Decorating with Floating Candles

Floating candles come in all shapes, sizes, colors and scents. Their variety makes them the perfect choice for centerpieces and celebrations, but floating candles aren’t just for holidays, and they can add a sense of fun to any area of the house. How can you spice up your floating candle routine?

Change the Bowl
For some cool bowls, vases and shallow plates that can showcase your candles, check out Recycled Glassworks. Or, change the bowl to a martini glass, like the ones at Novica. You don’t have to go online to find unique ideas, however. Scour your local garage sales, thrift stores, and flea markets for unique and interesting places to put water and candles. Bowls, vases, and containers don’t have to match, as long as their grouped by color, style or material. In fact, the more eclectic your collection, the more charming the final look will be.

Change the Water
Who says that the candles have to float alone in clear water? Adding accents to the water, or even coloring the water, will add a special touch to even the most boring candles. For an elegant look, add exotic flowers or jewels to the arrangement of candles. Save on Crafts has vase jewels in every color and size. And don’t forget that you can decorate around the bowl to add interest. For example, take white candles, and add them to a bowl filled with red colored water. Then, sprinkle blue star confetti on the tops of the candles, and place the whole thing on a patriotic placemat. The start of your 4th of July decorations!

Change the Environment
Although these candles are made to float, many can be used without water. Pierce them with toothpicks and add to Styrofoam bases to create “scenes.” Add animals from Floating Critters and a toy barn or tractor to a piece of hay-covered burlap for a farmer boy’s party. Or make a big “leaf” and add flowers and butterflies for a nature scene. And who says floating candles have to stay in the dining room? Use scented ones in the bathroom instead of spray. Add “fruit” to your kitchen décor that won’t spoil.

Change Your Perspective
See floating candles in a brand new way. Look around your house and picture where you could add a display of scent and flame. With a little effort and your unique sense of style, you, too, can brighten your house with candlelight.

Dreamfall: The Longest Journey Review

I just finished playing one of my most-anticipated games of the year: Dreamfall, the sequel to The Longest Journey. I loved the first game, released six long years ago. The Longest Journey had action, romance, adventure, thrills, and, rare for a video game, made me laugh and cry and feel for the characters.

Dreamfall almost lived up to its predecessor.

STORYLINE
The Longest Journey introduced me to April Ryan, a smart-talking teen who unwittingly holds the key to saving her world and another she never even knew existed. She wasn't a typical adventure game heroine, because she reacted just like a regular teenager would at being thrust into a strange world: she complained, whined, joked, got angry, but ultimately overcame her angst to save the world.

In Dreamfall, it's 10 years later, and we have a new focus for the story. Her name is Zoe, and she is a disaffected college student with no faith in herself or the world. While trying to trace her best friend's disappearance, Zoe is haunted by visions of a little girl, a black house, and a name: April Ryan. In her search for answers, Zoe uncovers a plot that could destroy her world and the dream world. Although Zoe is the main character of the story, the player also meets April Ryan again, as well as a fighter/priest named Kian. All three are searching for answers. The three heros' criss-crossing adventures will test their courage, skills and faith to the limit. Will their combined talents help save the world?

This is a riveting storyline, filled with amazing dialogue, sympathetic characters, and enough twists and turns to keep you gaming long into the night. Every time I wanted to stop, something else would pull me in and make me play "just until I find out..." There are many threads, people, and mini-stories in this adventure, and, for the most part, they are handled well. The ending is surprising, though. See below for my reactions to it.

VIDEO
This game is beautiful. Click on any of the images in this blog to see screenshots of just how gorgeous and immersive this world is. It is 3-D, and you are able to navigate and explore through almost all of the scenery. The gaming screens look almost as good as the cut-scenes, and the story and gaming elements complement each other seamlessly.

The main characters are expressive, especially Zoe. At times, you see happiness, weariness, curiosity and alarm on her face and in her eyes. She and April and Kian also moved very well around their world. There are some slight 3-D problems (the hair never looks right in close-ups), but there's enough jaw-dropping scenery to compensate.

AUDIO
The audio is spectacular, and shows that the designers understand the importance of ambience. The voice acting is excellent overall. Most importantly, the three main characters have interesting, intelligent voices that draw you into their worlds. That's important, because I spent 15 hours listening to them comment on everything! Even more impressive, however, is that most of the bit players also have impressive and professional voices. The haunting music and the sound effects and background noise add to the realistic feel of this world.

GAMEPLAY
The gameplay of Dreamfall is hit-or-miss throughout, and I found that the attempt to include all sorts of gamers ended up frustrating me. The puzzles aren't challenging enough for adventurers and the fighting and sneaking aren't hard enough for action gamers. The only ones who will be absolutely satisfied are those gamers who like eye-candy and lots of dialogue with their gaming.

The game has been released on PC and XBox, and the player can play with either a game controller or a keyboard/mouse combination. There are a number of matching puzzles, timed puzzles, and finding the key puzzles, which are normal for adventure gaming. There is also a maze, although it is fairly easy to navigate. The puzzles are very easy to solve, although some of them require going back and forth in worlds to collect ingredients.

The two elements that were the most annoying and least adventure-like to me were the "sneaking" element and the "fighting" element. I put both of these terms in quotes for a reason. The sneaking around is necessary in many sections of the game, but it just involves crouching and hiding behind objects. It is used much too frequently, and there is no sense of accomplishment when you've done something so simplistic to get away.

Fighting is also simplistic. There are two types of opponents: ones you can beat easily, and those who beat you senseless in just a couple of hits. You can hit with two keys (or two mouse clicks) and block with the space ba r. So, when fighting, I would just click like mad until I was killed or I won. After a couple of disastrous fights, I snuck around a lot more to avoid them.

ENDINGThe ending of the game was another disappointment. After 15 hours of getting to know the characters (in some cases again) and interacting with their world, the ending was a let-down. There were many questions still unanswered, and it seemed as though the three heroes didn't do much to save the day. The ending was bleak and disturbing. I immediately went online to see whether anyone else shared my views. Luckily, they did, and I found out a wonderful piece of information. The Longest Journey was always meant to be a trilogy, and this was the middle story. So, hopefully, all the unanswered questions will be answered in the next installment. Hopefully, I don't have to wait another six years for it.

OVERALL
Despite the flaws of this game, I truly loved Dreamfall. The characters were real and I became invested in what happened to them. I actually cried at one point in the story. Of course I'm a wimp, but still, video games don't usually bring me to tears. There was also humor, romance, friendship, loyalty, fear, sadness, betrayal, and greed, all the huge themes in any great story. The locations were exotic and even the bit players were interesting.

Just a warning, however -- if you don't like a lot of dialogue and exposition, you're going to hate this game.

I love the interaction between players, and it seemed to me like a long movie. I would recommend Dreamfall to any adventure gamer who wants to truly experience another world.

MORE INFO
For more information on Dreamfall, go to http://www.dreamfall.com/. Although there is no demo of this game, you can see a preview movie by clicking on the Media tab and then Audio Video.

Daring to Age

I just turned 40 this week. I know - time flies, blah bah.

But it got me thinking about all that I've accomplished - and all I have still to do. While I was reminiscing, I found this old essay I wrote about what I did when I turned 30. What am I going to do to beat this?

Skydiving – A Cure for the 30-Year-Old Blues

I’ve always been afraid of heights. Ladders make me break out into a sweat. Fire escapes and diving boards cause me to freeze up, and I have to crawl to safety. Being close to the ground is the best thing for my peace of mind. Then, why in the world was I jumping out of an airplane?

I had just turned thirty and I was feeling old. I was tired of being predictable and boring to everyone I knew, and I had decided to give my family a jolt. But, most improtatnly, I wanted to stare down my fear of heights in the most dramatic way possible.

For all of these reasons, I was now waiting nervously for my chance to ride a small plane, and then jump out of it. I was going go skydive using the newest method – tandem parachuting. This meant that a seasoned jumper would be attached to me with cables and a parachute would be attached to him. I would go through the motions, but he would be the one actually pulling the strings and making us land safely. This was a way of experiencing a jump without having to go through a lot of training and preparation.

I knew that my friends would not believe that I could be so daring, so I decided to furnish proof. For a fee, I could have my jump videotaped – a second jumper with a camera attached to his head would film the whole trip down.

I hadn’t eaten all day because of my churning stomach. I smiled a lot, but I hadn’t said a word on the hour-long journey to this small private airport. My name was called and I carefully gathered up my gear. As I zipped up my regulation navy jumpsuit, my jump expert and tandem partner, Bob, introduced himself. He showed me a few key moves that I’d need to remember, and joked around to loosen me up. Then he led me and the video cameraman to the runway.

The small plane taxied down the concrete strip and idled as we got in. Too late to back out now! As the single-engine dinosaur climbed to 8,000 feet, I sat on the floor near the tail of the plane and could feel my body shaking and shuddering. Looking out the window, I watched the cornfields and private landing areas turn into a patchwork quilt of green and gold. Finally, clouds surrounded us, and all I could see was the sun glinting off ghostly white cotton puffs.

Bob hastily re-buckled the goggles that I had nervously fastened backwards, and then attached himself to my back. Then he slowly and meticulously checked all of the clamps and grips connecting us. Bob carefully explained why I had a harness between my legs and under my arms and where the cables attached us. He emphasized that the cables would hold 2,000 pounds, so my weight was nothing to worry about. The video cameraman also double-checked his equipment and took pictures of me “before the jump.”

Although Bob’s explanations are a blur to this day, one comment does stand out in my mind. “Only 12% of the populations does this, “ he said, referring to skydiving, “so you’re braver than 88% of everyone else out there.” Although that didn’t’ make me less nervous, it did make me feel bolder.

Then it was time to jump. Bob opened the door, and I scooted out onto the edge of the open hatch, my legs dangling out of the plane. Bob was a reassuring presence behind me. At the count of three, I jumped, keeping my arms crossed above my heat and my knees bent. After three seconds, I felt a tap on my shoulder, and I flung my arms into a “Y” formation and straightened out my knees a little. Ten Bob and I plummeted to the earth, the cameraman right behind us.

On the video, I looked like I was having a great time, grinning from ear to ear. I had started out smiling for the camera before I jumped, and the wind pressure just kept that expression frozen on my face. The sound of air rushing past kept me from hearing anything but the questions inside my head. I was asking myself “Will the chute open?” “Will one of the clamps give way?” What does it feel like to splat to earth from 8,000 feet?”

Finally, Bob pulled a cord and the parachute unfurled. With a whoosh, we both shot up as the chute caught air. The weight of the parachute pulled the harnesses against my arms and legs, letting me know how much weight they were supporting. Then, instead of sound, there was blessed quiet. We just drifted, back and forth, testing the limits of the chute and our navigational abilities. We whirled and spun and swooped. This was the part I liked best – the quiet, the view, the feeling of floating and flying at the same time. I felt at peace, and realized there was only one more hurdle left.

We prepared to land. The ground seemed to rise and meet us, gaining speed the closer we got. I bent my knees and braced to run on my toes. We were heading toward a gravel bulls-eye that had been placed on a grassy clearing. We hit it right on target. Unfortunately, I hit it with my rear end! A painful landing, but the adrenaline flowing through my system didn’t allow me to feel anything but relief. The video showed a rough but smiling finish!

The rest of the day was a blur. Everything looked, smelled, and tasted better. I loved everyone: Bob, the cameraman, my fellow jumpers. Watching my video over and over again, I marveled at the girl smiling into the camera. That youthful, free-spirited, daring person was me! I sped around talking non-stop, until I collapsed that night in bed.

People ask me: will you skydive again? I’m not sure I want to, but I’m glad I took the risk. A small five-foot ladder doesn’t scare me as much as it used to, and I have one less regret in my life. The question I ask myself now is: if I skydived when I turned 30 years old, what will I do when I turn 60?

Emily Post's Commuter Rules

Emily Post ruled the manners world way before we had urban transportation in the form of buses, subways and commuter rails. However, some of her common-sense courtesy rules should be mandatory during peak commute times. In her absence, here are my contributions to the world of Miss Manners...

1. When (and where) to get off
   Remember, if you let the people OFF the bus, subway, train before you barrel on, there will be more room for you. And if you're getting off, please don't stand in front of the door to make up your mind which way to go. That's a decision that either should be made before you get off, or, if you need more time, you should move out of the way to ponder.
2. Cell phonesGuess what? Almost everyone has a cell phone now. And most of us know how to use one without annoying everyone around us. But there are some who think that we're interested in their personal lives - their latest gynecological or proctal exam, breakup with their significant other, or arguments with their bill collectors/parole officers/mothers. We're not interested, no matter how loudly you talk.
3. Paying for your rideI see you waiting for the bus, just like I am. Sometimes it takes a while for it to come. We're standing together, then I get on the bus behind you. The only diffeence between us? I used the time before I got on the bus to get my change/pass/excuse ready. You? Dig through your purse, count out the change, etc. If you're late getting on the bus, I sympathise. But if you know you need to get change, why not do it before there's a line waiting behind you?
4. I can't wait until you get old/pregnant/hurt
   Karma is a bitch, which is the running theme through my favorite show right now: My Name is Earl. That's what I'm waiting for when I see younger people blatantly ignoring people who need a seat. I won't be able to see it, probably, but I can't wait until they get older, and some young punk ignores them when they need to sit.
5. BackpacksThe most lethal weapon on the bus/train isn't a heavy briefcase or a hot cup of coffee. No, the most lethal weapon is a backpack, stuffed with books, on the back of an oblivious idiot. I was taught to always be aware of the space around me, and watch for other people, even in back of me. Obviously, this is an art form that recent students haven't grasped.
6. IpodsI love my mp3 player! I love being able to listen to my music wherever I go. And I have some pretty great earbud headphones that drown out ambient noise. Therefore, I don't have to blast my music to get great sound. But when I'm in the zone, it's annoying to hear another person's player over mine. Let me repeat. I have my headphones in my ear, and still I can hear the person beside and even a few seats away. I feel like handing out pamphlets for hearing aids - they'll need them sooner rather than later.

Those are my top 6 pet peeves of commuting. Stay tuned, however. I'm still commuting, and I'm sure I'll come up with more.