One Sentence Movie Review: Godzilla

More monsters than you'd expect with less Bryan Cranston than you'd expect, with lots of a stunned looks and monster nuzzling and atomic breaths.

Review: Tresemmé Keratin Smooth Shampoo

I don't usually go mental over shampoos. I usually buy 3-4 bottles once there's a sale. I like stocking up on things when they're a bargain.

Now, my old bottle of Tresemmé has been around for years. I am not exaggerating. It was one of those massive 1.17L bottles with the pump. It was a gargantuan bottle of product, and I used it all up.

I actually really liked that bottle. In the years that I was using that product, Tresemmé has completely revamped and repackaged their shampoos. They don't look quite the same anymore!

Since I finished my old bottle that I really liked, I figured I would try another bottle of Tresemmé. But this time I wouldn't commit to a huge bottle because I didn't want to use the same shampoo for years. I wanted some more variety.

...Granted, I usually have 3-4 bottles of shampoo and 1-2 bottles of conditioner in my shower at all times, just to keep myself on my toes.

So I saw that Tresemmé was on sale at the store, and decided to try their relatively new Keratin Smooth Shampoo. I hadn't read any reviews, I had no idea if it'd be incredible or just okay.

It turns out that I noticed a very nice and semi-noticeable difference to my hair. When I say semi-noticeable, I mean that when I asked my friends if they noticed anything different about me, some of them said no, and a few of them said my hair looked less frizzy.

That's good enough for me!

Plus, I love the scent and it washes out very clean. One other thing I've always liked about Tresemmé is that it's one of the few brands that doesn't give me dandruff if I don't use conditioner. I know that's kind of bizarre, but I find with some brands if I forgo the conditioner, my scalp gets flaky and very dry. But I'm lazy! I don't want to always use conditioner! So I like finding a shampoo that's moisturizing enough as it is.

Yay! New shampoo!

My Relationship with Tom Cruise

It's a love-hate thing. More recently, it's been a hate thing.

I should specify and say since Vanilla Sky, it has been a hate thing. He was fantastic in Vanilla Sky. Believable. Riveting.

In Mission Impossible at least he was depicted as the good looking spy. I believed it. He was good looking.

But Knight and Day? The Last Samurai? I don't know about his choices. I get it, he wants to be a fighter. So fight. But know that your days are numbered.

I am going to see Oblivion tonight. I'll admit that I didn't really want to, mainly because I seem to have grown this cancerous resentment towards Tom Cruise.

But I'll give him this chance. And Ill probably see Mission Impossible 5, though I can't even believe he's doing that...

Review: Coola Sunscreen

I love SPF. SPF in my lotion. In my makeup. In lipbalms. In any form. I say 10 points for not getting skin cancer, another 10 points for getting a tan without freckles, and 10 points for general preparedness.

I got a small sample of the Coola Cucumber Matte Sunscreen in a Glymm box months and months ago. I liked it so much that I purchased the full sized version from the Glymm store shortly afterward. I liked that so much that I've been hooked. I love this Coola stuff.

But it ain't cheap. The tube I got retails for around $36. For a small 50ml of sunscreen? Ridiculous. But I'll say this is the only sunscreen I've ever tried that actually stays matte on my face. Even after swimming, running around, being out in summery hot weather.

It is also not easy to find. I've found it once on Hautelook, once online at Chapters, and that's it. Specialty beauty stores carry it, but I find their stock inconsistent and unpredictable. That's why I buy 2 tubes at a time, just in case. Buying any more than 2 tubes means risking the product going bad. I usually don't believe that product goes bad, but for SPF I think there definitely is an expiry date. 

I don't care about the scent much. I could do without it. I find any scent for face products end up fading after a few minutes anyway, so why bother scenting anything. However, the matte effects stays.

Sometimes I'll put this on under my moisturizer on nights I'm going out to concerts. I don't get shiny at all, even if I'm sweaty. I look COOL.

Hence, I suppose, the name. Fantastic stuff!

One Sentence Movie Reviews: Oz the Great and Powerful

Beautiful special effects and spectacular CGI are offset by the robotic and creepy acting of James Franco, but with a lovely Rachel Weisz offsetting his amateur work.

Work watching with the kids, but oh man James Franco needs to stick to comedies.

One Sentence Movie Review: G.I. Joe: Retaliation

The best looking guy is killed off early, meaning lots of revenge-action and better fight scenes albeit with underwhelming and cheesy dialogue and a slew of confusing new members of the GI Joe force.

It was okay. Wish Joseph Gordan-Levitt was ACTUALLY in it.

App Review: Happy Street

I can't stop playing!


It's kind of like Tiny Tower. You get a street and you build shops and houses. You stock these stores and get people to buy product. You restock these stores and level up.

And I'm addicted. Again.

For whatever reason I seem to be drawn to games wherein I need to fulfill a business plan. In this case, I want to make lots of money because I know in real life I can't.

I'm living vicariously through Happy Street.
It helps that they have super cute characters and the wait times to fulfill quests isn't too long.

It's free! Check it out!

App Review: Candy Crush

So my friend recently recommended this game to me. But it's very rare that I get a recommendation that comes with a word of caution beforehand.

I love this game. It's addictive, simple, fun, but there are downsides.

Firstly Candy Crush is basically Bejeweled. You match up 3 of the same colour, and get bonuses if you match more than 3.

The first few levels are simple and very easy. But then you advance and realize that some are bloody well difficult. As in you have to retry, retry, quit and be frustrated for a while, retry, retry, and then finally succeed.

What really frustrates me (and many other users of Apps) is when games are nearly impossible to play unless you purchase something in-game. To put it bluntly: they make it impossible to pass certain levels unless you pay money for cheats/bonuses/extra lives/etc.

I really don't think this is fair. And yes, I know life isn't fair. I know Apps need to make money somehow. But the issue I have is that they get you completely hooked and then tell you it's going to cost you the big bucks if you want to keep playing. I'm not a cocaine addict. I can't just buy more coke any time I feel like I need another hit of Candy.

I have more self-control than a lot of people. I'm not rushing to the App store to purchase these bonuses. I can survive a day without playing. But that's not the point, is it? You market this game as free. It's got a billion great ratings (because yes, it is wonderfully fun). But it's limited in that I can pretty much only 'retry' levels 5 times before having to wait a period for 'more lives.'

I wish that free really meant free. I wish I didn't have to grimace every time I hear of another young kid fooled into spending the big bucks on Apps.

Having said that, I'm not boycotting this game at all. I'll just wait the next half hour out... until I have enough levels to play again.

App Review: Open Table

So there's another new App that's getting all this attention because it's AWESOME.

It's called Opentable.

This App has been around for a while, but I've only recently started using it. Usually for these newer 'fad' Apps I like to give it a few weeks (or even months) for them to work out the kinks.

Basically this App lists off restaurants in your area and you can make reservations through the App. By honouring these reservations (showing up, eating, then paying), you get 100 points per meal. These points add up until you redeem them for cheques (I think the lowest denomination is $25) that you can use at any participating Opentable restaurant.

So naturally I thought this was amazing. I hate calling places to make reservations. I get snooty people, haughty people, busy people, noisy people. I'd much rather have an automated system.

Opentable is also great because it allows you to choose from selected dining times. The most popular are obviously 6, 6:30, and 7... and I've never had a problem booking a table during one of those times. Another thing is, you can go to the Opentable website, OR use the App. Both have very user-friendly interfaces.

At first I was worried that Opentable would only have a very select number of restaurants. Or they'd only have the most 'expensive' restaurants. That isn't the case. Yes, most of the restaurants on Opentable are of the more posh and upscale variety, but you'd make reservations to eat at those places anyway, right? So you might as well earn points whilst doing so.
Opentable also includes some 'less fancy' restaurants, and some chain restaurants are included.

I really dig this App and intend to use it each time I plan on dining out!

One Sentence Movie Reviews: We Need to Talk About Kevin

A psychologically troubled child psychologically tortures his mother while she tries to prove his troubled mind and he just keeps acting creepy.

Should you watch it?
Sure. If you like creepy children who don't really make any sense, and if you don't mind there not being much 'closure' at the end of films. I thought it was okay. I'm glad I saw it, but I wouldn't go see it again. Kevin is such a jerk!

App Review

I found an amazing App!

Well, there are a lot of amazing Apps. I regularly check out the App store to see whether there are newer Apps or highly reviewed Apps that I should get.

Now note that I will buy Apps if they're really highly recommended or highly rated. But this App is absolutely free!

It's called Bump.

Basically if you've seen that commercial (Samsung Galaxy I think) it depicts people bumping their phones together to transfer files. There's another commercial where two people do this and a guy who's trying to buy an iPhone looks on with jealousy.

Uhm, guys. Anyone can do this. You just need this free App: Bump!

You can get it off the App store for nothing. And it is incredible. You literally just set up phones with this App, and you Bump them together. Using wifi (or your phone network if you don't have wifi available), your phone will recognize another phone and transfer information.

This includes:
contact information
songs
files
pictures
videos

Not only can you do this from phone to phone (even across platforms), you can even bump to your computer. I love this idea. I hate having to always plug in my phone via wire to get photos off it. Or to put some songs back to my computer (there's an App for that too). Now you can Bump items off your phone to your computer wirelessly.

Go to bu.mp to check out the computer App. I have only great things to say about this App. So glad my friend recommended it to me.