I’ve been rotting away in front of the TV (or my laptop screen, watching TV online) this summer. Needless to say, I’ve gotten through quite a bit of my TV show “catch up” list. There are still a few shows I need to watch, some of which include:

• Skins (season 3)
• Veronica Mars (recommended by Krissy)
• Supernatural (season 4)
• Black Books (recommended by Melody and Sophie)

Still, I’m looking for new TV shows as I can never have too many on my to-watch list. However, I’m rather disheartened by what I’ve found so far (the new 10 Things I Hate About you series, I’m looking at you. Who thought that series would be a good idea?). I want to find a new show that’s light and funny, similar to How I Met Your Mother or The Big Bang Theory (congrats to Jim Parsons on his Emmy nod!), really good drama similar to Skins, or something along the lines of Merlin, all of which I love.

Maybe I’m just looking in the wrong places, but good TV shows to watch are hard to find!

Question of the Week: What are some of your favorite TV shows? What shows would you recommend for others?

Cross-posted from breakthesky.net. Please leave any comments there.

One of the many things I do not miss about being a young teenager is the inevitable acne. While the acne I suffered from was nowhere near as bad as it could have been, no acne would have been infinitely preferable to any acne. My skin is pretty clear now; my daily skin care regime keeps my skin clean and clear and the acne at bay. However, every now and then I’ll get a lonely zit or pimple appear on my face, and I’m at a loss for what to do.

The skincare products I use are targeted at my overall face and neck area, so they aren’t very helpful when it comes to combating an individual pimple or zit. I’ve discovered that in the week leading up to my period, I have a tendency to suffer from breakouts on my face. Not only is this frustrating because breakouts never help one’s appearance, but I’m not sure what product(s) I should go buy to help treat these sole pimples/zits when they appear each month.

I see commercials and ads for Clearasil, Clean & Clear, and Neutrogena, among other companies, and all of their various products like a pimple blocker pen or rapid clear fight-and-fade gel, all designed for individual blemishes. I’m not sure which to get, or which even works well. I also sometimes use The Body Shop’s tea tree oil, which works well, but I’m wondering if I should add some other products in my blemish treatment and prevention arsenal.

Question of the Week: What product(s) do you use for acne and/or individual blemishes? What products/companies have worked well for you in your experience, and which ones do you not recommend?

Cross-posted from breakthesky.net. Please leave any comments there.

I’ve had my iPhone for almost a year and I love it. One of my favorite things about the iPhone is the App Store, and how I can add so much functionality to my phone with a single app! In lieu of the release of the new iPhone 3GS, here is a list of my favorite (free) iPhone apps that add the most to my iPhone user experience¹:

• TweetDeck
  I’ve tried TwitterFon (free) and Twitterrific (free) for a Twitter app on the iPhone, but TweetDeck is my favorite. With TwitterFon and Twitterrific, only one Twitter account is allowed, but with TweetDeck, you can have multiple Twitter accounts as well as customize different “filters” for which tweets you want to see, as well as any mentions (@replies) or direct messages. Also, the ad support in TwitterFon and Twitterrific really slow down the downloading of new tweets when loading the app – TwitterFon was fantastic before they added ads in the free version! After testing other Twitter apps, TweetDeck is definitely the one I recommend.
• Facebook
  Everyone has a Facebook, and while not everyone may be as addicted to Facebook as I am, it is always very handy to be able to access your Facebook page at any given moment. It’s pretty much the same as the actual Facebook website, minus all the extra applications a Facebook user can add to their profile, like Bumper Sticker, Food Frenzy, or Facebook quizzes.
• Shazam
  Shazam is a fantastic app that identifies what songs are currently playing. Sometimes when I listen to the radio or loudspeaker and will hear a really great song, but I don’t know the song title or the artist. With Shazam, I merely load the app and wait for it to work its magic. It spends about 30 seconds recording the music, and then it analyzes the track and downloads the track info. It’s a lifesaver for any music lover!
• Wikipanion
  I usually come across a name, place, event, or other term in conversation that either I am unsure about or two differing opinions cause some (friendly) bickering. Wikipanion is very useful when it comes to situations like that, as it’s Wikipedia for the iPhone. Wikipanion’s format for the iPhone makes it a lot easier to surf on Wikipedia rather than load the website up in Safari.
• AroundMe
  When you load AroundMe, it inputs your coordinates into a database and generates a list of nearby locations like restaurants, hospitals, and movie theaters². This is very handy, especially when you’re in an area you’re not very familiar with. This app was incredibly useful when I first moved to Washington, DC for college and had to find my way around the city!

1. I’m not including any games in this list, because that warrants its own entry! [↩]
2. AroundMe actually finds a lot of nearby locations. The full list is: Apple retail stores, banks, bars, cafes, gas stations, hospitals, hotels, movie theaters, parking, pharmacies, pubs, restaurants, supermarkets, taxis, and theaters. It can also give the weather forecast, other nearby locations, and you can save a list of favorite locations. [↩]

Cross-posted from breakthesky.net. Please leave any comments there.

I went to my hair salon to get my hair cut last week, and after my stylist finished cutting my hair, she used this fantastic straightener to straight my hair as she was blow drying it. This was honestly the best straightener I’ve ever seen in my life. It heated up quickly, straightened my hair beautifully, gave my hair a glossy shine, and allowed my stylist to finish styling my hair swiftly and efficiently. Basically, in the few minutes it took for my stylist to turn my hair from tousled waves¹ to a straight style, I fell in love with this straightener.

This magical straightener is iTech’s Wet-&-Dry Ceramic Tourmaline Flatiron. I asked my stylist how much that straightener cost, as I noticed she had a few new, unopened ones stacked in the display window. That was when I was jolted back to reality after experiencing hair straightener nirvana: this particular straightener sells for around $200USD retail!

Obviously, I can’t afford to shell out that much for a hair straightener, even if it is one that borderline has magical powers. I don’t straighten my hair every day, so I wouldn’t be getting my money’s worth for that straightener, even if it does last me for years and years. I do, however, need a new straightener as my current one is a cheap, crappy straightener that gives my hair more frizz and split ends than straight hair. I don’t know where to start looking, though². I don’t know what good companies are for straighteners, what particular models are good, or what a ballpark price is for a straightener that’ll give me my money’s worth. So, this leads me to ask:

Question of the Week: What are some good hair straighteners you have used/would recommend? What useful knowledge do you have about companies, models, and price ranges?

1. My hair, right after drying, is generally wavy, but straightens out and gets kinda poofy after I brush it out. [↩]
2. I probably should have asked my stylist for some recommendations and/or cheaper models, but I was so surprised by the high price of the iTech straightener that I forgot to ask her about other straighteners! [↩]

Cross-posted from breakthesky.net. Please leave any comments there.

I love reading blogs. Not only are the best of them witty and entertaining reads, but they are also blogs on just about every topic under the sun and there’s at least a dozen or so blogs out there for every topic I’d be interested in reading in. However, either I can’t seem to find new blogs I’d want to add to my feed reader, or the most interesting bloggers have gone on hiatus/disappeared off the blogging scene altogether, resulting in an empty feed reader for me¹.

I’m interested in all kinds of blogs: personal, knitting, sewing, cooking, current events, politics, fashion, travel… the list goes on. And even if I don’t have an interest in a particular blog’s topic, I’m willing to give it at least a shot. You know, having an open mind and all that! So, this leads me to ask:

Question of the Week: What are some of your favorite blogs to read? What blogs would you recommend for me to add to my feed reader?

1. Well, that’s a bit of a lie. It’s not entirely empty as I still keep up with all the blogs I am already subscribed to, but still, the lack of activity makes it feel as it’s been empty as of late! [↩]

Cross-posted from breakthesky.net. Please leave any comments there.