Blurb Car Review - 'Toyota Yaris'

I always though the Yaris was kind of cute and had it on the short list of potential vehicles, but it's off the list after the rental place gave me one today.

While it's cute and actually quite peppy, the interior horribly screams 'economy car'.

The speedometer and stuff, is all centerd in the dashboard.

Weird.

I'm used to having it right behind the steering wheel.

There's no storage at all in between the front seats except these tiny deep pockets that could only fit an iPhone at best, and a miniscule space in the arm rest which couldn't even hold a CD case.

And good luck if you have a beverage.

There's only one cup holder, on the left side of the steering wheel in a fold out pocket that obstructs the side view mirror.

I have no idea what the designer was thinking when they fleshed out the interior.

The acceleration is good, but the brakes suck.

I don't know if they're just worn out, but they're not as tight as on other cars I have driven.

Plus, even though it's not a high profile vehicle, I swear to god it feels like I am going to roll it when I take a corner.

The air conditioner sounds like a jet engine getting ready to take off if you turn it past '2', and it completely drowns out the stereo [which also sucks] if you turn it all the way up.

I was expecting more for a Toyota product.

First Impressions

New Single: Keane - 'Spiralling'

Not sure what I think of this.

Don't love it on first hearing.

It may have to grow on me.

So...

I got the new Janet, 'Discipline', and I like it, but she's not exactly reinventing the wheel.

She is still using the same vignettes between tracks.

The songs I like:

Feedback
Luv
Rollercoaster
Rock With U [Not a cover of her brother's song]
2Nite

Even though I like those songs, I don't really see a big chart topping hit on the album.

I smell metal.

And that's actually a good thing.

A rep for Bond No. 9 hooked me up with some samples of their fragrance line.

I had tried a two of them before at Saks, and was actually not impressed.

Since there were so many bottles, I didn't know which two I smelled, but remembered being put off because they were so flowery.

Many of their scents are unisex, but there are definitely some girlie ones like Bryant Park and Chinatown.

Turns out, the fragrances I didn't like, were included in the samples I got: Fire Island, and the aforementioned Bryant Park.

Oh, Bond names their fragrances after New York locales by the way.

I haven't got to it yet, but I have a sample of Coney Island, whose name cracks me up because I wonder what that is going to smell like.

Coney Island, at least in my mind, doesn't exactly conjure up images of fresh sea breezes and lemonade stands.

Tangent!

Actually, I found it kind of funny that I didn't like Fire Island being a big 'mo and what with the name of it and all, but it has tuber rose and white musk in it, which totally makes my sinuses hurt, and gives me an instant headache.

Luckily, the other samples don't have those two scents in them.

One of the best ones is Silver Factory.

It's the first in a new line of scents that Bond is working in collaboration with The Andy Warhol Foundation.

First off, it has notes of citrus.

You can definitely smell the lavender [one of Andy's favorite scents I'm told] and the bergamot.

As it begins to finish, it mellows into a nice spicy concoction.

It's here that you can smell the iris that gives it the metallic smell.

Finally, once it finishes, it has a nice warm woody base.

It's definitely unique, and doesn't smell like anything else out there [at least from what I have smelled] which is a popular problem among fragrances today.

My other favorites are the Nuits de Noho, which smells like a more green and grassy Angel [one of my fave scents of all time], and Wall Street, which reminds me of John Varvatos, but with a twist.

I'm totally getting Wall Street as my gift to me this Christmas.

One last thing I must say, I was very impressed by the design of the samples/kit I got.

They all came wrapped up like candy, which is cool, well, unless you have children in the house.

But the overall branding and package design is great, and I like that they have a sense of humor.

Blurb Car Review - 'Chevy Malibu'

Speaking of rental cars, this time they gave me a Chevy Malibu. I have had one of these before. I had one when I had my trip in California. It's a quick and peppy car for a mid-size sedan.

The best part though on this most recent roundabout with the Malibu, was even though I drove about 100 miles, I barely used a quarter of a tank of gas, and it only cost me a little over $11 to fill up.

It actually seemed to have better gas mileage than the Suzuki Forenza they gave me last time. I remember paying almost $20 bucks to fill that up, and I drove half the distance.

Blurb Car Review - 'Suzuki Forenza'

The rental car place gave me the Forenza this time.

I must say, it's quite a fun car to drive. It's really quick and zippy. Good braking, too.

It nibbles on gas. I have droven over 50 miles, and the gas needle has barely moved.

The downsides are the interior is really cheap. The radio is confusing, and could cause and accident if one was not paying attention.

Blurb Movie Reviews - 'Shivers'

Twisted and horrible.

It's a story about a parasite that infects the residents of this apartment building. Instead of making them sick, it turns them in to horny sex-zombies of sorts. The special effects are really low budget. None of the actors can act. Then there's the scene where a room service dude, sexually assaults a mother and her child in the elevator, then all three of them proceed to assault the security guard.

On IMDB, people rave about this movie. I can see how the concept is kind of interesting, but the execution is just completely horrible. It's not even a so-bad-it's-good type of a movie. Mystery Science Theater 3000 could have a field day with Shivers.

I honestly wish I could get that hour and a half of my life back.