There's No Time, No Time At All!!!!

Hello Readers,

This post is half about one of my favourite games and half, a last ditch attempt to get a kickstarter project completed.

In the year 2000 a guy named American McGee (yes that's his real name, awesome right?) designed a game for the PC called American McGee's Alice, which is a twisted unofficial sequel to Alice and Wonderland as well as Through the Looking Glass. It's art style was gorgeous, the music was fantastic and story was so thick it was fantastic. The game was developed by Rogue Entertainment and published by EA, Electronic Arts. The idea that Wonderland has been twisted was so dark but works so well. It's honestly one of my all time favourite settings to anything, films, books or games. The story is that Alice's house burnt down killing all of her family with the exception of her and she goes insane and is admitted to an asylum. You have to work your way through wonderland to get your mind back as the damage to her mind has caused damage to Wonderland.

I haven't actually managed to complete this game yet as I couldn't find a copy of the game for PC when I had one and when I switched to Mac I thought I wouldn't be able to play, but alas, when the sequel came out you could get a free download for this game when you bought the sequel, I was too excited for the sequel and just decided to go back to this game afterwards.

The sequel, Alice: Madness Returns, was released in 2011 by Spicy Horse ( a company run by American McGee) and EA again. This is one I've completed and oh my god I love it. I love it so much I've designed a tattoo for it all ready! After it is clear that Alice is no longer "insane" enough for the Asylum she is taken to an orphanage run by a therapist for young people. She still retreats to wonderland where she learns it's still just as twisted as before. There is a force named the Infernal Train which is racing through Wonderland causes destruction to Wonderland and her mind. You must stop it.

The game has the most interesting themes about what's right and wrong, what deserves to be punished or free to go. There is a lovely bizarre overlap between "reality" and Wonderland and with memories coming back to Alice you start putting pieces together to work out what's going on.  This really is probably the most beautiful game to me and the story had me so intrigued I was almost addicted.

American McGee has made it clear that he want's to make a third game to complete Alice's story but only if people want it. To see if people want more Alice he made a Kickstarter, but not for a game, a film.  The art style is gorgeous and he has all of the same people working for the film as he did the game, including  with some extra's he's determined to make it like a feature length cut scene. But he needs a lot of money to turn a game studio into a film studio without the help of EA who doesn't see it profitable. If there is enough interest for a third game as well as a film
then it is said it might be possible.

The film will be called Alice: Otherlands as Alice will be exploring other important minds of the time period to see what goes on in their heads. A couple of names mentioned is Bram Stoker, Jack the Ripper, Charles Darwin and many more. The goal is $200,000 and recently released stretch goal of $250,000 to get the original voice actors of Alice and Cheshire Cat. There will be an art book as well as a soundtrack out of this money too.  There are three days to go and I really hope it manages to reach it's goal and I urge you to help by spreading the word and even donating yourself. The page to donate has a lot more information as well as more sample work and a listing of rewards. Below is a couple of concept art images that are absolutely beautiful

So please I urge you go to this link:  http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/spicyhorse/alice-otherlands/posts

and donate and share because it is a fantastical world that will challenge how you see the world and question the idea of sanity as well as wonder about your own Wonderland.

Thanks for reading and if you share this, thank you so much
Bye now
Rain

Book Corner: Etiquette and Espionage

Hello Readers
I'm not claiming to be an expert in books ( although I read a tremendous amount) or English Literature, so don't take my opinions or critiques too seriously. This is just a quick little post about how I feel about this book.

The book I'm talking about is called "Etiquette and Espionage" by Gail Carriger. This book is the start to a series called "Finishing School" and I can only assume that there will be the same amount of books as there are years of this finishing school.  I have not yet finished this book and got about half way before I could continue, I do plan on it at some point but not now and I'll talk about my reasons why later. I picked this book up in The Works so I could buy some others in a sale, but when I read the back I was more excited for this one. The blurb is below but my copy of the book had a miniature version of this.

"It's one thing to learn to curtsy properly. It's quite another to learn to curtsy and throw a knife at the same time. Welcome to Finishing School.

Fourteen-year-old Sophronia is a great trial to her poor mother. Sophronia is more interested in dismantling clocks and climbing trees than proper manners—and the family can only hope that company never sees her atrocious curtsy. Mrs. Temminick is desperate for her daughter to become a proper lady. So she enrolls Sophronia in Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality.

But Sophronia soon realizes the school is not quite what her mother might have hoped. At Mademoiselle Geraldine's, young ladies learn to finish...everything. Certainly, they learn the fine arts of dance, dress, and etiquette, but they also learn to deal out death, diversion, and espionage—in the politest possible ways, of course. Sophronia and her friends are in for a rousing first year's education."

I didn't realise this was a prequel series to the authors adult series "Alexia Tarabotti" or "Parasol Protectorate" ( the series was renamed) and that the heroine was 14. 

Now I'm happy to read from the perspective of children, teenager and young adults it's just that I started reading the book thinking that person who's perspective was a either an 8 year old with a sleight sense of maturity or an 11-12 year old who was acting a bit childish. I then realised she was actually 14. This surprised me because the advanced words and descriptions used mixed with the character's very childlike view on the word was uncomfortable  to read, you were never sure of the intelligence level of character. I have a 14 year old sister and It wasn't too long ago I was 14 myself, and there was never anyone that age who acted and thought like Sophronia. So that is my main issue with this book, I can't sympathise with the character because it's such an awkward mix of a children's book and a young adult/ adult book that she's too unrealistic and since it's form her point of view puts a bit of a damper on everything else about the book.

The second issue I have is the pace.  So much happens at the very start and it just feels like too much. First time readers  of this world are barely able to process what the world is like before being thrown into a chase where you're constantly having to go back and re-read to understand where everything is, who's doing what, what this is and it's too much. 

Another thing surprised me was the supernatural element. There was no mention of it on the back and I was a couple of pages in when BANG the word vampire is mentioned with no explanation. It just came as a bit of a shock.

I understand that this was the authors first attempt at writing for younger audiences and since I loved the idea of the steampunk word and a spy school so I will read the "Alexia" series first and hopefully that will encourage me to get through the "Finishing" series.

So yeah, I wouldn't call this a review but one day I will get round to doing a real but until then, that was the book I've been reading
Bye
Rainiepie

*edit* I'm aware that part of this post has the background white and I have not idea how to fix it sorry, if anyone knows, please comment or message me :)

Hair Update ( that sounds sooo pretentious :p )

Good Morning!

I haven't posted anything for a while but I thought I'd update with a hair post :) I planned doing a thread about it on BeeUnique forum but I think i'll wait for the one year mark.  So for almost a year now I've been dying my hair blue, at first I used multiple colours and tried all sorts. In August the sun bleached my hair and the dye faded to point where it was barely blue and I died all of my Crazy Colour Capri Blue. 

The colour looks as if it's going to be almost navy blue but I discovered that after rinsing it out it becomes much lighter and is the exact colour I want. 

I'm on the right, first day of new roots between sept-oct

Near base blonde before CC Capri Blue

The green I used

When I died it was almost on a blonde base so there wasn't much resistance between my hair and the colour, the dye lasted for 2 months with perfect colour, the roots just needed touching up and the rest of my hair just didn't seem to fade, it was brilliant blue permanently! I've been doing this up until last month where I decided to touch my roots up with green instead of blue and it looked lovely.

The green- blue mix.

 I went on holiday to sunny California so my hair faded rather quickly, including some blue that had been there for months. 

Me(left) Jude, my sister (centre) and my mum (right) and this was only 5 days fade!

So, the other day, after about 4 more weeks of fade I died the top half of my head blue and the bottom half green. I was expecting the dye to turn out the way it always has but instead after the first wash it went a more teal colour. The stupid pose photo was taken on the first day at night and the second just now, yes I am wearing the same shirt, it's my rub-off shirt, the back neck is very blue. 

Supermodel Pose!!

I like it but I'm confused, did they change the ingredients for the dye? was it because there wasn't a near permanent blue base? was it the faded green? I'm not sure. 

Do you have any experiences with this? Please comment below and tell me. 

See you soon

Rainiepie

College Work

Good Day Dearies,
My college requires information for a video project we're doing, if anyone is reading this within the first three months of this post being published I would really appreciate it if you could take this simple survey. The questions are very basic and are asking for preferences.

Part one:
Part Two: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/LJKLV5T 

Thank you. 
Rainiepie