Stuff I Liked: September 2018

This is only a week late! I’d apologize for neglecting my blog, but traffic was actually up in September for the first time since I’ve started my new job.
I guess I’m doing fine blogging, then. I’ve got a September Birchbox post in the works, as well. I’ve used up some of the samples but am keeping the empty bottles around so that I can take pictures of them in a faux unboxing photo set. Now you know the secret.

We’re moved in, unpacked, and I’ve started to hang up some art. I bought and assembled an office chair. Things haven’t quite calmed down, though. We’re working on getting our heat set up for the winter. The house currently has a decrepit oil system in the basement. It’s converted from COAL. It has little door to shovel the coal into and everything. There’s no way that it’s going to last for as long as we want to live here.

I’ve done a wee bit of painting. You guys like the watercolors, right?

I’m still working on how to digitize them. I think that photographs (below) look better than scans (above).

I need to play with my scanner settings some more, but I think that I’ll end up pulling out my good camera going forward. Anyone have any tips?

ICYMI/Blog Stuff

Stuff I liked July 2018/August 2018
Funkless Deodorant Tangerine & Lime Review My holy grail, eco-friendlier deodorant. I’d post this in the summer if I was more savvy about my clicks. What’s up Southern Hemisphere?
Birchbox August 2018
Clinique Moisture Surge Intense Skin Fortifying Hydrator Review
Rimmel Lasting Finish Colour Rush in Give Me a Cuddle Review
Tomoson Review
Valjean Labs Facial Serum in Hydrate

Grumpy Skin has a facebook page! I’m not being irritating with it, WordPress just wont push to private pages anymore. Give it a like, if that’s your thing.

Books

Heathen by Natasha Alterici and Rachel Deering
I am HERE for some modernized Norse mythology. I’m also very deceived by the library categorizing this as teen. There are a ton of boobs. I tried to read it on my break at work.

I did not get fired, so we’re good.

Ms Marvel Volume 7 by G. Willow Wilson and Takeshi Miyazawa
I’m still SUPER INTO Ms. Marvel. It’s all ages, but somehow more political and current than a lot of the “adult” comics I read.

Fruits Basket Volume 4 by Natsuki Takaya
Getting this from the library has been an ordeal. Someone entered the original volumes and the collected volumes as the same book into the catalog. I’ve been having to request three or four books before I get the right one. Worth it. Furuba is holding up.

Video Games

I’ve been desperately trying to play through my Steam sale haul before Fallout 76 comes out. I haven’t decided if I want to play it or not, but I want to be ready if I do. I’ve opened the pre-order page a few times and keep deciding that I don’t want to spend $60 on maybe liking a multiplayer game yet. We’ll see.

Fallout 4 Another great game with a subpar ending from Bethesda. And bugged, oh man. I’m so glad the internet exists to tell me how to get around game breaking bugs. It was fun, though. I’ll probably do what I did with Skyrim and spend a year replaying it while mostly ignoring the plot.

Final Fantasy 7 I desperately wanted this game in high school. I couldn’t find a copy of it to save my life. I’m glad I’m finally getting the chance to play through it. Though it has aged HORRIBLY. There’s a particularly bad part of the story where you crossdress to save one of your party members from potential sex work. Man. I’m really curious how faithful the remake will be. It needs some updates.

Movies

Guess who ugly cried over the Captain Marvel trailer? I did. She’s my absolute favorite Marvel character. I’m excited and terrified for the movie.

How was your October? More importantly, do you also stan Captain Marvel?

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Stuff I liked: June 2018

I almost have some exciting real life news, but I’m going to wait until next month to tell you all. I don’t want to jinx it.

I can tell you that my birthday fundraiser for the ACLU went really well! I raised $200 with an additional $10-30 in late donations. I need to hunt those down. That translates to A LOT of painted postcards. I wasn’t expecting that. He’s two that I’ve mailed out already:

Only, uh, 20 more to go.

ICYMI/Blog Stuff

Paris Letters by Janice MacLeod Review
The Ordinary Granactive 2% Retinoid Emulsion Review
Birthday Fundraiser for the ACLU! (The fundraiser is over, obviously, but there’s some more art here!)
What Subscription Box Should I Try Next?
June 2018 Ipsy Bag — LAST IPSY BAG!
Beyond Intensive Ampoule Hyaluronic Acid

Podcasts

Reveal I’ve been going through Reveal’s back catalogue. They’re a treasure. They have a really good series on immigration, if you’re not quite sure what’s going on.
ZigZag Radiotopia got new summer shows! This one has women explaining blockchain. I’m two episodes in and it seems like a great podcast.
Ear Hustle Episode 17 – The Row Ear Hustle is on their summer break, so now is a great time to get caught up with them. They interview inmates on death row in this one. An important listen.

I clearly don’t know what fiction podcasts are any more. If you listen to a good one, let me know about it in the comments.

Books

Saga Volume 8 by Brian K. Vaughan, Fiona Staples, and Fonografiks
Saga is so consistently good. If you’re looking for trans characters and discussions of abortion in your sci-fi/fantasy, this is the volume for you. And yes, I look for those things. I can only read about so many stoic middle aged men in spaceships, okay?

Video Games

That summer Steam sale got me. I bought something like 6 games, hated three of them, returned them, and bought two more. Steam has a nice return policy. “It wasn’t fun” is a valid return reason.

Right now I’m playing Fallout 4 and I love it. It got some bad reviews, so I had stayed away from it. I don’t trust anyone anymore. I’m having a great time with it.

What are you guys doing this summer?

May 2018

May went by fast. The new job takes up a lot of my time, but it’s been going well.

I felt like I was neglecting my blog a little after last month, when I had some time off. Now I’ve gotten into a good groove with content creation on the weekends. Grumpy Skin is here to stay!

I can’t kick my watercolor habit, either.

(If you like my watercolors, there will be an opportunity for you to get a hand-painted postcard soon! If you don’t like them, there’s still an opportunity. Just, you know, you wont care.)

ICYMI/Blog Stuff

The Ordinary Caffeine Solution + 5% EGCG Review
May 2018 Ipsy Bag
Aviary Attorney Review
The Ordinary Glycolic Acid 7% Toning Solution Review

Cat @ Welcome to my Messy World tagged me in the 3 days, 3 quotes challenge. I dug through the memo app on my phone to see if I had saved any quotes recently and all I’ve got for you is a quote from Reveal (podcast): “You can get in more trouble for killing wildlife than you can for killing a worker”. I’m fun at parties.

I’ve also gotten a Bloglovin’ account. Give me a follow if you’re over there!
I signed up for Ko-Fi as well. There’s a donation button over on the right hand side of the blog if you’d like to fund a weird face mask.

Podcasts

I saw Roman Mars live for the THIRD TIME. Can’t stop, won’t stop. Criminal was there and they’re so lovely live. And Benjamen Walker! And Kurt Kohlstedt too! It was a great time.

It’s fitting that all of my favorite podcast listens this month are Radiotopia.

Liz Phair – Divorce Song by Song Exploder
Marking the start of my Liz Phair obsession.

Immobile Homes (Episode 307) by 99% Invisible
We need to talk about housing.

King’s Candy: A New Orleans Prison Kitchen Vision (Episode 29) by The Kitchen Sisters
Making candy in prison. Of course, there’s more going on in this story than that.

Books

Black Bolt Vol. 1 by Saladin Ahmed and Christian Ward
I will read absolutely anything that Christian Ward does the art for. Look at this:

Image from http://www.multiversitycomics.com/podcasts/comics-syllabus-028-on-black-bolt-by-saladin-ahmed-and-christian-ward-marvel-pull-call/

The story was also spot on, so it looks like I’ll read anything that Saladin Ahmed does now.

Paper Girls Vol. 3 by Brian K. Vaughan, Cliff Chiang, and Matt Wilson
The time travel is getting serious. Is it a spoiler that there is time travel? I started this series thinking that it was a cute story about girls on a paper route and THAT IS NOT WHAT THIS STORY IS.

Giant Days Vol 4. by John Allison, Lissa Treiman, and Max Sarin
Volumes 2 and 3 didn’t live up to the glory of the first for me. I’m glad I stuck with the series, because volume 4 is gold.

Fruits Basket Vol 3. by Natsuki Takaya
I stopped reading Furuba before the translations made their way over to the US, so I’ve been going back and finishing it. Volume 3 was solid. I was surprised that it’s holding up so well. This means my middle school manga obsession is back in full swing. Rec me some stuff?

I’d ask a more general open ended question here for ~the engagement~, but really, I want manga recommendations.

April 2018

I did things and liked stuff this month!
The weather is warming up, I’ve been watercoloring (below), and I’m starting a new job.

Spring is looking up.

ICYMI/Blog stuff

Okay, I’m finally done with The Ordinary
Sand & Sky Brilliant Skin Pink Clay Mask
Don’t Cover Yourself in Glitter and Run Into the Ocean
BLAQ Meteor Shower
April 2018 Ipsy Bag
DearPacker Gold Collagen Eye Mask
Earth Day Reflections

I made a Grumpy Skin twitter! Blogging twitter is actually the nicest twitter. I’m used to comics and science, which is pretty aggressive and not always woman-friendly. Give me a follow and tweet me weird skin stuff!

Awards: Teresa nominated me for a Sunshine Blogger Award and Mel nominated me for a Versatile Blogger Award! I’m still not a fan of the question chains, but I do appreciate it.

I also changed my theme to be a little more minimalist. Let me know what you think!

Podcasts

Toxic tech in America by Reveal
The people manufacturing your electronics are dying.

Disposable workers in Asia by Reveal
Samsung in particular has had to compensate people and families for injury and death, but they’re far from the only one.

Lessons from Las Vegas (Episode 302) by 99% Invisible
Denise Scott Brown is fantastic. And some people don’t think Las Vegas is meticulously and purposefully designed?

Tesla and Beyond: Hidden Problems of Silicon Valley by Reveal

Cold Case (Episode 88) by Criminal
Literally a superhero origin story. CASUALLY CRACKING COLD CASES.

Thick Glass by Ear Hustle
Parenting in prison. I’m not crying, you’re crying.

Books

GUYS I READ BOOKS THIS MONTH. It’s amazing what quitting your job can give you the time to do.

The Wicked + The Divine Volume 5 by Kieron Gillen, Jamie McKelvie, Matt Wilson, and Kevin Wada

I had a few people ask me what I was reading when I was carrying this around, and it’s a hard one to casually explain. I’m pretty sure Rihanna ate some people in this one. Gods are reincarnated as pop stars and everything is so extra.

The Greatest of Marlys by Lynda Barry
Lynda Barry is a national treasure. This book is a series of shorts of a girl growing up in the 70s. A lot of the books I read as a kid took place in this same time period, so I had some bookworm nostalgia while reading this.

Maus by Art Spiegelman
A book about the Holocaust that was published the year I was born should not feel timely, but here we are in this hellscape of a year.

October 2017

This month’s list of neat things is pretty light (and a little late). I decided it would be fun to go back to school while I’m working full time. I was wrong. It’s not fun. Being smart is, though.

Halloween

For the second year in a row, I really wanted to be Squirrel Girl but could not justify spending money on an elaborate squirrel tail. So, I was Mockingbird. One day Marvel will make a movie about a super hero that I like and people will be able to tell who I am.

That day is in 2019 when Captain Marvel comes out. I have this sweet shirt to hold me over until then.

I also made the prettiest jello shots I’ve ever seen.

Recipe can be found here.

Apple Picking

I ate basically all of these apples. It was great.

Media

Stardew Valley
Windows lost my cute screenshots, so you’re going to have to trust me that it’s a very nice game.

Oyster-tecture (Episode 282) by 99% Invisible
Climate change! Animal architects! Overfishing! I usually hate listening to podcasts about things that I already know, because I can tell when people did the bare minimum research and are just telling a story instead of understanding it. 99% Invisible doesn’t do that. I spent three years educating the public on the topics covered in this episode and they did a great job with it. (Friendly reminder that their podcast collective, Radiotopia, is in the middle of their fall campaign.)

September 2017

This post marks twelve months of blogging! That seems wrong, but my wordpress history doesn’t lie. I started this blog to force myself to write ideas out, even if they were just lists (like this one!) of things that I liked the past month. It’s been a good exercise. I’ve branched my posts out to include pop culture commentary and weird skincare reviews. I’ve also started keeping a personal journal for the first time in close to a decade.

10/10 Do recommend blogging. Let’s see what the next year brings.

Books

Uprooted by Naomi Novik
I’m not usually here for love stories between an old, emotionally unavailable man and a young woman BUT apparently I AM if you throw in magic and evil woods.
Take notes if you’re tying to get me to ignore my feminism for a little bit, I guess.

Ms. Marvel by G. Willow Wilson, Takeshi Miyazawa, Adrian Alphona, and Nico Leon
Volume 5 and going strong! I’m also not one for weddings, but there’s a good one in here.

Bitch Planet by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Valentine De Landro
Before volume two, my usual summary of Bitch Planet is “what you wanted Orange is the New Black to be, but in space”. This comic so much more than that.

Podcasts

Unwritten and Left Behind by Ear Hustle
Ear Hustle is still killing it. Unwritten tackles rules regarding race in prison. Left Behind discusses how people, particularly those who did not commit a violent crime, deal with life sentences.

Coal Hogs Work Safe (Episode 275) by 99% Invisible
I also love stickers. Maybe I’d make a great coal miner? We’ll never know.

Sawbones by Sydnee and Justin McElroy
Weird old-timey medical stories! Perfect for October!
I’m not listing specific episodes because I’ve listened to about twenty this month. They’re all equally good. I wonder how many episodes I’ll have to listen to before they cover something I haven’t hit in my weird, late night googling.

Lorde – Sober by Song Exploder
I need a miniseries that covers all of Melodrama. It’s such a good album and she put so much thought into it. This Song Exploder episode is perfect.

July 2017

I took my mom to DC and absolutely wore my Bitch Planet leggings to the White House. It’s the little things.

Books

Squirrel Girl by Ryan North, Erica Henderson, and Rico Renzi
I’m up to volume 5. Everything about Squirrel Girl is perfect. KICK BUTTS EAT NUTS.

The Kingdom of Gods by NK Jemisin
Usually trickster characters don’t do it for me, but I had so many Sieh feels. This is the last of the Inheritance trilogy, so start with The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms.

Podcasts

Wolf 359 is in its final season. Come for the comedic space life vignettes, stay for the huge government conspiracies. I’m sad to see it ending.

59. One To Another by The Allusionist
Helen Zaltzman interviews the man translating The Memory Palace stories into a Portuguese book. I also love The Memory Palace, but I don’t do anything productive with that love. Instead, sometimes I cry a little at work.

Episode 70: The Procedure by Criminal
CHURCHES MADE A NETWORK TO HELP WOMEN GET ABORTIONS WHEN ABORTION WAS ILLEGAL. Uh, spoiler?

265- The Pool and the Stream by 99% Invisible
Skateboarding history. Suburban pool history. Don’t listen to this on a sweaty train, you’ll get really jealous.

266- Repackaging the Pill by 99% Invisible
I need Roman Mars to give me the design history of everything remotely feminist.

Games

Dream Daddy
I’ve been playing this one a little bit. You’re a dad that goes on dates with other dads. You’re nice to your daughter and make dad puns. There are cryptids and dogs!

Music

KESHA IS BACK.
I’m prepared to stockpile glitter the second she announces a tour.

The Long Winters
I’ve been listening to these guys on repeat, too. They have a sad song about astronauts.

June 2017

We’re late this month! I decided to be very patriotic and go to DC for July 4th. It was as busy as you’d expect.

Books

Hundred Thousand Kingdoms and The Broken Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin
I pulled out of my bad novel slump! This is the first two installments of a trilogy. The first one starts a little rough, but it was her first book. She figures it out.
Mixed race girl saves the world! (Kind of). Fantasy! Magic! Demons! Falling in love with maybe evil incarnate. Yeah, I’m here for it.

Enigma by Peter Milligan and Duncan Fegredo
I normally cannot deal with the 80s/90s dirty gritty edgy comics because I get really bored when people are irredeemably terrible and I’m supposed to want to read about them. This is my exception. It opens with this:

Recommended for fans of S-Town.

Skim by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki
I’m so happy that coming of age stories about angry goth girls exist now.

Podcasts

Just Girls: The Hidden World of Patti Smith and Judy Linn by The Kitchen Sisters
Really, really listen-able despite the fact that I know almost nothing about Patti Smith.

05 Alessandra: Lips by Mortified
I put off listening to Mortified for a really long time because I cannot. do. secondhand. embarrassment. They somehow keep the secondhand embarrassment to a minimum despite being exclusively embarrassing stories. Girl just wants a boyfriend in this one.

06 Adam: Rhyme or Reason by Mortified
Poetry camp > English teachers.

33 Erin: My Dad Read My Diary! by Mortified
Her dad read her diary, so she gave him something worth reading.

36 Tyler & Janelle: Love, America Online Style by Mortified
Remember saving AIM conversations to read back later? Remember printing out AIM conversations with your crush and then collecting them in a binder to give to them, and then reading them on stage together years later?

41 Jackie: How Not To Be Grateful by Mortified
Extreme TMI scrapbooking.

45 Emma: The Girl Who Cried Y2K by Mortified
I now need a series that explores weird adult doomsday bunker men and their reactions to Y2K. I’m calling Emma if I ever need to survive nuclear war, she was on top of stuff.

58 Forbidden Crushes Part 3: My Secret Gay Crush by Mortified
I’m pretty sure I read this story in at least 8 Xangas growing up. Happy Pride!

Moon Graffiti by The Truth
Short audio fiction exploring what may have happened if Apollo 11 hadn’t made it back home.

Eat Cake by The Truth
A love story that worked for me despite being really creepy if it were real life! Weird.

We deserved better than Wonder Woman

We deserved better than Wonder Woman.

We deserved a super hero that wasn’t “not like the other girls”. We deserved a hero flanked by other women, not dependent on random men.

We deserved a movie that was also written by women and produced by women, not just directed and acted by one.

We didn’t deserve boob plate armor.

We didn’t deserved having to sit through another Chris playing another Steve going down in a little plane to save the world in another war. Wonder Woman deserved to defeat our Big Bad Guy on her own, without feeling sad about the literal first man she ever saw.

We don’t deserve all of the women in action movies that exist for the male gaze, but we also didn’t deserve someone so removed from sexuality that an implied sex scene had me wondering if she was being taken advantage of.

We didn’t deserve to be so ignored by the super hero movie industry that this little slice of representation felt good to people.

May 2017

Hug your favorite cousins for me this month.

Books

One Hundred Nights of Hero by Isabel Greenberg

If someone were to kill me, that’s what it would be for.

Patsy Walker AKA Hellcat! by Kate Leth and Brittney Williams
I read Volume 1 in February. Volume 2 was also great.

Howard the Duck by Chip Zdarsky and Joe Quinones
I put off reading Howard the Duck for AGES. I love Chip Zdarsky, but Howard is a duck. I didn’t like the Ms. Marvel crossover..and..ducks, guys. I was wrong for putting it off. It got me in the feels way more than a lot of Marvel does.

Podcasts

TLDR: I’ve been binge-listening The Memory Palace. One day I’ll run out of Radiotopia podcasts to listen to. Today is not that day.

The Modern Necropolis (Episode 258) by 99% Invisible
I’m always here for cemetery history.

This is Chance: Anchorwoman of the Great Alaska Earthquake (Episode 259) by 99% Invisible
I’m also always here for stories about women doing their jobs really really well.

Citius, Altius, Fortius, Horrendius (Episode 26) by The Memory Palace
You’ve never been on a run this bad.

The Sisters Fox (Episode 27) by The Memory Palace
Ghost girls!

Heard, Once (Episode 45) by The Memory Palace
I got chills.
This made me want to dig out old CDs for bands I loved in high school, but maybe I shouldn’t ruin the version of songs living in my head.

The Rise and Fall of Rising and Falling (Episode 47) by The Memory Palace
Nate DiMeo is really great at humanizing people you originally would want to make fun of, and then making you laugh anyway.

Picture a Box (Episode 48) by The Memory Palace
I cried a little a work. This should be required listening in history classes, particularly in the south.

400,000 Stars (Episode 60) by The Memory Palace
W o m e n  i n  S T E M

The Glowing Orbs (Episode 61) by The Memory Palace
This one is about John Glenn, so of course I love it.
It also has my all time favorite Memory Palace plot twist.

Episode 73 by The Memory Palace
Tear all the Confederate monuments down.

The Ballad of Captain Dwight (Episode 75) by The Memory Palace
If you liked Hidden Figures you’ll love crying to harsh reality.

Mary Walker Would Wear What She Wanted (Episode 76) by The Memory Palace
Dress for the job that you want until they give in and give it to you.

Artist in Landscape (Episode 79) by The Memory Palace
Audubon could paint some birds, but he sure wasn’t nice to his wife.

S-Town by Serial and This American Life
I listened to this driving through the south on my way home and can confirm it’s accuracy.

Family Snapshot (Episode 89) by The Memory Palace
Adding this to the list of astronaut stories that made me cry.

New Jersey (Episode 260) by 99% Invisible
No, not THAT New Jersey.