So remember how I started playing that game Desire & Decorum from the app Choices?
I know it has been a while since I reviewed an episode.
Well Choices creates games that are similar to the game design in the film Big. A computer game/book that you read but get to make choices as to what will happen next.
Wow!
You have a mix of film and book storytelling in combo of a video game.
Wow
So last year I playing this one and wanted to renew it for Horrorfest, but I hadn’t finished playing it yet. I ended up doing It Lives in the Woodsand decided to save this for this year.
So the story starts off with you, New York reporter, going to visit your best friend/college roommate Katherine O’Malley in Bridgeport as she is getting married!
Time for a wedding!
You haven’t had a chance to spend as much time together recently, so you haven’t even met the fiancé or the other members of the wedding part. But it quickly looks like this wedding will not be a happy affair.
When you get there you discover that she is marrying the supper wealthy Tanner Sterling-he’s seems like a Prince Charming-but his family is awful-looking down and treating Kate bad.
Then there are her “friends” who are horrible! The maid of honor Scarlett Emerson puts down Kate and treats her like dirt as well. Something is not right here.
You also meet lawyer and Scarlett’s brother, Grant Emerson, he’s okay; along with Kate’s brother Flynn-ex-con and dockworker.
Depending on your choice, you either you go out to an impromptu Bachelorette party, but either way you encounter a drunk Kate after at your hotel room later. She is worried about something, but drunk, and before you can get her to say what it is-angry Tanner comes storming in and pulls her away-all she manages to do is pass a note with the word “Ulysseus” on it.
Hmm, I don’t know about this…
The next day you go to the wedding, but when “Here Comes the Bride” plays, no bride walks down the aisle. The bride is missing!!!!
Gone Girl
Has Kate has run off…or has she been kidnapped?
It’s up to you to solve the case! You team up with Flynn and Deputy Naomi Silverhawk. You investigate the clues and have your choice of which romantic interest you desire.
Which way should I choose?
As is ever other choice in the game. Now you will reach the final conclusion either way, but you do have points where you will have to pay with your “diamonds” to investigate to get more information.
Mystery, you say?
So as you start investigating you discover the beautiful town of Bridgeport is straight out of David Lynch-beautiful on the outside but something rotten under the surface.
Blue Velvet was an interesting movie. One day, I’ll review it, but not today.
Anyways, so time progresses and even though the Tanners are insisting that Kate ran off it is clear that something bad has happened to Kate. As you investigate you discover that the police force is corrupt (except Naomi) and don’t want you investigating:
Tanner was cheating on Kate:
You jerk!
Scarlet hated her guts and has some serious emotional issues:
Tanner’s brother is a total creepazoid:
And his parents do not want them to get married:
Did one of them do something to her? Could it have been more than one person?
Time to get on the case!
But as you continue with the case, you discover a secret so big-it could burn Bridgeport to the ground.
I thought this was an amazing mystery and extremely well done! I enjoyed it so much I have played it multiple times so that I can get every single clue.
If this is your kind of thing, you should play today!
This year, she wanted a “Spring Tea Bridal Shower”. She asked me to make a Cheese Round for the party. The original title of the recipe is Christmas Cheese Roundfrom my sister blog, MysteriousEats.wordpress.com. I’ve made it before for our cheese and fruit/movie parties we always have. We love cheese.
Ingredients:
1 Cup of Shredded Cheddar Cheese
1 Cup of finely chopped Pecans (I used my blender to take care of it)
8 0z Cream Cheese Brick
1/2 Cup of Chopped Green Onions
Directions:
Combine all ingredients. Pack into a round or ball.
So I have fallen behind with my posts, but as you know I started a book club last year:
Every month we read a book and I do a little post on the book we read and discussed. What can I say, I just love books.
There is no theme, other than with each month, a different member gets to pick a book, whichever one they want. One has chosen to read a few books from The Mitford Years series. So far we had read the first and second books inseries. They decided to skip the other books to go to book six, which was written later but is supposed to go between book two, A Light in the Window and three, These High Green Hills.
A Common Life: The Wedding Story (The Mitford Years #6) by Jan Karon
This book is set in the fictional town of Mitford, North Carolina. The last book centered around the Vicar, Father Tim as he is contemplating at age 60 if he should continue or retire. In that year he faces all kinds of changes from a dog adopting him, taking in a child, jewel thieves, a fake antiquities ring, health changes, a new neighbor/love interest, all kinds of secrets being revealed, and more. This town and Father Tim will never be the same.
The second book, Father Tim and Cynthia have become boyfriend and girlfriend. But when their relationship becomes a long distance one, he begins to pull away from her because of his fear of getting hurt. Also, a local widow is trying to catch him, using every ploy and plot to ensnare him. And to top it all off, a relative from Ireland has followed him home and is staying with him, but something about her is not right as she spends all her time in her room.
When Karon was writing the series, she continued the next book, book three they were already married and continued to write about their lives. However, people love a good wedding.
And they wanted to know what Father Tim’s was like. Will Father Tim fall apart when he takes his vows? Will Cynthia make it to the church on time? Who’ll arrange the flowers and bake the wedding cake? And will Uncle Billy’s prayers for a great joke be answered in time for the reception?
This book was so adorable and a total fan service. We got everything we wanted.
Yay!
I loved seeing Father Tim have to go through all the marriage things-planning, counseling, etc. And the little things about money, the wedding night, etc. Here is a 60 year old man who never was married and is going through all this for the first time. But hey, he was careful in finding just the right person.
I loved the part when one of the ladies in the community is hoping to bake the cake for the wedding, but hasn’t heard from the couple asking her to do it. She works herself up into a lather, becoming so angry-but then is asked and is completely speechless-a hilarious scene.
It is such a fun adorable book, that of you loved any of these books in the series you need to check it out.
So in the film we have Joy McNally, Cameron Diaz, who is a stockbroker and engaged. Her fiancé’s birthday is today and she is throwing him a surprise party. When he gets to their apartment he breaks up with her, in front of all their friends and family!
Ouch
Her friend tries to make her feel better:
They decide to get over their troubles by taking off to Vegas.
Meanwhile, Jack Fuller, (Ashton Kutcher), is living a mundane life. Not really trying anything, but just getting by. He gets fired…from the company owned by his dad…by his dad.
Ouch
And he and his friends decide to go to Vegas for one last hurrah.
In Vegas, their reservations get messed up and the four end up in the same hotel room. They get everything straightened out and agree to go out drinking. And drinking. And drinking….and you get the gist. They wake up the next day with Joy and Jack married and before they annul the marriage, Jack wins the grand prize at the slot machines. Joy and Jack are sentenced to stay together for six months and see a marriage counselor to see if the wedding actually has a chance of making it.
At first they try and get the other to end the marriage or get caught not trying to make it worth. But eventually like It Happened One Night, these two getting stuck together, start falling in love. But both are afraid to admit it, and Joy agrees to divorce Jack. And just like in Anastasia, telling him to keep the money. She quits her job and takes off, with Jack following her and asking her to be his wife again.
****Most Romantic Moment****
So the most romantic moment for me is during Joy’s corporate retreat. Joy has to go and is asked to bring her husband. She doesn’t want to, but knows she could lose her job if she doesn’t deliver. She asks Jack to go, but he is being disagreeable and doesn’t want to. Jack’s friend convinces him he should as it would be the perfect time to get everyone to love him and blackmail her into divorcing him or else he’ll tell her boss how they really got married. Jack isn’t sure, But heads to the retreat.
At the retreat, he quickly befriend’s Joy’s boss and the two have a ton of fun. He also connects really strongly to Joy. Everyone loves Jack, and he wins the MVP award of the retreat. He gives a great speech:
“Jack Fuller: [accepting an award] I have to thank my wife Joy. She probably never told you all the story about how we met. It might come as a surprise to many of you that we didn’t know each other for very long before we got hitched. What can I say – when you know, you know.”
He then tells everyone that they were never able to get their first dance as husband and wife and asks the band to play them one now.
(Sorry for the bad quality)
So romantic!
So romantic! Making sure she has her first dance because her wedding was nothing special, and for once doing something because he caresabout her instead of actually trying to get something from her.
So if you’ve been following me, you are pretty aware of my love of libraries.
And I decided to do a post on my favorite fictional libraries. After all:
So here we go, my top 13 Favorite Fictional Libraries.
13) Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Guy Montag is a fireman in the future, and as a fireman his job is to burn books. Books are now illegal, and it is up to firemen to root out the secret libraries and destroy them. After witnessing a woman willingly burn alive with her library, it gets Guy thinking about what the books contain. It begins with one book, but ends with Guy questioning everything he has ever known.
Why the library is awesome!: So we don’t actually know what is in this library, but if a person is willing to die with it you know it has to hold some amazing things. Even if the books are only valuable to the owner.
A conman salesman, “Professor” Harold Hill (Robert Preston), visits the town of River City, Iowa; and convinces the townspeople that the only way to save their children from becoming bad eggs, is to create a boys’ band. But where to get the instruments? From Professor Harold Hill of course! Marian, the town librarian, is a piano teacher, and the only one who could expose Professor Hill as a fraud, so Professor Hill sets out to seduce her. Along the way Professor Hill changes as he starts to care for the people he plans to con.
Why the library is awesome!: One of the musical numbers is Marian the Librarian in which Professor Hill attempts to seduce Marian by singing and dancing with her around the library. A library in which the librarian and town dance around singing? You get two in one—items to read and a show.
11) The Cat Who… Series
The Cat Who…Series is about amazing reporter Jim “Qwill” Qwilleran who solves murders with the help of his cats. Qwill was a nationally-acclaimed reporter, until he became an alcoholic and lost everything. The first book, The Cat Who Read Backwards, Qwill is trying to put his life back in order and is searching for a job as a reporter. He joins the staff of the Daily Fluxion as a feature writer. After his landlord, the art critic, is killed, Qwill starts investigating with little clues pointed out by his landlord’s cat, Kao K’o Kung (Koko for short). As Qwill continues his investigations he ends up picking up another cat, Yum Yum. In The Cat Who Played Bhrams, Qwill journeys up north to the small town of Mooseville, and visits an old family friend. He ends up inheriting millions, but in order to get them, he has to remain in Moose County. This changes his life forever.
Why the library is awesome!: Qwill is an avid reader and collects as many as he can afford. When he inherits the money, he also receives a stone mansion with a giant library. It holds thousands of books from rare pieces that are worth millions to secondhand and beloved buys.
So the movie begins one Saturday morning when five very different students have been sentenced with detention and are stuck with each other. We have Allison Reynolds (Ally Sheedy), “the basket case” who just came for fun; Andrew Clark (Emilio Esteevez), “the athlete”, who recieved detention for bullying a kid; John Bender (Judd Nelson), “the criminal”, sent there because of his acting up in class; Claire Standish (Molly Ringwald), “the princess”, caught skipping school to go shopping; Brian Johnson (Anthony Michael Hall), “the brain”, who brought a flare gun to school. At first everyone abides by their cliques, but through the course of the day they all bond together sharing their most personal secrets and working out their dysfunctions.
Why the library is awesome!: A gigantic library with multiple levels and a great sound system! Who wouldn’t want to spend their Saturdays there?
Based on the play Pygmalion, this musical has Professor Henry Higgins (Rex Harrison) is disgusted with how the English butcher their English. As he is complaining, he runs into a cockney-accented, flower girl Eliza Doolittle (Audrey Hepburn). He makes a bet with his friend Colonel Pickering, that he will be able to teach Eliza how to speak so well that people will mistake her for a duchess. Eliza agrees to the bet as she wants to own a high class flower shop. However, they have their work cut out for them, as Professor Higgins methods are helpful, but extremely rude and harsh.
Why the library is awesome!: Henry Higgins may be rude and a jerk, but this professor has one of the best libraries. Why can’t all libraries be like this?
8) 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
In the late 19th century, something is destroying ships as they are navigating the seas, cutting huge holes in the sides and completely ruining them. Professor Aronnax, a leading marine biologist, theories that the creature destroying the ships may come from the deepest depths of the ocean, which would give it incredible strength. He joins a crew who has set out to destroy it, taking along his assistant. The ship is destroyed; but Professor Aronnax, his assistant, and whaler Ned Land survive. They find themselves on a giant submarine, the Nautilus, joining its creator Captain Nemo on a journey under the sea.
Why the library is awesome!: This library is a masterpiece as Captain Nemo had thousands of books by the greatest minds. His collection covered science, morals, philosophy, and literature-in every language.
Professor Aronnax: “I thank you for having placed this library at my disposal. It contains treasures…and I shall profit by them.”
In 1290 B.C. Egypt, a high priest Imhotep is caught having an affair with the Pharaoh’s woman. He is put through all the death rites, while still alive, and buried in Hamunaptra. Fast forward to 1932, a French Foreign Legion officer, Rick O’Connell (Brendan Fraser), finds himself in Hamunaptra, but lost in the desert. Three years later, librarian Evie (Rachel Weisz) is approached by her treasure-hunter brother Jonathan, with an artifact that he thinks will lead him to Hamunaptra. They pick up Rick O’Connell as a guide, and find the city. As they search for treasure they discover the mummy, and accidentally awaken him.
Why the library is awesome!: Even though Evie makes a mess, most of us book lovers wouldn’t mind putting the library she worked at back together as it would allow us to check out all those books. Plus it holds a map to a lost city that holds the Book of Life and the Book of the Dead.
In this Indiana Jones adventure, Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) is on the search for his dad (Sean Connery) and the Holy Grail. His father had been searching for the artifact and disappeared, causing Indy to pick up the trail. He picks up where his dad left off in Venice with Dr. Elsa Schneider, discovering a clue to the Grail. He continues from there to save his dad on the Austria-Hungary border, and discovers a betrayal stemming all the way from the Nazis
Why the library is awesome!: You have a library that has spiral staircases, stain glass windows, and secret treasure underneath. How cool is that? It does rest over the graves of dead bodies…BUT you hold a key to finding the Holy Grail! That’s a great tradeoff.
Derek and Odette were arranged to be married when they were babies. Every summer Odette and her father would visit Derek and his mother in order to get the two to become friends and hopefully, fall in love. The two dislike each other as they don’t like playing with each other. They reach the marriageable age, but Derek messes up with Odette as he tells her that beauty is the only thing that matters. As he runs after them to make up for his stupidity, Odette is captured by an evil wizard and her father killed. The wizard wants Odette to marry him so he can have her kingdom, but Odette says she will never marry the wizard and is turned into a swan, only to become human when the moon touches the pond. Derek searches for Odette and trains himself to be able to handle it. When Derek discovers Odette, the two have to find a way to save her and change her to human.
Why the library is awesome!: So we only see this library for one scene in the film and it rivals that of Beauty and the Beast. Multiple levels, spiral staircases, and incredibly tall ladders to reach everything.
Harry Potter discovers that he is a wizard and goes to Hogwarts School, learning magic spells, potions, and having to fight all kinds of creatures.
Why the library is awesome!: Think of all the magical knowledge within in this place? How awesome would it be to roam these stacks and unlock that. Really explains why Hermione likes to spend so much time there.
Buffy is a teenage girl that discovers she is a slayer. She’s equipped with certain abilities that allow her to take down all kinds of monsters-demons, vampires, etc.
Why the library is awesome!: You have a library that holds tons of books for school along with almost anything on the supernatural. Not to mention it doubles as a training area that holds all kinds of weapons. What else do you need?
The Sandman Chronicles follows the story of the sandman, or Dream. He was captured and imprisoned, but manages to escape after years, and then has to right his dominion and the rest of the world. These series combines Christianity, mythology, Shakespeare, and more.
Why the library is awesome!: The library in Dreaming holds every book ever dreamt of, even those that were never written. How awesome would it be to roam those stacks?
Belle loves to read and finds it hard to relate to anyone in her town. Her father goes out of town on business and gets lost, staying over at a castle he finds. He upsets the owner and is kept prisoner, that is until Belle offers herself in her father’s place.
Why the library is awesome!: Do I really need to explain how awesome this library is? I’m sure every book lover has fallen in love with it. Multiple levels, spiral staircases, and comfy chairs in front of the fireplace-it’s a dream come true.
She asked me to make a Cheese Round for the party. The original title of the recipe is 
janeaustenrunsmylife 