest about my feelings when I can. I know I can also be an emotional person, but then again I’m also practical. I don’t make my decisions solely on emotions alone. I don’t think I want a different ability from the Enhancer, but I don’t ever want to be completely selfish that I only consider my goals and no one else.

5. Your life’s an anime accompanied by its own soundtrack and theme songs. Which composer would you like in control of your OST?

A: Kajiura Yuki and Kanon Wakeshima! The OST for Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle and Vampire Knight feature these artists respectively. I really enjoyed how they conveyed the overall mood for each series. I don’t doubt they would create something amazing if my life were an anime with a soundtrack to go with it.

I don’t quite have five who can potentially do this, but these are the ones I want to tag to participate: Black Strawberry, Pixels and Panels, Gagging on Sexism, and Shoujo Corner. Now for the questions for those I tagged:

1. If you can go on a date with any anime character, who would it be and why?

2. When you first got into anime/manga, has it increased your interest in the Japanese language or culture?

3. How did you get into anime/manga?

4. What anime series, if any, are you currently watching?

5. If for one day you could be part of your favorite anime series, what would it be and why?

Since the rules say I also need to answer my own questions, here they are:

1. I would pick Mamoru from Sailor Moon. I think he would make an interesting date because he’s intelligent, charming, and very much the gentleman. I can see why Usagi would be attracted to him.

2. I know when I started watching anime and reading manga, I found myself fascinated by the Japanese culture. Everything about their culture is unique and a complete contrast from the American culture. I also liked how I managed to pick up some basic Japanese words just by watching anime, but it would be amazing if I could be fluent in it.

3. I got into it through a friend from high school. She showed me Sailor Moon and then Fushigi Yugi. From there, I started exploring other anime series or manga series on my own. I was hooked!

4. I’m currently watching Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle, and having a hard time finishing it.

5. I would choose to be part of Ouran High School Host Club for a day. The amount of fun and craziness you can get into with the Host Club gang would be a day I wouldn’t forget!

I hope you enjoyed this fun little post!

The Men of Bioware: Their Romance Arcs, Personalities, & How They Measure Against Each Other Pt. I

There is no questioning how much I’m a Bioware fangirl. I enjoy the storytelling, the worlds, the characters, and the romance. After doing at least one playthrough of Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, and all three of the Mass Effect games I have formulated some strong opinions about the Bioware men I have romanced thus far. The men I’m talking about are Alistair of Dragon Age: Origins, Anders of Dragon Age 2, and Kaidan Alenko of the Mass Effect series. All three men have their pros and cons as characters and romance options, and I’ll get into what those are in part one of this post. This has been a post I’ve been working on for months. There is a lot to say and discuss about these characters, which is why this post has to be broken up into two parts.

Continue reading “The Men of Bioware: Their Romance Arcs, Personalities, & How They Measure Against Each Other Pt. I”

The Playable RPG Character––Voice Acted vs. Non-Voice Acted

RPGs are great games to play. You take full control of a character, and you are off on your adventure. A lot of these games involve exploration of massive worlds and interaction with exotic creatures or races. You also get games where you are given options to play as a male or female, and you get to choose the class or background of your playable character.

Continue reading “The Playable RPG Character––Voice Acted vs. Non-Voice Acted”