One of the games I’m currently looking forward to is Guild Wars 2. I’ve been a fan of ‘Guild Wars’ since it was released back in 2005. Before that I never played a MMORPG or CORPG (as Guild Wars calls itself) before in my life. After playing ‘Guild Wars’ I really started to like the genre and as the years went by I have played it on a casual and very intensive basis.

In 2007 ArenaNet announced they were working on ‘Guild Wars 2′. In 2009 it was announced the game would not see a release in late 2010, but in 2011. I’m impatiently waiting for the game to come out and I’m really excited about the footage & information that has already been released. ArenaNet plans to take ‘Guild Wars 2′ to a whole new level, I’m definitely looking forward to explore Tyria again.

MMO Manifesto

In ArenaNet’s MMO Manifesto you can see some exclusive footage of the upcoming ‘Guild Wars 2′ and also hear which direction the developers want to take the game and the MMO genre in general.

Guild Wars 2 is developed by ArenaNet and published by NCsoft

I mentioned I would launch a new blogproject called KITCHEN84 somewhere back in June, but because of jobhunting & spending a full month on training I wasn’t able to actually launch my new project this Summer. I finally found the time to seriously start blogging for KITCHEN84 and from today onwards the website will be updated on a regular basis.

The Concept

While working on music . first (part of my activities for RENOVATIO lucis) I kept on comparing DJ mixes with preparing a good dish. It made room for a fresh concept which combined the love for food and music. The place where all the fun is, is usually The Kitchen. I added my year of birth and voila, KITCHEN84 was born.

KITCHEN84 is all about the love of delicious food, marvelous tunes and celebrating life. On the lifestyle website I will go into various food e.g. new products on the market. I will also share some of my favorite electronic dance music tunes releases. Next to that I will cover general lifestyle such as places to visit, travel, etc.,.

Other than elocutio .nu I don’t plan on working on KITCHEN84 alone. I have already talked to friends & family members who were happy to help out in their own way. For example spotting new products or keep a look out for new tracks. KITCHEN84 is still a young blog, but I’m really happy ‘food & music’ triggered a positive reaction from my friends & family.

In the future I would also love to do some giveaways such as album releases or iTunes Gift Cards. For now it will be simply work hard on writing new blogposts & sharing information.

Visit KITCHEN84 Today

You can visit KITCHEN84 at www.kitchen84.com ! You can also follow us on Twitter via @kitchen84 :D

In an earlier blogpost I confessed I had also fallen in love with Apple’s new iPhone 4. Even though there was a lot of drama going on with the whole ‘antenna-gate’, I decided to take my chances and put my name on the waitinglist for the release of the iPhone 4 in The Netherlands on July 30th.

I originally signed up for a white iPhone 4 I learned there were some production difficulties, so I switched to the black version on July 31st. I was only able to renew my contract on August 19th, but I really didn’t want to start waiting 6-8 weeks on a later date *gulp* The guy in the store said: “Oh you might be able to pick it up on the 18th or 19th …” I thought he was just rambling, so when I put my name on the list I went home and didn’t think about it anymore.

Until Louis got a phonecall on August 19th and he was able to pick up his iPhone! I really hoped I would receive a phonecall too, instead of a phonecall I received an e-mail letting me know I could pick up mine. I was totally excited because it was just PERFECT timing :D Since I spend that day in Amsterdam I picked up my iPhone the next day. I already put in a downpayment of €50 , but the guy in the store let me use my T-Mobile Points to pay for the remaining €40 ! I really think that was a perfect example of good service.

Talking iPhone 4

I still need to play around with all the awesome features the new iPhone 4 has. I will definitely get back to you to share my thoughts about the phone after I’ve used it more on a day to day basis.

I really like the redesign which faintly reminds me of my first subscription phone the Sony Ericsson T610. Hahaha they’re not exactly the same, but … somehow it feels … familiar. Maybe the iPhone 4 doesn’t have the best stats, it’s just the combination of using the phone as an iPod, the awesome downloadable apps and just the ease of using an iPhone really makes me want to get the new model.

I’m also looking forward to using the HD camera (since the 3G doesn’t have a video function) and of course using Face Time! I hope to be able to get my hands on the new iPhone somewhere in August (earliest) or December (latest) *gulp*

Official iPhone 4 Introduction Video

Want to know more about the new iPhone 4? Just check out the video above or go to apple.com/iphone !

Vitamin E Shampoo & Conditioner

Since I use a lot of products to get my hair look good I thought it would be a good idea to get a more ‘natural’ shampoo & conditioner. A product that makes my hair feel clean and moisturized without making it feel heavy. After I used Guhl for some time, I noticed it didn’t really benefit my hair anymore. My hair was still dry at the ends and it felt difficult to style.

I decided to try out Vitamin E shampoo & conditioner by Dr. Organic. Even though it was somewhat expensive at € 5,99 for a bottle, I decided to give it a chance. I’ve been using both the shampoo & conditioner for about 3 weeks now and I’m really loving it. It doesn’t make my hair feel heavy or dry at the ends. I also noticed I need a lot less styling products to get my hair into shape. I really love it and never expected an ‘organic’ shampoo would work so good!

Lavender & Manuka Honey

My skin has always given me a lot of trouble. I have a sensitive, acne prone skin that is also easily scarred *sighs* I actually went to a certified ANBOS beautician to clear up my skin, but in the end she wasn’t able to handle my skin and I got a lot of scarring. After scarring my skin she suggested I would go see a dermatologist and take accutane which is a seriously powerful and creepy drug to fight acne. Since it causes a lot of side effects, can damage your liver, and can even cause a miscarriage I decided to refuse and stop the beauty treatments. Since I did not suffer from active acne I did not see any benefit from taking such a serious drug. I decided to give my skin a breather and first let it recover from the aweful treatments.

Slowly but surely my skin started to heal with the help of Dr. van der Hoog products. The products weren’t too harsh for my skin, but I still had some scarring and wide pores. Because my skin looked much better than just after the torment treatment by my beautician, I thought it was safe enough to switch to skin care products that would tackle these last ‘problems’. I decided to switch to the Sebo line of Yves Rocher specially developed for combination skin. I also used combination skin products from Dr. van der Hoog. But soon I noticed my skin got dry and I had to conclude the Sebo line was too harsh. I tried using a different line from Yves Rocher, but the damage had been done :( my skin had become dry, flaky & irritated! Not even the Yves Rocher cream for sensitive skin helped, but kept on irritating my skin *gahhh*

I never really had such a bad reaction to a new product! I immediately trashed all Yves Rocher products and went back to basics. After using only jojoba oil I have now added Dr. Organic’s Manuka Honey Rescue Cream for intensely moisturizing and reparing my skin. I’ve been using the cream (as a night cream) for 5 days now and I’ve seen a huge improvement. My skin is still a bit dry, but it’s not as flaky or irritated anymore. Happy! I also purchased Lavender Soap and Tea Tree Wet Wipes to clean my hands at home & on my way.

Going Organic

Since I’m very happy with the Dr. Organic products I’m definitely interested into finding more organic beauty products. I think it is very important to think about the ingredients of all the beauty products we’re using. Do we really need all those chemicals? I would also like to try to make my own masks & scrubs :D Of course I will share my organic findings here on elocutio .nu ~

Ondanks het feit dat Vogue magazine nog steeds wordt gezien als de ‘fashion bible’ voor modeliefhebbers, vinden steeds meer fashionista’s inspiratie op het internet via onafhankelijke fashion weblogs (weblogs die niet verbonden zijn met bijv. een uitgever van bladen). Mode wordt immers niet alleen bepaald door designers of hoofdredacteuren van een bekend modeblad, mode ontstaat ook gewoon op straat…

I <3 Fashion Boy

Een van de meest bekende fashion bloggers is Bryanboy wiens weblog dagelijks ruim 5000 bezoekers trekt. Deze fashion blogger uit Manila (Filipijnen) werd niet alleen door de New York Post uitgeroepen tot “one of the nine hottest celebs on the web” , ook news.com.au noemt Bryanboy “one of the Fashion 2.0’s biggest superstars” en “a phenoma in the fashion blogosphere”. Het weblog van Bryanboy trekt niet alleen aandacht van modeliefhebbers, maar ook van de mensen werkzaam in de mode industrie. Fans van Bryanboy sturen vaak een foto in waarop zij een papiertje met de tekst “I <3 Bryanboy” in beeld houden. Ook designer Marc Jacobs, momenteel artistiek directeur bij Louis Vuitton, bleek een grote fan van Bryanboy. Hij stuurde niet alleen een fan foto in, Marc Jacobs noemde een tas naar Bryanboy; de BB bag!

Echter, niet iedereen is zo enthousiast over fashion bloggers. Het toelaten van fashion bloggers op de eerste rij bij exclusieve modeshows zet vooral bij doorgewinterde modejournalisten kwaad bloed. Toen er een 13-jarige blogger genaamd Tavi Gevinson werd toegelaten bij een aantal belangrijke shows tijdens New York Fashion Week, haalde Anne Slowley, die er jaren over heeft gedaan om een senior positie bij Elle te bemachtigen, uit door Tavi’s weblog “a bit gimmicky” te noemen.

Weblogs & Commerciele Belangen

Ondanks het feit dat professionele journalisten met een scheef oog naar fashion bloggers kijken, worden goed bezochte fashion weblogs door designers en bedrijven gezien als een goedkope manier van reclame maken.

Een fashion weblog wordt vaak geschreven door een fashionista die een passie heeft voor mode en vaak een voorkeur heeft voor bepaalde designers en merken. Het is dan niet gek om te denken dat deze fashion blogger positief schrijft over een favoriete designer of merk. Bedrijven kunnen hier op inspelen door bijvoorbeeld een sample te sturen naar een blogger die dit positief belicht in een artikel op zijn of haar weblog. Weblogs die veel bezoekers trekken zijn daarnaast interessant voor bedrijven vanwege exposure. Het plaatsen van een advertentie of link op een goed bezochte fashion weblog kan een goedkope manier zijn om aan exposure te komen.

Inkomsten uit advertenties zijn voor onafhankelijke fashion bloggers vaak een manier om een weblog draaiende te houden. Echter, het aannemen van samples en plaatsen van advertenties hebben vaak ook invloed op de integriteit van een blogger. Hoe onafhankelijk en objectief ben je nog wanneer je iets krijgt toegestuurd of er simpelweg geld voor krijgt? Vorig jaar besloot de Federal Trade Commision in Amerika dat bloggers moeten aangeven of het product in een review hen cadeau is gegeven. Men hoopt zo op meer transparantie in de blogosphere.

Evolving Influence

Het bijhouden van een fashion weblog is met de komst van commerciële belangen vooral voor de serieuze fashion bloggers heel wat complexer geworden. ‘Independent Fashion Bloggers’, een community voor onafhankelijke fashion bloggers, besloot in samenwerking met American Express, G-Star RAW en ModCloth tijdens New York Fashion Week 2010 de ‘Evolving Influence’ conferentie te organiseren. Tijdens dit evenement werd onder andere gesproken over de manier waarop bloggers hun weblog kunnen promoten, geld verdienen met hun weblog en de integriteit van bloggers. In het onderstaande filmpje bespreekt een panel van verschillende succesvolle fashion bloggers en New York Times redacteur Clark Hoyt de ethiek van het fashion bloggen.

De traditionele media denkt nog vaak dat bloggers amateurs zijn die niet professioneel te werk gaan en al helemaal geen richtlijnen hebben wat betreft het schrijven van hun eigen artikelen. Zaken als geloofwaardigheid, betrouwbaarheid en integriteit zijn echter zeer belangrijke zaken voor een serieuze fashion blogger (en andere serieuze bloggers). Tijdens de ‘Evolving Influence’ conferentie was het dan ook een hot topic.

Hoewel er al veel serieuze fashion bloggers zijn die nadenken over de impact van weblogs, de economische kanten en de eventuele ethische complicaties is het weblog nog een jong ‘medium’. Nog niet iedereen is op de hoogte van het feit dat er veel verschillende soorten weblogs zijn. Naarmate er meer mensen ontdekken dat weblogs ook goede alternatieve bronnen van informatie zijn, des te meer men behoefte heeft aan duidelijke richtlijnen voor bloggers. Richtlijnen die wellicht dichtbij die van de traditionele media kunnen liggen. Een ding is zeker: fashion blogs zijn HOT en big business.

Bezoek ook eens

Wil je eens wat anders lezen dan Vogue, Elle of je Glamour magazine? Neem dan ook eens een kijkje op de volgende websites: Independent Fashion Bloggers, fashiontoast, LOOKBOOK.nu & The Satorialist.

I’m usually not the person who is interested in talking about personal hygiene and sanitary towels. But when I saw the Libresse Helps commercial on the Dutch television I got very excited. As some of you might already know, I’m a very big fan of Oxfam Unwrapped. I raised funds for donations via Oxfam Unwrapped with my activities inside Second Life®. I also use Libresse when it’s that time of the month *blush* so I was really happy to see the two team up.

Libresse Helps

Libresse Helps is a new campaign where Libresse and Oxfam Novib (Dutch department of Oxfam) team up to help young girls in Sudan. Because scholing is still very expensive in Sudan most parents only send their sons to school. The girls who are able to go to school do not attend school for a full week each month because of their periods. Sanitary towels are luxury products and the girls usually use old pieces of cloth. Libresse gives the girls sanitary towels so the girls do not have to worry too much about their periods. Next to that Libresse also hands out scholarships so young girls can attend school!

For each special Libresse package you buy, the same package or the monetary value goes to a girl in Sudan. How cool is that? I think that’s pretty cool!

SCA which owns the Libresse brand has sealed a 3 year partnership with Oxfam Novib. Through this partnership, SCA wants to contribute structurally to development projects in South Sudan. The company will work with Oxfam Novib to improve hygiene in order to help prevent child mortality, promote education for girls and improve the position of women. (!)

I really support big companies who are not only interested in making profit, but also think about corporate governance… or what SCA’s calls it: corporate social responsibility.

What are Circle Lenses ?

Some time ago I was reading Jen‘s blog and found out she was able to order circle lenses with a strong prescription! I got very excited because I think circle lenses are actually way more cool than regular colored contact lenses. They not only change (or enhance) the natural color of your eyes, but also enlarge the iris making your eyes appear bigger and sometimes even doll-like. Circle lenses are not uncommon in Asia and pop up in various fashion magazines (see below).

The above image was kindly scanned & shared by Jen from www.sushi-cat.net

I really wanted to try the GEO Angel Green circle lenses (?) and I decided to order them via D’Beauty Shop. After my payment was cleared my order was shipped from Malaysia via registered air mail and I received them after 10 days!

Geo Medical Angel Green (CM-833)

The GEO Angel Green (tagged CM-833) circle lenses come in a vial with a special authentification code which you can check on the Geo Medical website. These lenses are very popular and unfortunately there are also many fakes on the market. Fortunately my lenses were both authentic ~

Before I tried the GEO circle lenses I took them out of the vials and let them soak in the contact lens solution which I also use for my regular contact lenses. I use Opti-Free Replenish which is really good to retain moisture. I normally wear Proclear Sphere contacts, these contacts consist of at least 62% water for improved comfort. My regular contact lenses and solution were advised by my optomotrist which I’ve been seeing for regular check ups every 6 months for the last 10 years. I was a little worried about my eyes getting dry since the GEO circle lenses only contain 38% water. Even though the GEO circle lens enlarges your eyes, the lens measures 14.0 mm in diameter compared to 14.2 mm of my regular contact lenses. The base curve radius (measure of the general shape of a lens) is the same, both the GEO circle lenses as my regular lenses are measured 8.6 mm. I didn’t have any trouble getting the GEO circle lenses in, but I did notice the difference in moisture.

Thoughts

I definitely had to get used to the color of the GEO Angel Green circle lenses. In full daylight (bright) the color definitely looked a bit unnatural. But under somewhat normal circumstances and no direct sunlight shining on my eyes the green color was definitely very subtle. I loved the way the GEO circle lenses enlarged my eyes. Again very subtle, but still noticeable. I do think you should combine circle lenses with eyeshadow and mascara to get a more complete look. Wearing them nude is a bit scary looking. Oh and I probably need some eyedrops to keep up the moisture level.

I’m not a big fan of being photographed, but I do want to show what it looks like when I’m wearing the GEO Angel Green circle lenses. So … *coughs*

If you would like to try out circle lenses or other colored contact lenses, but do not wear contact lenses in your daily life – be sure to see an optometrist to check your eyes. Healthy eyes aren’t just about having 20/20 vision. You have to know if your eyes are not too dry to wear contact lenses and if regular contact lenses fit your cornea (connected to the base curve radius). If you already wear contact lenses you should already know more about the condition of your eyes. You could compare the stats of your regular lenses with the colored contact lenses you are interested in buying and see if they might be a good match.

I already placed an order for a new pair of circle lenses. Next time I hope to show more close ups and before & after pics. So stay tuned!

Accessorize

I was very pleased to see I could buy some Accessorize items in the local V&D department store. I used to catch a glimpse from their collection in the UK edition of Cosmopolition and always loved their items. I got my hands on their Spring / Summer catalogue and couldn’t resist sharing some of my favorites. I will definitely return to the store soon to grab some lovely pieces.

Mango

I also saw some nice items at Mango, but unfortunately I couldn’t find any picture of it online *fail*. I did see some amazing sandals on the website which I really like, but I’m not sure if I can walk on them. I’d better look for an alternative which looks somewhat similar.

HEMA Nailpolish

Because I always seem to have a good experience with budget nailpolishes from HEMA – as seen here – I decided to pick up some fresh colors. I think I was totally inspired by the Accessorize items. I will share some samples of it on my nails in a next beauty post.

American Cookies

Some time ago I picked up the Home Made American Cookies Mix. I only needed to add a little bit of water so I thought it was the most easiest to start with. I already Tweeted about it here and here! I accidentally added more water instead of the 50ml *woops* The dough got a tad too wet so it was hard to shape the cookies. In the end they turned out pretty good even though the shape was a bit off.

Brownies

Since baking cookies went somewhat OK I decided to pick up the Home Made Brownies Mix. Because I didn’t get the water right last time, I paid much attention to adding the right amount of water. Even though it takes longer to make brownies the sure turned out much better than the cookies! I also loved the taste, they weren’t too sweet and had a good chocolate flavour.

I’m looking forward to baking more delicious things for my family & friends. Hahaha even though I love brownies I sure can’t eat all of it!